• The Prime Ministers

  • An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership
  • By: Yehuda Avner
  • Narrated by: Derek Perkins
  • Length: 24 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (464 ratings)

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The Prime Ministers  By  cover art

The Prime Ministers

By: Yehuda Avner
Narrated by: Derek Perkins
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Editorial reviews

Yehuda Avner brings a fly-on-the-wall perspective to six decades of Israeli history. Part memoir, part multi-faceted biography, and part novelistic narrative, Avner takes listeners deep into the innermost worlds of four prime ministers, as only a former advisor can.

Derek Perkins, whose narrator rating on Audible is consistently near perfect, hails from the UK. His voice is both intimate and intellectual, immediate and poetically lofty. In short, attending his performance is a pleasure.

The audiobook opens with a helpful glossary, introducing the listener to the international cast of characters that will populate the dynamic history. If fans of The Prime Ministers still hunger for more at the end of this recording, they can check out the full-length documentary film inspired by the memoir.

Publisher's summary

The Prime Ministers is the first and only insider account of Israeli politics from the founding of the Jewish State to the near-present day. It reveals stunning details of life-and-death decision-making, top-secret military operations and high level peace negotiations. The Prime Ministers brings listeners into the orbits of world figures, including Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana and the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Written in a captivating literary style by a political adviser, speechwriter and diplomat, The Prime Ministers is an enthralling political memoir, and a precisely crafted prism through which to view current Middle East affairs. The Prime Ministers presents first-hand accounts of major historical events, including:

  • Menachem Begin's decision to bomb Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor
  • Yitzhak Rabin's handling of the Entebbe rescue mission
  • The Egypt-Israel peace process
  • The shelling of the Irgun arms ship, the Altalena Deir Yessin

It offers keen observations of key personalities, and unforgettable descriptions of political rivalries, diplomatic blunders, White House and Buckingham Palace banquets and more, to bring Israel's history to life in a way no book has done before.

©2010 Yehuda Avner (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

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What listeners say about The Prime Ministers

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great and fascinating book, wrong narrator.

I started reading the dead tree version of the book and was completely hooked. I thought I knew the history well, but the author provides some fascinating insights and background color to some of the most monumental and historical events in the modern State of israel.

I don't know who decided to choose the narrator (who is actually a fine narrator - heard his other books) but he just can't do the hebrew and yiddish phrases peppered throughout the book. (After all this is a book about Israeli prime ministers, who were all natives of Eastern Europe -except one, Rabin). Even as a trilingual speaker, I had a hard time understanding his rendition or pronunciation of common hebrew and yiddish phrases, let alone the rich inflection necessary to convey the necessary nuance.

So overall, this is a fascinating and well written book that I would highly recommend. If the mispronunciation of the hebrew or yiddish will bother you, then think about the print version)

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Hard to Stop Listening - Gripping History

Would you listen to The Prime Ministers again? Why?

Absolutely. Ambassador Avner explains what it was like to be an insider in the Israeli government for over 20 years. He was very close to Menachim Begin who never wrote his memoirs. This may be as close as we can get to that.

What does Derek Perkins bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Excellent pronunciation and tone. He is British but when he recounts something uttered by an American his accent is quite convincing.

Any additional comments?

One of the best audiobooks I have had the pleasure to hear.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Annoying that....

Narrator does not know how to pronounce many common Hebrew and Yiddish words. Very annoying.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great informative book....reader...not as great

Would you consider the audio edition of The Prime Ministers to be better than the print version?

n/a

Any additional comments?

Book is very very informative-great book for those interested in an eye/ear witness account of happenings. The only issue is the reader and his mispronunciation of most Hebrew and Yiddish words. His non-command of "Jewish lingo" left me saddened and almost laughing in some places.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ed
  • 08-28-14

Reader should learn the dialect and pronunciation

Would you consider the audio edition of The Prime Ministers to be better than the print version?

have not read the print version, so do not know.

What did you like best about this story?

content and history

Would you be willing to try another one of Derek Perkins’s performances?

NO!!!

If you could give The Prime Ministers a new subtitle, what would it be?

?

Any additional comments?

The reader mispronounces hebrew and yiddish words, even people's names. Reader should check on correct pronunciation of unfamiliar word before embarking on this task. Might not be noticeable to some one unfamiliar with hebrew and yiddish, but makes it very difficult (almost, but not quite funny!) to listen to, for some who know the difference. AUDIBLE should get a new reader (Theodore Bikel?) and re-issue this book. Uncomfortable to listen to.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping

Only criticism is that the pronunciations of the Hebrew were often butchered. That could have and should have be caught and fixed.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Superb

Wonderful "fly on the wall" selections from Israel's modern history. Even if you are well versed in the history, the inside accounts are priceless. Irritating pronunciation of Hebrew words, but otherwise the reader was very engaging

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A must listen

The history was brought to life in this book. Thank you to the author for a great education

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Colourful storytelling - far from dull

At first I was hesitant to read this book, as a European who is from a newer era than these prime minsters, I thought it would be dull. I imagined a lot of biographical facts stacked on top of each other.

I couldn't have been more wrong. First of all, the narrator is simply the best narrator I have heard on an audio book. The book features countless dialogues, and he has a way of pulling you in to conversations by impersonating each person with great precision. He has a way of getting small character traits right, like Margret Thatcher's stubbornness, Ronald Reagan's smoothness and Menachem Begin's forceful delivery, without sounding like a parody of the person. I see some people complaining that he doesn't get the Hebrew and Yiddish right, but as someone who speaks neither of these languages it doesn't bother me.

As far as the content, it is more of a personal recollection than a regular biography. This style offers, because of Avner's position as ambassador to Great Britan and more, recountings of many memorable situations, such as a conversation between the authour, Margret Thatcher, princess Diana and either prime minister Begin or Rabin about the Jewish people (I forgot some of the details).

The only downside I can see is that mr. Avner was part of the Israeli leadership and that made him clearly biased. From my perspective, he had opinions that ranged from annoying (calling Jerusalem Israel's "eternal, undivided" capital) to downright disgusting (claiming that the Deir Yassin massacre is "misrepresented" and insinuating that the Arabs complain about it too much and claiming that Israel had no responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacre and that the casualties were in the hundreds when they were most likely in the thousands). Some of his opinions and lack of consideration for the Palestines made my blood boil slightly, but overall he is fairly balanced. Also, he could have written more about Rabin and Meir, but then again he did not work with them for as long as with Begin.

Overall I could not recommend this book more.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Exceptional

You'll love it! Moving story of a diplomat's travails with the leaders of Israel and the world. It is highly recommended.

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