The Israel Test

In this book, George Gilder asserts that widespread antagonism toward the current state of Israel springs from, like anti-Semitism everywhere, envy of superior accomplishment. Israel’s sudden rise as a world capitalist and technological power, he argues, stems in part from the Jewish “culture of mind” and in part from Judaism itself, which, “perhaps more than any other religion, favors capitalist activity and provides a rigorous moral framework for it.” Critics of Israel — in the U.S., in the surrounding countries of the Middle East and in Western European nations that are facing socialist decline — have failed the “Israel Test” because they seek to tear down this country’s success rather than emulate it. America’s ability and desire to defend Israel will define our future survival as a nation: “If Israel is destroyed,” he says, “capitalist Europe will likely die as well, and America, as the epitome of productive and creative capitalism spurred by Jews, will be in jeopardy.”

Praise

Gilder’s originality, plus the sheer force of his enthusiasm for the extraordinary virtues of the beleaguered Jewish state, sweep away the prevailing vitriol and make for a book that is nothing less than thrill-
ing to read.

Norman Podhoretz

The Israel Test spoke to me with unexpected power. Apart from being brilliantly, fiercely written, its merit lies in clarifying, in a totally new, secular, and intuitive way, why Israel matters.

David Klinghoffer, The Jerusalem Post

In The Israel Test, George Gilder fights back, refuting the hateful lies and slanders that are all too frequently hurled at Israel. Gilder argues convincingly that Israel’s future is ultimately inseparable from the future of freedom and democracy everywhere. Israel embodies the ideals and principles that define the United States and our best allies worldwide: the values of personal liberty and economic freedom, human rights and women’s rights, tolerance and pluralism.

Senator Joseph Leiberman

George Gilder has written a superlative defense of capitalism and how it relates to Israel becoming the world’s most advanced nation in the development of the new technologies, second only to the United States. Tiny Israel, barely the size of New Jersey, with a population of more than seven million, now has more brain power than all of Europe.

Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld, WorldNetDaily