Publishers Weekly
01/09/2023
The history of Israel is “a combination of unexpected successes and maddening disappointments,” according to this even-handed chronicle. Comparing drafts of the 1948 Declaration of Israeli Independence, historian and journalist Gordis (We Stand Divided) notes that “there was a chorus of often conflicting voices that gave rise not only to the Declaration but to the country itself.” Once the state was created, tensions between aspirational goals and grim reality soon emerged, particularly over the doctrine of havlagah, or using force only for defensive purposes. Though Gordis defends Israel’s preemptive air strikes against Egypt in 1967, he casts a critical eye on the complicity of the Israeli Defense Forces in the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut. Amid harrowing episodes of political and religious violence, Gordis highlights many remarkable achievements, including the staving off of economic collapse in the 1950s and Israel’s emergence as “a leader in agricultural technology, a formidable economic engine, and a technological powerhouse.” On balance, Gordis concludes the Jewish state has met its primary objectives, even if it has done so imperfectly. Though unlikely to change minds, this is an accessible overview of Israeli history and a well-reasoned case for why it’s worth supporting. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
"A well-written and thoughtful examination of the challenges Israel has overcome and those it still faces." — Washington Free Beacon
“Delving deeply into the Declaration of Independence and the intentions behind the state’s founders, Gordis seeks to determine how the country measures up to the goals it originally set out to achieve. On many of those criteria, he ranks the state as an unmitigated triumph.” — Times of Israel
“As Gordis argues, Israel has fundamentally changed the Jewish condition in extraordinary ways. That alone, despite Israel’s many challenges, should provide a case for optimism.” — Forward
"An accessible overview of Israeli history and a well-reasoned case for why it’s worth supporting." — Publishers Weekly
"A nuanced assessment of [Israel's] successes and challenges...A thoughtful, well-formed analysis." — Kirkus
“In Impossible Takes Longer, Daniel Gordis has done the seemingly impossible by writing yet another seminal work on the State of Israel. With a penetrating view of the past, Gordis analyzes Israel’s success—and sometimes lack of it—in achieving its founding goals. For all who care about Israel, its history and its future, this book is essential.” — Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States, member of the Knesset, and New York Times bestselling historian
“At a particularly difficult moment for Israel, Daniel Gordis has given us an essential reminder about why Israel still matters. Writing with nuance, sensitivity, and, above all, love, Gordis confronts the toughest issues and shows us why hope remains the most realistic assessment of Israel’s future.” — Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and author of the New York Times bestseller Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
“This important book—critical at times but optimistic throughout—should be read by everyone who admires Israel’s accomplishments yet is concerned about its future. Impossible Takes Longer addresses many of the questions you already have about Israel but, even more important, points to the questions we all need to begin asking.” — Natan Sharansky, former political prisoner in the Soviet Union, former minister for Diaspora Affairs in Israel, and author of Never Alone
“Daniel Gordis’s valuable book uses Israel’s Declaration of Independence to measure the nation’s successes and failures. Gordis reminds us of the audacity of the vision and the depth of the revolution that is Zionism. Impossible Takes Longer reminds us how not inevitable Zionism’s success has been and that, with all its flaws, Israel exemplifies what success looks like.” — Einat Wilf, former member of the Knesset for the Labor Party and author of We Should All Be Zionists and The War of Return
“One might think that it would be hard for another book about Israel to provide new and meaningful insights about the Jewish state. Yet Impossible Takes Longer does precisely that. This is a thoughtful, fair, and insightful look at a remarkable country. With so much distortion about Israel coming from those who seek to delegitimize it, Gordis’s perspective has never been more important than it is today.” — Ambassador Dennis Ross, Middle East envoy under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton and author of The Missing Peace
“Among all the nations of the world, Israel is uniquely and routinely singled out for unfair criticism. Daniel Gordis does the unusual and remarkable job of examining Israeli history in a thoughtful way. While he gives voice to criticisms that not all may agree with, he also presents Israel’s incredible accomplishments in a way that will inform any fair-minded reader.” — Nikki R. Haley, governor of South Carolina (2011 to 2017) and US ambassador to the United Nations (2017 to 2019)
”Like Gordis, these days many Israelis as well as supporters of Israel oscillate between despair and hope. They would all do well to read Impossible Takes Longer, which ends on a justifiably hopeful note…The book’s greatest contribution is fighting Jewish historical amnesia. Gordis reminds his readers that it is precisely because Zionism has so thoroughly transformed the Jewish condition that Jews can now indulge in thinking that Israel is a failure or no longer necessary." — Jewish Review of Books
Michael Oren
For all who care about Israel, its history, and its future, this book is essential.”
Kirkus Reviews
2023-01-26
An examination of the complexities of Israel’s past and future.
On the 75th anniversary of the creation of Israel, Gordis, a two-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award, offers a nuanced assessment of its successes and challenges. Israel’s Zionist founders, he writes, “did not really agree about the fundamental justification for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Was it God? History? The Bible? Something else?” Yet they managed to forge a declaration that reflected their dream of creating a unique and exemplary nation, “different because it was a Jewish state, a nation that holds itself accountable to a different set of standards.” They envisioned a society that would ensure “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex” and guarantee “freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.” Gordis considers a host of relevant issues, including Israeli democracy, treatment of minorities, the economy, secularism, religion, relationship to Diaspora Jews, and, not least, place on the international stage, underscoring Israel’s determination to survive in a world in which antisemitism still rages. From the outset, it confronted violence by Palestine and volatility throughout the Middle East. Iran has repeatedly called for Israel’s annihilation. Faced with these threats, Gordis asks, “If Israel can only survive by the sword, should the Jewish people give up the profound transformation in the Jews’ existential condition that Israel has wrought?” The author acknowledges problems both within the nation (political corruption, internal violence, income inequality) and with its neighbors. “Israel,” he writes, “can be fairly characterized as a success only if it and its people continue to be honest about who they have been, who they are, the terrible decisions that they have at times made, and who they and their country still need to become.” Yet in light of its founders’ dreams, he sees the nation as “one of the greatest stories of resilience, of rebirth, and of triumph in human history.”
A thoughtful, well-informed analysis.
