Israel’s current president gives us a dramatic and revelatory biography of Israel’s founding father and first prime minister.
Shimon Peres was in his early twenties 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. Ben-Gurion supported the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, though it meant surrendering a two-thousand-year-old dream of Jewish settlement in the entire land of Israel. He granted the Orthodox their first exemptions from military service despite his own deep secular commitments, and he reached out to Germany in the aftermath of the Holocaust, knowing that Israel would need as many strong alliances as possible within the European community.
A protégé of Ben-Gurion and himself a legendary figure on the international political stage, Shimon Peres brings to his account of Ben-Gurion’s life and towering achievements the profound insight of a statesman who shares Ben-Gurion’s dream of a modern, democratic Jewish nation-state that lives in peace and security alongside its Arab neighbors. In Ben-Gurion, Peres sees a neglected model of leadership that Israel and the world desperately need in the twenty-first century.
Ben-Gurion: A Political Life (Jewish Encounters)
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Review
“In revisiting the career of his mentor, Shimon Peres presents a uniquely human portrait of David Ben-Gurion—a master strategist with a long view of history and an abiding vision for Israel’s future. Peres brings his nation’s founding father to life with the energy, candor, and wisdom he’s become known for in his six decades of public service.”
—William Jefferson Clinton
“Shimon Peres is a man of awesome accomplishment (a Nobel Peace Prize-winner, by the way), but his most important accomplishment is how he has come to personify the ethic that David Ben-Gurion represents. His book is well worth your time. It was mine.”
—Richard Cohen, The Washington Post
“An urbane account of Israel’s first and longest-serving prime minister by someone who, though nearly 40 years younger, worked closely with him for two decades. It is admiring of Ben-Gurion . . . but it never lapses into hero worship or loses its grip on the historical realities amid which its story is set. Peres’s personal reminiscences of Ben-Gurion and his entourage are delightful.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Invaluable . . . Even readers tired of ideological food fights about Israel—of liberals calling conservatives who defend the country fascists, and of conservatives calling liberals who criticize it anti-Semites—will find something to like in this unusual primer on the birth of a nation and its most important midwife.”
—Justin Moyer, The Washington Post
“Shimon Peres, the president (and former prime minister) of Israel, provides an intriguing and intimate political biography of David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister and Peres’s erstwhile mentor. Readers will enjoy Peres’s analysis of his relationship with Ben-Gurion and will find his humility appealing. And his emotional admissions elevate this book above a standard biography.”
—Publishers Weekly
—William Jefferson Clinton
“Shimon Peres is a man of awesome accomplishment (a Nobel Peace Prize-winner, by the way), but his most important accomplishment is how he has come to personify the ethic that David Ben-Gurion represents. His book is well worth your time. It was mine.”
—Richard Cohen, The Washington Post
“An urbane account of Israel’s first and longest-serving prime minister by someone who, though nearly 40 years younger, worked closely with him for two decades. It is admiring of Ben-Gurion . . . but it never lapses into hero worship or loses its grip on the historical realities amid which its story is set. Peres’s personal reminiscences of Ben-Gurion and his entourage are delightful.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Invaluable . . . Even readers tired of ideological food fights about Israel—of liberals calling conservatives who defend the country fascists, and of conservatives calling liberals who criticize it anti-Semites—will find something to like in this unusual primer on the birth of a nation and its most important midwife.”
—Justin Moyer, The Washington Post
“Shimon Peres, the president (and former prime minister) of Israel, provides an intriguing and intimate political biography of David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister and Peres’s erstwhile mentor. Readers will enjoy Peres’s analysis of his relationship with Ben-Gurion and will find his humility appealing. And his emotional admissions elevate this book above a standard biography.”
—Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Shimon Peres has been president of the State of Israel since 2007. In 1947, at David Ben-Gurion’s request, he was recruited by the Haganah, and he was appointed head of naval services in 1948. Over a long and distinguished political career, he has held numerous cabinet-level positions, including foreign minister and defense minister, and served two terms as prime minister. One of the architects of the Oslo Accords, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
David Landau was editor in chief of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz from 2004 to 2008. Before joining Haaretz in 1997, Landau was the diplomatic correspondent and managing editor of The Jerusalem Post. He is the author of Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism and worked with Shimon Peres on his memoir, Battling for Peace. He currently writes for The Economist.
David Landau was editor in chief of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz from 2004 to 2008. Before joining Haaretz in 1997, Landau was the diplomatic correspondent and managing editor of The Jerusalem Post. He is the author of Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism and worked with Shimon Peres on his memoir, Battling for Peace. He currently writes for The Economist.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not Great,
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This review is from: Ben-Gurion: A Political Life (Jewish Encounters) (Kindle Edition)
A biography like this has such great potential. Unfortunately, this flopped. The potential is obvious -- Shimon Peres was "in the room" and knew Ben-Gurion. Landau was a writer for HaAretz. With this much talent and access in addition to an amazing and inspiring subject, this should be a great book. Insider status and writing talent like this made Yehuda Avner's The Prime Ministers unbelievable.The book was "written" orally. It rambles. It often strays into Peres' experiences and does not stay focused on Ben-Gurion's. What should be a great book does not hold up. If Israeli history and politics interest you, read The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership. It is amazing.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fair at Best,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Ben-Gurion: A Political Life (Jewish Encounters) (Hardcover)
Overall, this book was a letdown. I had much higher expectations since this book was written by Shimon Peres, someone who was apparently very close to Ben Gurion during the years that the State of Israel was in its infancy. Instead of getting deep into historical information and events, this book more or less touched on some history while spending more time debating on the effects of the events that actually happened. What we get is a dialogue with different opinions on the cause and effects of political events and decisions from Ben Gurion. I was actually hoping for more of a historical perspective similar to other books I have read. In addition, the style of the writing seems to be very weak. It's written more as an essay or a long article than it is as a book. I found this style to be distracting and even boring. If anyone is really interested in a solid and detailed historical narrative, I highly recommend reading The Prime Ministers by Yehudah Avner. That book is more than three times the size of this one but is about ten times better in the information it provides as well as the style in which it was written. It's actually an easier read. However, I do recommend that people skim rough this book in a few hours as some of the info provided can be useful if you are a person that is interested in the History of Israel.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Two extreme leftists, Landau and Peres re-write history,
By Joe Highbrow (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ben-Gurion: A Political Life (Jewish Encounters) (Hardcover)
Neither co-author is trustworthy on this, or any issue pertaining to Israel. Landau formerly wrote for Haaretz which is more anti-Israel than some of the Arab press. He now writes for The Economist an implacable enemy of Israel.
Peres, always looks like a deer caught in the headlights and is partly responsible for the decline of the Labor Party which he headed to its regret. Here you get the Labor party line on Ben-Gurion and the state's founding. You'll have to go to other sources for an accurate portrayal of the Prime Minister.
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