The Israel Test: Why the World's Most Besieged State is a Beacon of Freedom and Hope for the World Economy

This book is directed towards the non-Jewish reading population who are interested in gaining a sophisticated, yet engrossing study of the significance and importance of the Jewish people, the sublimity of the Jewish ethos and genius, and the primary importance of the modern State of Israel in the defense of Western Civilization. George Gilder’s work is an eloquent defense of what he so aptly names the Israel “test.”

I am. Christian Wasp....70 years old....my mother long gone always said the Jews are very special and God’s people. God said He would bless the nations through His people....so this book is confirmation of how God has done this......I love our Good God....and I see his children getting together in these difficult times....

An outstanding book that puts a framework on the current politics of today, not only in the Middle East, but in the U.S. And globally as well. Quite politically incorrect in some quarters, but if you can read with an open mind there is a good deal to be learned here. Just read and pass it on to someone else who would benefit from it.

The author of this book is a very intelligent person who has a very good handle on what is happening in our world today. He covers all the areas that matter in our society today with world leaders seeming to worry only about their own agendas and how Israel is leading the way the world should be going. Very deep and can get a bit dry.

Excellent book

George Gilder is a world-class scholar and author of a raft of classics on economics and high-tech. His original take on the data about Jews leads him to ineluctable conclusions about their unique success, survival, and persecution. Anti-Zionists will hate it and Jews may blush, but so well-documented and closely argued a thesis cannot be dismissed. In my opinion, The Israel Test merits reading with an open mind by anyone seeking to understand the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Shoah, and Jewish history in general.

Wow! I didn’t realize the degree to which the Jewish community has contributed to the technological advancement that has improved all of our lives. We all owe our gratitude to them, not envy or hatred.

When I see genius do I resent it or strive to emulate it? That is the Israel test, made necessary by what Gilder sees as Jewish genius. He is right on this central issue and so other odd ideas can be ignored.

Insightful with regard to prominent Israeli figures in history. Points out the vital role played by this nation on world affairs. A good read that does not disappoint but does bristle with Israeli pride.

A brilliant synopsis of Israel's role in the economy of the world today. Gilder's paradigm is overwhelmingly convincing. It is also consistent with a Judeo-Christian world view, and a refreshing antidote for the toxic and tiresome obsessions of modern liberalism in academia and the media.

"Israelites the Best Brainees in the World :-)Israelites what a Spirit what a Attitude :-)5/5 Amazon Amazing Service :-)Thanks & Regards,Vijay Srinivas Vittalam

This is a truly bizarre book! The idea that Israel (or any country) can be placed on a pedestal as the ideal of what is moral or ethical in human behaviour, or as a model, par excellence, for economic and scientific attainment is preposterous. The book draws heavily on Dershowitz's "A Case for Israel" which is already a thoroughly discredited book that extensively sanitizes Israel's record. Apart from the occasional reference to a source within the text there is no referencing system, no footnotes, no listing of references whatsoever and no bibliography so it is impossible to source any of the claims or to check any of the information contained in this book. This is just a political pamphlet that runs to 193 pages; by the time you get to a summary of Lowdermilk's observations from the 1930's with the suggestions that the large Palestinian population of Palestine is a direct consequence of recent immigration that was itself a consequence of the innovative and entrepreneurial skills of Jewish immigrants (pages 36-45) one is wondering whether this book should be quietly binned. Some of its ideas are simply weird. Israel "is the military spearhead of the culture of freedom and faith- the bastion of American progress and prosperity, and beyond America, for the progress and prosperity of all the peoples of the planet. The reason America should continue to "prop up "Israel is that Israel itself is a crucial prop of American wealth, freedom and power." In fact Israel is "the leader of human civilisation."(page 34) Given the amount of money and political capital that America pours into Israel this all might be an excellent return- if it were true. But Israeli values would be unacceptable in America. The preferment of one ethnic group over another; the discrimination of one ethnic group by another; the expansionist aims of one ethnic group at the expense another. The JNF (Jewish National Fund) owns 13% of land in Israel which is kept for the exclusive use of Jews, and this is just the start. The "Law of Return" is an ethical minefield that gives preferment to a Jew from anywhere on the planet over a non-Jew born, bred and living in Israel. Try and run a country club in New York on that basis. The suggestion that runs throughout the book is that Palestinians are inconsequential victims of their lack of appreciation of Jewish superiority and entitlement. Anybody who questions the right of Israel to dictate its own terms regardless of behaviour is simply anti-Semitic. Gilder expresses, through careful selection of quotes and judicious selections of slanted history the idea that the Palestinians are modern Nazis and are driven through a hatred of Jews just because they are Jews, and Jews are successful. Much is made of the role the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem supposedly played in the Holocaust when in reality he was a marginal figure who lived out his life after the war in neighbouring Lebanon unmolested by Israeli retribution and, as we know, Israel has never shied away from the kidnapping of political opponents or from conducting extra judicial killings where it saw fit. All of this in a book that is dedicated to the idea of racial superiority...of Jews- a very Nazi idea. Indeed, National Socialism and Zionism (like many "isms" from the 19th century) are closely related and while "Jews are crucial to the future of the race" (page 32) Palestinians evidently are not.Gilder looks at world history through a very curious prism. The Second World War may be seen to have been won by "Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, Eisenhower and Montgomery "but apparently not. All the success of allied arms against the Nazis was carried forward by the scientific and cerebral contributions of Jews. (page 72) He does not think the millions of Russians, Poles, Czechs, Serbs, Greeks, British, Canadians, Australians...the list simply goes on...who died to defeat fascism are worth serious mention and the scientific and economic effort of the goyim is briefly skirted around. He refers to the dropping of the Atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as "the decisive event of World War II" that sprang directly from Jewish genius. (page 82). Gilder seems not to have understood that by this time the war in Europe was over and Jewish terrorists (Begin and Shamir among them) had already been carrying out terrorist attacks in Palestine and the Middle East for almost a year. Jewish terrorists assassinated Lord Moyne, Minister of State for the Middle East, in Cairo in 1944 and murdered 7 unarmed British soldiers only 10 days after British troops liberated Belsen. To Gilder the attempts made by the British to regulate the flow of Jewish refugees in the volatile political environment of post war Palestine amounted to a "perverted imperial romance with the Arabs." In 1948 Jewish terrorists attacked and massacred the people of Deir Yassin and later that year murdered the UN mediator, Swedish diplomat, Count Folke Bernadotte. Bernadotte's war-time record of saving thousands of camp inmates in occupied Europe, including about 10,000 Jews was not enough to save him from this particularly cynical attack. Irgun terrorists referred to terrorism as the "new Esperanto".....in other words, a new world language. (page 113) In a supreme act of Chutzpa The Israeli Government established (1953) the Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem, just adjacent to the remnants of Deir Yassin (which is now a mental hospital) and many of the Jewish terrorists went on to positions of power and influence in the State of Israel. In 1980 Israel instituted the "Lehi ribbon" for former members of Lehi - the group involved in Deir Yassin and the murders of both Moyne and Bernadotte-who wished to wear it to recognise "military service towards the establishment of the State of Israel". In 1982 Lord Moyne's murderers were honoured by the State of Israel with a commemorative postage stamp. The list of Israeli terrorism, both at a group and state level is a long one. But how things change! Context matters and Arabs are now guilty of terrorism; Jews were and are, merely expressing themselves.Gilder adds insult to injury by suggesting that Palestinians should look elsewhere for land- not the West Bank. He suggests the "east Bank", better known as Jordan, as a compatible homeland. (page 166)The assumption here, of course, is that the West Bank is Israel's to "give away." It isn't. In spite of Israel's gradual, persistent and continued theft of land on the West Bank this is the last remnant of the Palestinians' homeland. Apart from which, by what curious sleight of hand does Gilder think that Jordan (population approximately 6 million) would be able to absorb the exodus from Palestine (population approximately 4 million)? This would be an immediate increase of Jordan's population by 67%. Syria isn't an option. Neither is Egypt. But this still leaves the Arab Israelis....and in a stunning example of life imitating "art" we read, in the run up to the January 2013 Israeli General Election, one Knesset candidate suggesting that all Palestinian families should be offered a cash inducement simply to leave: "The state of Israel is paying 10% of its GNP every year for the two-state solution and the Oslo Accords. It's paying for separation fences, Iron Domes and a guard at every café. Soon we'll have to place Iron Domes in every school in Tel Aviv...... With this budget we can give every Arab family in Judea and Samaria $500,000 to encourage it to immigrate to a place with a better future.....You may say, 'But no one will have them.' That's not true because the Western nations are shrinking due to low birth rates. The question is whether the world will have Sudanese migrants who can't build or migrants from Judea and Samaria who do know how to build." Thank you Moshe Feiglin, prospective KM. If we extend this logic then possibly we should empty Israel of Jews and bring them all to America. In one fell swoop we will solve two of America's most pressing issues. The new Jewish Americans will, through their innate entrepreneurial skills, scientific and innovative genius and cultural and ethical superiority propel the United States once more to the fore front. While the repossession of Palestine by its indigenous inhabitants will solve most of America's foreign policy problems and ensure a limitless supply of oil from the grateful Arab world. Or is that a little simplistic? The fact remains, in all seriousness, Israel couldn't pass Gilder's Israel Test. If we look to the attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 and the assault on the Mavi Marmara in 2010 we have to realise that not even Israel's friends are safe and that maybe rather than reading this bizarre book we should be reading Rabbi Loew's cautionary tale of The Golem.