The period of the demise of the kingdom of Judah at the end of the 6th century B.C.E., the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, the exile of the elite to Babylon, and the reshaping of the territory of the new province of Judah, culminating at the end of the century with the first return of exiles--all have been subjects of intense scrutiny during the last decade. Lipschits takes into account the biblical textual evidence, the results of archaeological research, and the reports of Babylonian and Egyptian sources and provides a comprehensive survey and analysis of the evidence for the history of this 100-year-long era. He provides a lucid historical survey that will, no doubt, become the baseline for all future studies of this era.

The Tragedy of a Generation is the story of a failed ideal: an autonomous Jewish nation in Europe. It traces the origins of two influential strains of Jewish thought—Yiddishism and Diaspora Nationalism—and documents the waning hopes and painful reassessments of their leading representatives against the rising tide of Nazism and the Holocaust.

Holy war, sanctioned or even commanded by God, is a common and recurring theme in the Hebrew Bible. Rabbinic Judaism, however, largely avoided discussion of holy war in the Talmud and related literatures for the simple reason that it became dangerous and self-destructive. Reuven Firestone's Holy War in Judaism is the first book to consider how the concept of ''holy war'' disappeared from Jewish thought for almost 2000 years, only to reemerge with renewed vigor in modern times. The revival of the holy war idea occurred with the rise of Zionism. As the necessity of organized Jewish engagement in military actions developed, Orthodox Jews faced a dilemma. There was great need for all to engage in combat for the survival of the infant state of Israel, but the Talmudic rabbis had virtually eliminated divine authorization for Jews to fight in Jewish armies. Once the notion of divinely sanctioned warring was revived, it became available to Jews who considered that the historical context justified more aggressive forms of warring. Among some Jews, divinely authorized war became associated not only with defense but also with a renewed kibbush or conquest, a term that became central to the discourse regarding war and peace and the lands conquered by the state of Israel in 1967. By the early 1980's, the rhetoric of holy war had entered the general political discourse of modern Israel. In Holy War in Judaism, Firestone identifies, analyzes, and explains the historical, conceptual, and intellectual processes that revived holy war ideas in modern Judaism.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The first definitive history of the Mossad, Shin Bet, and the IDF’s targeted killing programs, hailed by The New York Times as “an exceptional work, a humane book about an incendiary subject.” WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD IN HISTORY NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY JENNIFER SZALAI, THE NEW YORK TIMES NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Economist • The New York Times Book Review • BBC History Magazine • Mother Jones • Kirkus Reviews The Talmud says: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” This instinct to take every measure, even the most aggressive, to defend the Jewish people is hardwired into Israel’s DNA. From the very beginning of its statehood in 1948, protecting the nation from harm has been the responsibility of its intelligence community and armed services, and there is one weapon in their vast arsenal that they have relied upon to thwart the most serious threats: Targeted assassinations have been used countless times, on enemies large and small, sometimes in response to attacks against the Israeli people and sometimes preemptively. In this page-turning, eye-opening book, journalist and military analyst Ronen Bergman—praised by David Remnick as “arguably [Israel’s] best investigative reporter”—offers a riveting inside account of the targeted killing programs: their successes, their failures, and the moral and political price exacted on the men and women who approved and carried out the missions. Bergman has gained the exceedingly rare cooperation of many current and former members of the Israeli government, including Prime Ministers Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as high-level figures in the country’s military and intelligence services: the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), the Mossad (the world’s most feared intelligence agency), Caesarea (a “Mossad within the Mossad” that carries out attacks on the highest-value targets), and the Shin Bet (an internal security service that implemented the largest targeted assassination campaign ever, in order to stop what had once appeared to be unstoppable: suicide terrorism). Including never-before-reported, behind-the-curtain accounts of key operations, and based on hundreds of on-the-record interviews and thousands of files to which Bergman has gotten exclusive access over his decades of reporting, Rise and Kill First brings us deep into the heart of Israel’s most secret activities. Bergman traces, from statehood to the present, the gripping events and thorny ethical questions underlying Israel’s targeted killing campaign, which has shaped the Israeli nation, the Middle East, and the entire world. “A remarkable feat of fearless and responsible reporting . . . important, timely, and informative.”—John le Carré

By definition God is Ultimate Sovereign with total freedom and absolute ability and power to do what He decides for His creatures. God being the Creator of the Universe has absolute wisdom to determine the purpose of His creation. To accomplish the stupendous tasks of creation He uses a portion from the infinite amount of energies at His disposal.God informed in His last textual revelation (the Quran) that He chose man to be His caliph on Earth: Recall when your Lord told the angels that I am to appoint a caliph on earth. They said: "Are You going to appoint one who will make therein corruption and spill blood while we chant Your praise and glorify You?" He said: "I know what you know not." (Quran 2.30) God endowed His potential caliph a breath from His spirit. The breath implies a droplet from the infinite ocean of divine energies and is described as the divine spark in man. Rise and Fall of Bani-Israel & Beyond examines the establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth by man who is vicar of God on Earth. The purpose of establishing the Divine Kingdom is to build a society based on divine attributes of goodness, truth, compassion, and justice, and thus, all members of society are bestowed with the blessings of peace and prosperity. It started with Prophet Abraham the father of monotheistic faiths. God instituted two lineages of monotheistic faith. The first through Isaac and his son Jacob, also known as Israel, and later through the descendent of Ishmael-the first born son of Prophet Abraham.In the past, a covenant was enacted making Bani-Israel (Children of Israel) vicar of God on Earth; however, due to excessive love of the worldly life, Bani-Israel floundered the covenant with God. As a last opportunity to mend, God sent Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) with a clear reminder of the divine covenant of loving and serving the Lord with all mind and heart. After their failure to heed the warning, God abrogated the covenant with Bani-Israel and removed them from the status of the chosen nation to be the example for other nations. As a mercy to mankind God transferred the responsibility to establish the Divine Kingdom to Bani-Ismail through his descendant Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and revealed His revised commandments in the Quran. The messenger of Allah raised a new nation of believers from the children of Prophet Ishmael for the task. The divine principles of sanctity of life, freedom, equality, justice, and compassion were implemented during the reign of the messenger of Allah and later during that of his caliphs. After centuries of rule by divine principles, the excessive love of the worldly life made Muslim rulers fail in continuing to uphold those principles.