eBook The Israel Test download

The 'Israel Test' is not so much about Israel as about how we view what Israel (and, at least historically, the USA) stands for - opportunity, innovation, intelligence, capitalism and resilience. Israel is like a symbol in the world today (again, like a little concentrated and specialized American Dream of independence and prosperity), and how people feel about it expresses a lot about how we feel about economics and politics in general. At least this is George Gilder's premiss.

In Gilder's view the Jews (and by extension Israel) have been singled out for condemnation (historically and currently) not because of a simplistic type of anti-semetism, but because of a deeper misunderstanding and hatred of capitalism and success. In a world that increasingly values equality, a group of people who are brighter and prone to outstanding achievement will naturally be feared and hated. Gilder strongly feels that prosperity will come not from forcefully redistributing the wealth but though letting the innovators create more wealth, in effect creating a larger pie for everyone to partake of. As he provocatively states early on in this book, "Inequality is the answer, not the problem."

I pretty much agree with Gilder on all this, but I also found it stimulating and challenging to apply these general pro free-market/capitalistic ideas specifically to Israel. Sometimes I felt he was too much the gushing cheerleader, but I've heard enough of the negative (zero-sum, Neo-Nazi, pro-Palestinian, jihad-enabling views of Israel's critics) to appreciate the solidly, unapologetically, pro-Israeli position he advocates. Sure it's an extremely partisan view, but least it's a strong counterpoint to what we usually hear from the political/media pundits (and internet babble-sphere).

What is most informative about Gilder's approach is that once he presents the gist of the ideological "Israel test" he goes on to educate us on how special the Jews have actually been. I won't repeat it all here, since it's really exhaustive, but it is quite convincing and overwhelming. He begins by describing the contribution of 20th Century Jewish intellectual giants like John von Neumann, and then goes into detail about all the technological advances that came from these brilliant minds - like nuclear weapons, computers, complex algorithms, micro-processors, the internet, fiber-optics, wireless communications, nano-tech and biotech innovations. It is overwhelming because so much of this has been the direct result of Jews, and more recently Israel, and because we so easily take it for granted, and assume it is a given going forward. This may seem like Gilder's detour into a venture capitalist investment pitch, but it fleshes out the inner story of what Israel is really doing these days, both the how and why of it.

What is perhaps a bit ironic is that the persecution (historical and current) of the Jews has led to them staying sharp and resilient. It turns out that war and conflict is a good natural selector for intelligence and innovation. Meanwhile America has largely grown soft and increasingly socialistic, anti (and crony) capitalistic, and pacifistic, while Israel has only in this century begun to shrug off it's socialistic shackles and really embrace it's capitalistic entrepreneurial roots. Like China, it is on the rise - yet perhaps unlike China it needs America's support to continue (to rise as well as exist). And America needs Israel as the more nimble, aggressive and innovative partner.

No matter which side of the test you're on, this book will be both educational and thought provoking.

This book opens up with a didactic, even polemic, point of view: that everyone in America --- indeed, everyone on the planet --- is being tested right now by Israel. Not physically or politically tested, but morally tested. As it happens, I'm on Gilder's side, and so with me he's preaching to the choir.

The book then veers off into totally unexpected territory, recounting the career of John von Neumann, and this titanic genius's involvement with "just about everything important" in the science of his time, from the Manhattan Project through the invention of the computer. We are treated to a new retelling of this history, which brings out and emphasizes the Jewish contribution to winning World War II and paving the road for the future Silicon Valley.

The book then veers off into another unexpected place: the history of Israel, with emphasis on the past two decades. This stuff is absolutely fascinating: how the huge influx of Russian Jews suddenly brought sleepy Israel out of a somewhat dopey-dreamy socialism (you can probably imagine how fond the Russian Jews were of anything resembling Communism!) and turned the country into a high-tech frontier almost overnight (in historical time reference). Even though I spent my working life in the Silicon Valley, I missed this very important story, and if you are at all interested in high-tech and the future of information handling, you won't want to miss this.

By the time you have read these "digressions," it becomes clear why Gilder made them. Everyone in America needs to realize that Israel is no longer a "needy friend," if indeed it ever was. Modern defense has become drenched in high-tech, and in that regard alone Israel is a very valuable ally. The jihadis have this fixed idea about destroying both Israel and America, and we need to pay attention to this.

Just last week I somehow managed to wind up having dinner next to an Australian who confidently told me that Israel "could use a few bombs dropped on it." An Australian! And his favorite country was apparently....Iran...because it had a good birth-control policy, or something. I'm quite sure that this creepy man viewed himself as a "progressive" and maybe even a "peace-lover," but he struck me as The Mad Bomber, and one more piece of evidence that anti-Semitism is scarily on the rise in our times.

I hope you don't flunk the Israel test as badly as my erstwhile dinner companion. Reading this new book by George Gilder does wonders in clarifying a lot of issues which sinister people are trying to make murky. And when I say "sinister people," I mean people like Ahmedinejad, who is a very real and very sinister person indeed.

If you are interested in whether or not the current Administration passes "The Israel Test," you may find the following of interest: Obama's Betrayal of Israel (Encounter Broadsides).

In these parlous times, the public sorely needs to be better informed about Jews, about Israel, and about antisemitism. Moreover, the essential nature of capitalism direly needs to be defended, and the virtue of entrepenurial creativity needs to be understood and lauded. The zero-sum thinking of Keynesian economics always need another decent burial, as well.

George Gilder covers all of this and more in this book. It suffers only for a bit of redundancy. It did require a bit of grim determination for me to slog on to the bitter end of it. I'd like to suggest that Gilder Bowdlerize the content into a brief version, so as to present the fundamentals of his arguments to a wider audience, in a more digestable format.

There's an extensive annotation in the appendix, with convenient hyperlinks for those wishing to dig further into the issues discussed. Mr. Gilder should be thanked for keeping restraints on his formidable lexicon. When Gilder gets on a tear, no unabridged dictionary can keep up with him. In this book, you'll have little need for word research.

This was book gives us an inside look at one of today's modern day miracles: the State of Israel. It gives the reader an understanding of how such a small geographic-based nation can strive to excel in everything that it sets out to. It is through focus, determination and hard work, that Israel has become one of the leading countries of technology and innovation in the entire world.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be inspired.

It has been out for some years now....but, it is one of the most sincere, eye opening books on the will of God that are out there.
A good, solid read. I highly recommend it.