The Land of Hope and Fear

One of the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books for 2023

A correspondent who has spent thirty years in Israel presents a rich, wide-ranging portrait of the Israeli people at a critical juncture in their country’s history.

Despite Israel’s determined staying power in a hostile environment, its military might, and the innovation it fosters in businesses globally, the country is more divided than ever. The old guard — socialist secular elites and idealists — are a dying breed, and the state’s democratic foundations are being challenged. A dynamic and exuberant country of nine million, Israel now largely comprises native-born Hebrew speakers, and yet any permanent sense of security and normalcy is elusive.

In The Land of Hope and Fear, we meet Israelis — Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, Eastern and Western, liberals and zealots — plagued by perennial conflict and existential threats. Its citizens remain deeply polarised politically, socially, and ideologically, even as they undergo generational change and redefine what it is to be an Israeli. Who are these people, and to what do they aspire?

In moving narratives and with on-the-ground reporting, Isabel Kershner reveals the core of what holds Israel together and the forces that threaten its future through the lens of real people, laying bare the question, Who is an Israeli?