The Imaginary Voyage: With Theodor Herzl in Israel Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The Imaginary Voyage: With Theodor Herzl in Israel Book

Former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres combines history, memoir, and fiction in an "imaginary voyage" through 20th-century Israel with the 19th-century founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl. "Only the narrow-minded and unimaginative will find this premise off-putting or surprising," Peres explains. "Everyone else has long known that in our country the impossible is a way of life." This make-believe tour includes a brief description of the Holocaust for a man who initially would have disbelieved it, plus vignettes of life in the Jewish nation-state ("I had no idea whether Herzl would appreciate the pleasure of today's Tel Aviv nightlife. I had a hard time picturing him dancing to some disc jockey's rock 'n' roll, or taking part in a rave on one of the converted docks at Jaffa"). Peres also uses Herzl as a tool for projecting some of his own views on contemporary Israeli politics: "[Herzl] sternly disapproved of the role religious parties play in governing Israel today.... I am concerned about the growing schism between the religious and the secular factions in Israel. The former, to be quite honest, have proven themselves far more vindictive than the latter. If we are not careful, this latent conflict could divide Israel and Israeli society, and encourage intolerance and discourage progress." The Imaginary Voyage is a quickly read tale full of charming idiosyncrasies and edgy political observations. --John J. Miller Read More

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  • Product Description

    The Imaginary Voyage brings together Shimon Peres, Israel's Nobel Prize-winning statesman, and Theodor Herzl, the visionary founder of Zionism. Despite the decades that separate them, they are united with astounding literary and historical effect. Together they embark on a journey across the land they hold in common, comparing Herzl's century-old vision with today's reality. From the teeming streets of Tel Aviv, to the storied walls of Jerusalem; from Gueva Kibbutz to the Sea of Tiberius; from Masada to the Negev, their voyage illuminates all that has changed in this most remarkable land during the twentieth century, and all that has endured.

    "Today, as yesterday and tomorrow, dreams are the well-spring of our national life. Israel is the only place in the world where the present constantly interacts with the past and the future, where reality can only be understood through the imaginary."-Shimon Peres

    "Peres has closely read and keenly analyzed Herzl's writings, and he cites them to show how the Zionist leader both perceived and misperceived the Jewish state-to-be."-The Washington Post Book World

    Shimon Peres was born in Poland and emigrated to Israel in 1934. He was prime minister from 1984 to 1986, and again from 1995 to 1996. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his part in crafting the Oslo peace accords. He is the author of For the Future of Israel, Battling for Peace, and The New Middle East. He lives in Tel Aviv.

    Chapter 4: Generations

    Everything about today's Israelis took Herzl by surprise, beginning with their name - "Israelis." Herzl was a visionary genius about some matters but extraordinarily cautious about others, and one was assigning a name to the future inhabitants of the Jewish state. In Old-New Land, he calls Israel the "New Society," a name everyone will agree is stunningly bland. I can just imagine today's customs officials examining a "New Society" passport and trying to figure out where on earth the bearer might be from.

    David Ben-Gurion gave the new state being created the name "Israel" rather than "New Society." "Israel" reminded the world that this new country was not being formed ex nihilo; it symbolized the renai

  • 1581950179
  • 9781581950175
  • Shimon Peres
  • 1 May 2000
  • Zoland Books Inc
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 224
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