Menachem Begin
The Battle for Israel's Soul
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Narrated by:
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Walter Dixon
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By:
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Daniel Gordis
About this listen
Reviled as a fascist by his great rival Ben-Gurion, venerated by Israel’s underclass, the first Israeli to win the Nobel Peace Prize, a proud Jew but not a conventionally religious one, Menachem Begin was both complex and controversial. Born in Poland in 1913, Begin was a youthful admirer of the Revisionist Zionist Ze’ev Jabotinsky and soon became a leader within Jabotinsky’s Betar movement. A powerful orator and mesmerizing public figure, Begin was imprisoned by the Soviets in 1940, joined the Free Polish Army in 1942, and arrived in Palestine as a Polish soldier shortly thereafter. Joining the underground paramilitary Irgun in 1943, he achieved instant notoriety for the organization’s bombings of British military installations and other violent acts.
Intentionally left out of the new Israeli government, Begin’s right-leaning Herut political party became a fixture of the opposition to the Labor-dominated governments of Ben-Gurion and his successors, until the surprising parliamentary victory of his political coalition in 1977 made him prime minister. Welcoming Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to Israel and cosigning a peace treaty with him on the White House lawn in 1979, Begin accomplished what his predecessors could not. His outreach to Ethiopian Jews and Vietnamese "boat people" was universally admired, and his decision to bomb Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981 is now regarded as an act of courageous foresight. But the disastrous invasion of Lebanon to end the PLO’s shelling of Israel’s northern cities, combined with his declining health and the death of his wife, led Begin to resign in 1983. He spent the next nine years in virtual seclusion, until his death in 1992. Begin was buried not alongside Israel’s prime ministers, but alongside the Irgun comrades who died in the struggle to create the Jewish national home to which he had devoted his life.
Daniel Gordis’ perceptive biography gives us new insight into a remarkable political figure whose influence continues to be felt both within Israel and throughout the world.
©2014 Daniel Gordis (P)2014 Gildan Media LLCListeners also enjoyed...
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- Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel
- By: Francine Klagsbrun
- Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 32 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Golda Meir was a world figure unlike any other. Born in tsarist Russia in 1898, she immigrated to America in 1906 and grew up in Milwaukee, where from her earliest years she displayed the political consciousness and organizational skills that would eventually catapult her into the inner circles of Israel's founding generation. Moving to mandatory Palestine in 1921 with her husband, the passionate socialist joined a kibbutz but soon left and was hired at a public works office by the man who would become the great love of her life.
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The persistent mispronunciations of Hebrew and Yiddish words ruined this performance
- By YH-O on 12-30-18
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A Savage War of Peace
- Algeria 1954-1962
- By: Alistair Horne
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 29 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Algerian War lasted from 1954 to 1962. It caused the fall of six French governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, and came close to provoking a civil war on French soil. More than a million Muslim Algerians died in the conflict, and as many European settlers were driven into exile. From the perspective of half a century, it looks less like the last colonial war than the first postmodern one.
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Excellent history of France's Viet Nam
- By David on 04-10-16
By: Alistair Horne
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A Problem From Hell
- America and the Age of Genocide
- By: Samantha Power
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 22 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In her award-winning interrogation of the last century of American history, Samantha Power - a former Balkan war correspondent and founding executive director of Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy - asks the haunting question: Why do American leaders who vow “never again” repeatedly fail to stop genocide?
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A dark lesson in dramatic irony
- By Andrew Palmer on 10-04-17
By: Samantha Power
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Overthrow
- America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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"Regime change" did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals.
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Looking at the dark side
- By Stanley on 08-02-06
By: Stephen Kinzer
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Enemies and Neighbors
- Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017
- By: Ian Black
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 20 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In Enemies and Neighbors, Ian Black, who has spent over three decades covering events in the Middle East and is currently a fellow at the London School of Economics, offers a major new history of the Arab-Zionist conflict from 1917 to today. Laying the historical groundwork in the final decades of the Ottoman Era, when the first Zionist settlers arrived in the Holy Land, Black draws on a wide range of sources - from declassified documents to oral histories to his own vivid on-the-ground reporting - to recreate the major milestones in the most polarizing conflict of the modern age from both sides.
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Decent historical compilation, poor framing
- By Dan Harris on 07-08-20
By: Ian Black
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The Empire Must Die
- Russia's Revolutionary Collapse, 1900 - 1917
- By: Mikhail Zygar
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 22 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The window between two equally stifling autocracies - the imperial family and the communists - was open only briefly, in the last couple of years of the 19th century until the end of WWI, by which time the revolution was in full fury. From the last years of Tolstoy until the death of the Tsar and his family, however, Russia experimented with liberalism and cultural openness. Novelists and playwrights blossomed and political ideas were swapped in coffee houses.
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An excellent look at an interesting history.
- By brian on 06-22-18
By: Mikhail Zygar
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1917
- Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In this incisive, fast-paced history, New York Times best-selling author Arthur Herman brilliantly reveals how Lenin and Wilson rewrote the rules of modern geopolitics. Through the end of World War I, countries marched into war only to increase or protect their national interests. After World War I, countries began going to war over ideas. Together, Lenin and Wilson unleashed the disruptive ideologies that would sweep the world, from nationalism and globalism to Communism and terrorism, and that continue to shape our world today.
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Another book you wish was part of every university world history curriculum
- By Bruno Carleston on 11-26-18
By: Arthur Herman
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1946
- The Making of the Modern World
- By: Victor Sebestyen
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1946, Victor Sebestyen creates a taut, panoramic narrative and takes us to meetings that changed the world: to Berlin in July 1945, when Truman tells Stalin that we have successfully tested the bomb; to Ye'nan, China, in January 1946, when General George Marshall tells the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong that Americans won't send troops to China, assuring that the Communists will attain power.
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An education. Somber, detailed, many-faceted
- By Philo on 08-20-16
By: Victor Sebestyen
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There Was a Country
- A Personal History of Biafra
- By: Chinua Achebe
- Narrated by: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The defining experience of Chinua Achebe's life was the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War, of 1967-1970. The conflict was infamous for its savage impact on the Biafran people, Chinua Achebe's people, many of whom were starved to death after the Nigerian government blockaded their borders. Immediately after, Achebe took refuge in an academic post in the United States, and for more than 40 years he has maintained a considered silence on the events of those terrible years. Now, decades in the making, comes a towering reckoning with one of modern Africa's most fateful events.
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The Audible Edition Is a Disaster
- By Olu on 11-28-12
By: Chinua Achebe
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Arik
- The Life of Ariel Sharon
- By: David Landau
- Narrated by: Waler Dixon
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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From the former editor in chief of Haaretz, the first in-depth, comprehensive biography of Ariel Sharon, the most dramatic and imposing Israeli political and military leader of the last forty years. The life of Ariel Sharon spans much of modern Israel’s history. A commander in the Israeli Army from its inception in 1948, Sharon participated in the 1948 War of Independence, played decisive roles in the 1956 Suez War and the Six-Day War of 1967, and is credited here with the shift in the outcome of the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
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Larger than Life Hero
- By Eugene Choong on 10-07-24
By: David Landau
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Operation Nemesis
- The Assassination Plot That Avenged the Armenian Genocide
- By: Eric Bogosian
- Narrated by: Eric Bogosian
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1921 a small group of self-appointed patriots set out to avenge the deaths of almost one million victims of the Armenian Genocide. They named their operation Nemesis after the Greek goddess of retribution. Over several years the men tracked down and assassinated former Turkish leaders. The story of this secret operation has never been fully told until now.
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Avenging Turkish Denial with Reason
- By PKsweets on 05-12-15
By: Eric Bogosian
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The persistent mispronunciations of Hebrew and Yiddish words ruined this performance
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Shimon Peres was in his early 20s when he first met David Ben-Gurion. Although the state that Ben-Gurion would lead through war and peace had not yet declared its precarious independence, the "Old Man", as he was called even then, was already a mythic figure. Peres, who came of age in the cabinets of Ben-Gurion, is uniquely placed to evoke this figure of stirring contradictions - a prophetic visionary and a canny pragmatist who early grasped the necessity of compromise for national survival.
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Great Perfomance, Less than Stellar Story
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Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel - a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources - produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK?
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Interesting and worth the time
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Excellent, mildly but honestly biased, terrible narration
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Spies of No Country
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The persistent mispronunciations of Hebrew and Yiddish words ruined this performance
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Shimon Peres was in his early 20s when he first met David Ben-Gurion. Although the state that Ben-Gurion would lead through war and peace had not yet declared its precarious independence, the "Old Man", as he was called even then, was already a mythic figure. Peres, who came of age in the cabinets of Ben-Gurion, is uniquely placed to evoke this figure of stirring contradictions - a prophetic visionary and a canny pragmatist who early grasped the necessity of compromise for national survival.
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Great Perfomance, Less than Stellar Story
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Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel - a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources - produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK?
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Excellent, mildly but honestly biased, terrible narration
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Six Days of War
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In Israel and the West, it is called the Six Day War. In the Arab world, it is known as the June War or, simply, as "the Setback". Never has a conflict so short, unforeseen, and largely unwanted by both sides so transformed the world. The Yom Kippur War, the war in Lebanon, the Camp David accords, the controversy over Jerusalem and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the intifada, and the rise of Palestinian terror are all part of the outcome of those six days.
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Great overview of Middle East troubles
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By: Michael B. Oren
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1967
- Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East
- By: Tom Segev
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- Length: 28 hrs and 14 mins
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Overall
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Going far beyond a military account, Segev re-creates the crisis in Israel before 1967, showing how economic recession, a full grasp of the Holocaust's horrors, and the dire threats made by neighbor states combined to produce a climate of apocalypse. He depicts the country's bravado after its victory and the mood revealed in a popular joke in which one soldier says to his friend, "Let's take over Cairo". The friend replies, "Then what shall we do in the afternoon?"
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horrible pronounciation errors
- By R. Friedman on 10-02-07
By: Tom Segev
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A Jewish State
- By: Theodor Herzl
- Narrated by: Adrian Praetzellis
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Considered one of the most important texts of early Zionism, A Jewish State envisioned the founding of a future independent Jewish state during the 20th century. Theodor Herzl argued that the best way to avoid antisemitism in Europe was to create this independent Jewish state.
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From the horses mouth
- By Mark on 10-25-23
By: Theodor Herzl
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The Arc of a Covenant
- The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People
- By: Walter Russell Mead
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In this bold examination of the Israeli-American relationship, Walter Russell Mead demolishes the myths that both pro-Zionists and anti-Zionists have fostered over the years. He makes clear that Zionism has always been a divisive subject in the American Jewish community, and that American Christians have often been the most fervent supporters of a Jewish state, citing examples from the time of J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller to the present day.
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A phenomenal history lesson
- By B. A. Whitehouse II on 11-11-24
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Palestine 1936
- The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict
- By: Oren Kessler
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In spring 1936, the Holy Land erupted in a rebellion that targeted both the local Jewish community and the British Mandate authorities. The Great Arab Revolt would last three years, cost thousands of lives, and cast the trajectory for the Middle East conflict. The revolt was the crucible in which Palestinian identity coalesced, uniting all in a single struggle for independence. Yet the rebellion would ultimately turn on itself. British forces' aggressive counterinsurgency took care of the rest, finally quashing the uprising on the eve of World War II.
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Who is this narrator?
- By Rachel S. on 09-23-24
By: Oren Kessler
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The Genius of Israel
- The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World
- By: Dan Senor, Saul Singer
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Why do Israelis have among the world’s highest life expectancies and lowest rates of “deaths of despair” from suicide and substance abuse? Why is Israel’s population young and growing while all other wealthy democracies are aging and shrinking? How can it be that Israel, according to a United Nations ranking, is the fourth happiest nation in the world? Why do Israelis tend to look to the future with hope, optimism, and purpose while the rest of the West struggles with an epidemic of loneliness, teen depression, and social decline?
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The richness of the Israeli culture and the brilliance of the IDF.
- By Jandee Camozzi on 12-06-23
By: Dan Senor, and others
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The Invention of the Jewish People
- By: Shlomo Sand, Yael Lotan - translator
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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A historical tour de force that demolishes the myths and taboos that have surrounded Jewish and Israeli history, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a new account of both that demands to be reckoned with. Was there really a forced exile in the first century, at the hands of the Romans? Should we regard the Jewish people, throughout two millennia, as both a distinct ethnic group and a putative nation—returned at last to its Biblical homeland? In this iconoclastic work of history, Shlomo Sand provides the intellectual foundations for a new vision of Israel's future.
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ahistorical nonsense
- By Hallie on 11-03-22
By: Shlomo Sand, and others
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The Only Woman in the Room
- Golda Meir and Her Path to Power
- By: Pnina Lahav
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- Unabridged
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A feminist biography of the only woman to become prime minister of Israel In this authoritative and empathetic biography, Pnina Lahav reexamines the life of Golda Meir (1898-1978) through a feminist lens, focusing on her recurring role as a woman standing alone among men. The Only Woman in the Room is the first book to contend with Meir’s full identity as a woman, Jew, Zionist leader, and one of the founders of Israel, providing a richer portrait of her persona and legacy.
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There are much better books about Golda.
- By Hermanator on 02-06-23
By: Pnina Lahav
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Bibi
- My Story
- By: Benjamin Netanyahu
- Narrated by: David Marantz, Benjamin Netanyahu
- Length: 25 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s New York Times bestselling autobiography, the prime minister of Israel tells the story of his family, his path to leadership, and his unceasing commitment to defending his country and securing its future. Through a host of vivid anecdotes, he narrates his own evolution from soldier to statesman, while providing a unique perspective on leadership, the fraught geopolitics of the Middle East, and his successful efforts to liberate Israel’s economy, which helped turn it into a global powerhouse of technological innovation.
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This is a spin piece, not an autobiography
- By Powernoodle on 12-03-22
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Enemies and Neighbors
- Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017
- By: Ian Black
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 20 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In Enemies and Neighbors, Ian Black, who has spent over three decades covering events in the Middle East and is currently a fellow at the London School of Economics, offers a major new history of the Arab-Zionist conflict from 1917 to today. Laying the historical groundwork in the final decades of the Ottoman Era, when the first Zionist settlers arrived in the Holy Land, Black draws on a wide range of sources - from declassified documents to oral histories to his own vivid on-the-ground reporting - to recreate the major milestones in the most polarizing conflict of the modern age from both sides.
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Decent historical compilation, poor framing
- By Dan Harris on 07-08-20
By: Ian Black
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Arik
- The Life of Ariel Sharon
- By: David Landau
- Narrated by: Waler Dixon
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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From the former editor in chief of Haaretz, the first in-depth, comprehensive biography of Ariel Sharon, the most dramatic and imposing Israeli political and military leader of the last forty years. The life of Ariel Sharon spans much of modern Israel’s history. A commander in the Israeli Army from its inception in 1948, Sharon participated in the 1948 War of Independence, played decisive roles in the 1956 Suez War and the Six-Day War of 1967, and is credited here with the shift in the outcome of the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
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Larger than Life Hero
- By Eugene Choong on 10-07-24
By: David Landau
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Target Tehran
- How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination – and Secret Diplomacy – to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East
- By: Yonah Jeremy Bob, Ilan Evyatar
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Yonah Bob and Ilan Evyatar describe how Israel has used cyberwarfare, targeted assassinations, and sabotage of Iranian facilities to great effect, sometimes in cooperation with the United States. Even as it takes lethal action, Israel has managed to alter the politics of the Middle East, culminating in the Abraham Accords of 2020. Arab states such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates normalized relations with Israel, and the holy grail of normalization with Saudi Arabia may yet be achieved.
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Couldn’t walk away !
- By ADAM on 01-10-24
By: Yonah Jeremy Bob, and others
What listeners say about Menachem Begin
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- hslanda
- 11-29-16
Inspiring story
The story is truly inspiring especially for Jews. It is a shame that the chosen reader is limited in his ability to properly pronounce Hebrew or Yiddish
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- Mrc
- 07-22-16
Amazing!
You can't understand israel if you don't understand Begin. This is a must read for every Jew.
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- Steve Yastrow
- 06-18-14
A great book
I was never a Begin fan, but this book shows you what an interesting, insightful, passionate character Begin was. I recommend this book. If you want to learn more about Begin, also check out Yehuda Avner's "The Primer Ministers."
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- Rebbe Don Justino
- 04-11-17
Good content, meh performance
I learned lots of interesting details about a story I already thought I knew well.
The reader takes it much too fast (but not so fast that slowing it down is much help. Worse, he has taken no trouble to learn Hebrew pronunciation. His constant mistakes are annoying and make this otherwise enjoyable book a harder listen.
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- Jacob
- 07-02-18
An inspiring and surprising story
I learnt alot about Begin and his mentor Jabatinsky. A surprising and well formulated biography,
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- Jacob Engelstein
- 10-03-14
Great story lousy oration
What made the experience of listening to Menachem Begin the most enjoyable?
The underlying story ofMenachem Begin's comittment to Israel and the Jewish People
How could the performance have been better?
The orator could have taken the time to better prepare himself to correctly pronounce a variety of mispronounced words in Hebrew and Yiddish, it was distracting listening to him slaughter these words.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Melvyn Mildiner
- 06-13-16
Narrator mispronounces almost every Hebrew word
Where does Menachem Begin rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
The book's great. Daniel Gordis' writing is, as ever, captivating and illuminating. But I'm returning this audiobook and moving to an eBook to read the rest of the book. I simply can't take any more of the narrator.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
Sadly he's unfamiliar with the Hebrew names and words that pepper the book.
The early chapters make frequent references to Menachem Begin's father Ze'ev. The narrator calls him "zay ev" (pronounced as if the first half of the name rhymes with the greeting "Hi").
That was grating enough but the final straw was when, in chapter 4 (at around the 11min mark), he refers to the "Hativka". It should be the "Hatikva". At that point I realised I was more focused on waiting for the next foul-up by the narrator than by the content of the book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Uri Lahav-Goldshmid
- 07-25-18
Great book.
Would have much rathered that the narrator would pronounce the Hebrew and Yiddish words properly, but Uther than that- excellent book. very detailed and eye opening. greatly recommended.
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- Angel M.
- 04-10-21
A thorough and interesting biography
Excellent biography about the life, experiences and motivations of Menachem Begin! I’ve read other histories and biographies about Begin, so much of the timeline was known.
However, the human side of Begin was illuminating to me. Media largely remembers his stern look and immovable political positions. I understand him better now as a person, with both honorable and complicated intentions. I respect his sense of history, and his desire to protect his people, even after experiencing torture, loss and ongoing hardship. It is clear to see how this perspective was imbued in his political and military approach.
*very disappointing narration- if I hadn’t liked the writing so much, I would have given up in the first hour.
One doesn’t have to speak Hebrew to pronounce basic words correctly. I consider this a failure of production-was there no sound editor?
I can only compare it to someone pronouncing the US Presidents as “Roo-nahld Ree-goon” or “Jih-may Court-huhr”
So bad.
! Daniel Gordis’ writing excellent. Story excellent. !
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- Jean
- 04-16-15
Thought-provoking
Last fall (2014) I re-read Lawrence Wright’s book “Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin and Sadat at Camp David” I thought this might be a good book to provide more information about Begin.
Begin had run for prime minister eight times when in 1977 he won on his ninth try. Apparently Begin was extreme right wing, he helped formed the Herut party. Begin was despised by the ruling establishment. Begin’s Herut party platform called for Jews to rule in all of Palestine. The Egyptian and Syrian attack in 1973 set up the change to help Begin win in 1977.
Gordis in his biography of Begin starts with his childhood and adolescence in a Polish Shtetl. Begin was an active Zionist. Begin graduated from University as an attorney. Gordis tells about Begin and his wife Aliza flight from Poland in 1939 to escape the Nazis, only to be imprisoned in Siberia by the Russians. They finally arrived in Palestine in 1942.
The author tells of Begin’s life in the Irgun, the underground fighting force in Palestine, following their arrival in 1942. Begin lost his family in the Holocaust and that had a major influence on his belief in a homeland for the Jews.
Gordis covers in depth Begin’s life as prime minister; he covers Begin’s liberalization policies that hastened the end of Israel’s semi-socialist economy. In 1981 Begin bombed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor to prevent them from making a nuclear bomb. Begin welcomed Ethiopian Jews to Israel. The author discusses the peace treaty with Egypt and the 1982 war in Lebanon. Begin won the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for the peace with Egypt.
According to Gordis, Begin’s most important legacy is the restoration to Israeli’s public life of a fundamental sense of Jewish purpose that was missing from it during the long years of Labor hegemony. The author says Begin was a person whose Jewish soul dictated virtually everything he says; every action he took. Gordis states that Begin remains the, most Jewish prime minister that Israel has ever had. Walter Dixon narrated the book.
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2 people found this helpful