Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth

The 352-page book includes seven maps.[7] Its physical apparatus includes an appendix, a glossary, endnotes, and an index, and it is dedicated to Tishby's son.[7][6] The book is characterized as a "highlights" sketch covering Israel's history and wars, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli society, BDS, and the settlements.[8]

Thematically, the book ranges from biblical times through contemporary Israel.[6] Its chapters address misconceptions and ignorance about Israel, the country's deep historical roots, the 1948 War of Independence, Hebron, racism within Israeli Jewish society, and the BDS movement.[6] It also covers the Zionist movement, the establishment of the state, Israel's wars with neighboring states, the intifadas, and peace negotiations and treaties.[7] The book interweaves this historical material with Tishby's multigenerational family story, including accounts of her grandparents and great-grandparents, and employs humor, irreverence, self-deprecation, and American vernacular alongside its documentary content.[6]

On the central questions of Zionism and BDS, Tishby's positions are explicit. She writes: "To be a Zionist doesn't mean to support every action of the Israeli government," describing Zionism as "a constant work in progress – an endeavor toward a more perfect society."[5] She characterizes BDS as "a giant pile of crap — misinformation, disinformation, manipulation, elimination of history and flat-out lies."[5] Tishby also argues in the book that anti-Zionism is "the fashionable political position right now" and that opposition specifically to Zionism targets one particular people — a position she equates with antisemitism, while cautioning that reflexively attributing every criticism to antisemitism would be an oversimplification.[4]

Noa Tishby's family history is woven into the origins of the book. Her great-grandparents left Russia to help found Israel, and she grew up as a fourth-generation Israeli.[5] Her grandfather, Hanan Yavor, served as Israel's ambassador to Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, and Barbados — a diplomatic heritage that surfaces in the book's autobiographical passages.[7] Tishby moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s and, by her account, first encountered antisemitism there, which she described as manifesting under the guise of anti-Zionism in Hollywood entertainment circles.[5] That experience launched what she has called a decade of pro-Israel advocacy.

Tishby said she wrote the book after people repeatedly asked her for something they could read to understand Israel, and she found that existing historical works were not the quick, relatable introduction they were looking for.[6] She wrote it herself over sixteen months, aiming for a conversational style accessible to younger readers as well as older readers seeking to refresh their knowledge.[6] Her agent and publisher encouraged her to include more personal stories than she had originally planned, shifting the balance from roughly ninety percent history and ten percent personal material toward a more blended approach.[6] Tishby describes the shift in her own advocacy in the book: "My advocacy became not just this thing I did at dinner parties but a true calling," followed by: "Truth spreading."[5]

The book was first published in 2021 by Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and a paperback edition followed in 2022.[2][1] By the time of Tishby's May 2021 interview with Ynet, the book had already reached its fourth printing, topped Amazon charts in three categories in its field, and been recognized as a New York Times bestseller.[4][3] Robust early sales prompted the publisher to order a second printing, and Tishby participated in more than thirty-five American and Israeli media interviews following release.[6] An Israeli edition was expected in December 2021 from Kinneret-Zmora-Bitan.[4] The book is included in the Jewish Virtual Library's "Israel & the Middle East" bibliography and is listed by the National Library of Israel among recommended books about Israel for general readers.[9][8]

The book received endorsements from both Bill Maher and Ben Shapiro, which Tishby cited as evidence of its cross-ideological appeal.[6] Tishby presented the book to audiences including AJC Global Forum 2022 in New York City, where she urged education and open conversation with teenagers before they encountered what she called "slanders against Israel" at college.[5]

A 2021 Jerusalem Post review called the book a concise guide for readers perplexed by Israel and described it as useful for young adults and open-minded readers interested in modern Israel, praising its personal anecdotes and accessible, forceful style.[7] The same reviewer argued, however, that the book's emphasis on political Zionism and modern history came at the expense of earlier Jewish history and Jewish attachment to the land — an omission the reviewer saw as limiting the historical case presented to readers.[7] A separate 2023 Jerusalem Post review was more broadly positive, describing the book as a breezy but serious overview that interweaves Israeli history with Tishby's biography, addresses media and social-media misinformation alongside advocacy and peace, and presents its arguments on Israel's behalf as researched and entertaining, with the only significant reservation being Tishby's use of profanity.[10]

The book grew directly out of Tishby's public advocacy work, during which she began using social media to correct what she saw as misperceptions about Israel.[8] She has said that Israel had not communicated its story effectively to young American audiences and that the book was intended to fill that gap — not as propaganda, she argued, but as an effective way to make the Israeli narrative accessible while honestly addressing its complexities.[4]

The book is part of a broader effort to reach younger readers before their views on Israel are shaped by campus movements or social media. Tishby has argued that readers need basic facts to have a legitimate discussion of Israel, and the book is designed to supply those facts in a readable format.[5] A biography submitted for Tishby's November 2023 House appearance describes the book as her first and says that years of public speaking and writing on Israel enabled her to explain its complexities in a clear and relatable way.[2]

The book is explicitly pro-Israel and Zionist in its perspective, and reviewers have characterized its arguments as advocacy as much as history.[7][10] Several of its central claims touch on contested historical and political ground. The 2021 Jerusalem Post review notes that the book foregrounds the claim that Palestinian national identity was intentionally constructed for political purposes in 1964 — a characterization that is historically and politically contested and is presented as the book's argument rather than settled scholarship.[7]

Tishby's equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism is similarly contested. She argues in the book and in interviews that singling out Zionism for opposition targets the Jewish people specifically, while acknowledging that calling every critic of Israel an antisemite goes too far.[4] These are her stated political positions, reported as such by multiple sources, not independently established conclusions. The book's treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the 1948 War of Independence, and BDS likewise reflects Tishby's stated viewpoint within her pro-Israel advocacy.[5][8]