The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land (Updated in 2008)

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Israel is smaller than New Jersey yet captures a lion's share of headlines. It looks like one country on CNN, a very different one on al-Jazeera. The BBC has its version, "The New York Times" theirs. But how does Israel look to Israelis? The answers are varied, and they have been brought together here in one of the most original books about Israel in decades. From battlefields to bedrooms to boardrooms, discover the colliding worlds in which an astounding mix of 6.8 million devoutly traditional and radically modern people live. You'll meet "Arab Jews" who fled Islamic countries, dreadlock-wearing Ethiopian immigrants who sing reggae in Hebrew, Christians in Nazareth who publish an Arabic-style "Cosmo," young Israeli Muslims who know more about Judaism than most Jews of the Diaspora, ultra-Orthodox Jews on "Modesty Patrols," and more. Interweaving hundreds of personal stories with intriguing new research, "The Israelis" is lively, irreverent, and always fascinating.