Book Tip No. 58 (2022): Noa Tishby: Israel. The fact check about the most misunderstood country in the world.

1st edition Gütersloh 2022.

By Hans-Christian Riekhof

When you pick up a book written by a successful actress who plays a leading role in an Israeli prime time TV series, who took on roles in various TV shows and who now works as a TV producer in the USA: what are your first associations?

And when the subtitle talks about “fact check”, but at the same time also about a “temperamental declaration of love for the most controversial state in the world”: what perhaps contradictory expectations are created?

Do not give in to these first impressions and let Noa Tishby speak for herself. It is a very personal, committed book, also influenced by the author’s life and family history. But at the same time also a fact-rich work that describes the backgrounds to the founding of the state and Zionism, the numerous wars and the peace agreements that have now been concluded, the Orthodox Jews and the settlement policy.

The author also provides a clear definition of anti-Semitism, which we are constantly confronted with. Anyone who wants to understand the Middle East conflict cannot avoid dealing with the Israeli view of things.