The Israel Test |
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Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
Israel is the crucial battlefield for Capitalism and Freedom in our time.George Gilder's global best-seller Wealth and Poverty made the moral case for capitalism. Now Gilder makes the case for Israel, portraying a conflict of barbarism and envy against civilization and creativity. Gilder reveals Israel as a leader of human civilization, technological progress, and scientific advance. Tiny Israel stands behind only the United States in its contributions to the hi-tech economy. Israel has become the world's paramount example of the blessings of freedom. Hatred of Israel, like anti-Semitism through history, arises from resentment of Jewish success. Rooted in a Marxist zero-sum-game theory of economics, this vision has fueled the anti-Semitic rantings of Hitler, Arafat, Osama, and history's other notorious haters. Faced with a contest between murderous regimes sustained by envy and Nazi ideology, and a free, prosperous, and capitalist, Israel—whose side are you on?
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Customer Reviews:
• A Test For Democratic Capitalism
14 March, 2010
The Israel Test
By George Gilder
What is your attitude toward people who excel you in the creation of wealth or in other accomplishment? Do you aspire to their excellence, or do you seethe at it? Do you admire and celebrate exceptional achievement, or do you impugn it and seek to tear it down? This in a nut shell is the Israel Test. In summary, some people admire success; some people envy it. The enviers hate Israel. I found while reading the book that those who fail the Israel test do so not with just Jews or Israelis but with all those who excel beyond their capabilities. It is rather the many people who collectively despise the minds of the few that this book is about. For it is the critical thinking mind that produces the fertile ground to advance mankind and the multitudes that envy the wealth they so justifiably earned.
But it is really more than that and this book peels back the layers of the onion and provides a cross-sectional view effect and cause. Specifically he describes accomplishments of Jews and then concludes with their causes. In the process he takes a critical view on leftward leaning thinkers like Barak Obama as they are never a cause for success in the form of a nurturing perspective, however they may be the cause from a survival or self defense perspective. In the mind of Gilder, Barak Obama and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad albeit one Sunni and the other Shea, find themselves of like minds. Notice both men advance their agendas, by attacking their opponent to distract from the flaws of their own agenda. With this thought in mind you can imagine the "pearl in store" for Israel and America and really appreciate what it is that is at stake should they lose their momentum. See complete review by entering keyword search cigarroomofbooks israel test
- Amazon Customer Review
• Much More Than The Title Lets On
17 March, 2010
The Israel Test is an amazingly deep and insightful book about the reasons that not only Israel, but the United States, have aroused wide spread resentment throughout the world. The author argues that, quite convincingly, that Israel and the United States are resented for their success. Both nations have obtained power and influence disproportionate to their size largely because of a capitalist system that rewards innovation, and a culture that encourages risk taking, the unconventional, and the exceptional. The book is analysis of the struggle between individual economic choice and government economic control, the deep emotional response to the gaps in income that rewarding special achievement entails, and the benefits that all of humanity reaps from such a system. The book explains a part of Israel's contribution to the Western alliance overlooked by its critics, and the motivations of its detractors. A highly recommended book.
- Amazon Customer Review
• An Inspiring Pean To Capitalism But A Weird Case For Israel
11 March, 2010
This is an unusual book on the subject of the Jewish-Arab conflict in the Middle East. It does not even summarize the history that one would think is necessary to have an informed opinion. The book does not go into the recent demographic history of the whole region that, prior to 1922 has been known in the West (though not to the Muslims themselves) as "Palestine", which has always been defined on both sides of the Jordan. No mention that most of those Arabs who, after the 1960's for the first time came to be called -- as a result of a conscious propaganda effort to that end -- the "Palestinians", cannot trace their ancestry to the region farther back than the mid-19th century. Or that the "Holy Land" was typically described by 19th century Western travelers, such as Mark Twain in his Innocents Abroad, as a barren, deserted wilderness, certainly not a home to any human civilization.
There is nothing here about Britain's obligations under the terms of the Mandate for Palestine, which Britain was granted by the League of Nations over claims of other powers in exchange for the commitment to restore the Jewish state. There is nothing about the cynical duplicity of Britain after it had been given the mandate, her betrayal of the Zionists in the pursuit of a foolish dream of a united Arab-dominated Middle East under British patronage. Nothing, to that end, about Britain's deliberate fostering, practically out of thin air, of the "Arab rejection of Zionism," the real root of the conflict. Needless to say, nothing about the warlike and chauvinist mentality encouraged by the Islamic faith especially on primitive peoples, or the immutable theological intolerance of Islam toward non-Muslims asserting equality and even pride in their midst.
Instead of making a well-informed case to the reader for why Israel is in the right and all those who wish to hurt her are in the wrong, instead of appealing to the reader's innate sense of justice, Gilder's argument is purely pragmatic: Israel, thanks to the extraordinary intellectual giftedness of the Jews, is a uniquely innovative and productive society whose innovations, like cell phones and computer chips, benefit the rest of mankind. (Gilder gives a good summary of the contribution by Jews to 20th century science and technology, for those who are interested in such things.) Ironically, Gilder himself acknowledges that Israeli economic success and productivity has only surfaced in the mid-1990's, and not fully until the liberalizing economic reforms of Netanyahu. What, one would like to ask Gilder, if Israel goes back to socialism? Or, as it seems increasingly likely, the growing demographic presence and political clout of the ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are exempted from military service, are recipients of considerable transfer of wealth by the government, and do not by and large participate in productive economic activity, renders Israel increasingly unpalatable to those who make Israel the economic phenomenon that Gilder so admires? Indeed, what if Israel were just an average or even a poor country, and Israeli Jews were an average, albeit perpetually tormented people? Would Israel then, in its struggle to ward off a relentless Muslim Arab onslaught, not be deserving of support from the civilized? I doubt that Gilder, who is obviously decent and humane, would answer in the affirmative. But should Israel or the Jews, for any of a number of perfectly plausible reasons, lose their ability to contribute to mankind so spectacularly out of proportion to their numbers, the entire thesis of Gilder's book would become irrelevant.
Still, that someone of Gilder's prominence and originality of thought chose to write a book on Israel which treats with contempt those who wish Israel ill and their monstrous lies, is unquestionably a good thing. And the book turns out to be one of the most inspiring and best-written justifications for Capitalism. Though it is unlikely to change many minds on Israel, it is to be heartily recommended for what it is: an inspiring paean to Capitalism and an unapologetic celebration of Jewish success.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Excellent And Interesting
04 March, 2010
This is one of the most interesting books that I have ever read. The author is very detailed and informed. If you love to read and learn about Israel and her history, you will not be disappointed. The author points out the many ways that the Jews/Israel have contributed to the advancement or changes in many areas in our lives/world/sciences/technology etc. It gives a lot of information on ties to Israel/Jews that I had never thought or read about. As a supporter of Israel and capitalism, I loved this book.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Extremely Biased And Disheartening
05 March, 2010
This book is a joke. Perhaps Mr. Gilder should take accountability for the grave human rights abuses occurring in Israel. Does he really support apartheid and occupation? Does Gilder really delight in the fact that thousands of people were made refugees overnight in 1948? This book is arrogant, extremely biased, somewhat racist and self-indulgent.
How does criticizing Israel's brutal treatment of Palestinians make someone anti-Semitic or Nazi-ish or even jealous of the Jews? Just as Christians and Muslims have committed some atrocious things throughout history, so are Jews capable of atrocious wrongdoing. There is no justification for Israel's stockpiles of nucelar weapons, war-games or ethnic cleansing.
Besides which, comparing someone to the Nazis for addressing Israel's human rights abuses is bogus.
When I heard Mr. Gilder speak on the radio during an interview on 11/30/09, I was disheartened. I am NOT in favor of increasing our U.S. military spending to help Israel prosper... War is not good for the economy, nor is it ethical. Nor does it help Israel. War only breeds the cycle of violence and mistrust. In fact, many leftist Jews in Israel would agree with my sentiments, and are more diplomatic than Gilder. While I like the many creative, intelligent minds that Israel has formed, I do not support genocide.
- Amazon Customer Review
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