One Nation, One Family

As their book The Genius of Israel went to press, authors Dan Senor and Saul Singer composed an authors’ note, acknowledging that events in Israel at the moment may have superficially seemed to undermine the arguments they present. After all, the book describes the social strength of the Jewish state, what is called in its subtitle “the surprising resilience of a divided nation in a turbulent world.” Yet to many, Israeli society appeared on the verge of breakdown; a deep disagreement over the future powers of the Supreme Court seemed to reveal larger fissures, with tens of thousands protesting the government every Saturday night, and massive counter-protests from those supporting the governing coalition. “We understand,” they reflected, that “the reader may wonder how Israel’s slow-motion political train wreck squares with our claims regarding the health of Israeli society. Fair question.” Yet they insisted that their book revealed the deeper unity of this fractious country. In a chapter titled “The Wars of the Jews,” the authors further explained that beneath the surface, “Israeli society is like a very strong rubber band. However stretched it becomes, there are strong forces pulling it back together.”

As even Yom Kippur—usually the quietest day of the year—was marked by vituperative shouting about religion in the streets of Tel Aviv, one might have been forgiven for responding to Senor and Singer with skepticism. Then, two weeks later, in response to the worst attack in the country’s history, Israeli society united, entirely vindicating the thesis of this brilliant book.

The question with which Senor and Singer begin is pithily put: “Why are Israelis so damn happy?” This query was first posed by the journalist Tiffanie Wen, when she noticed that Israel ranks consistently close to the top among countries when it comes to the happiness of its citizens, even as these very same citizens remember, every year, relatives who have fallen in the country’s many wars, and almost every Israeli knows someone murdered in a terror attack. While their previous book—the hugely influential Start-Up Nation—focused on how Israeli life cultivates creativity in the technological and financial sectors, Senor and Singer now eloquently outline the emotional aspects of Israeli life. They explain how a society marked by its constant confrontation with its enemies, and by the angry exchanges of its democratic debates, is actually one of the most contented countries on the face of the earth.