Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world’s attention, aroused its imagination, and lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future?
We cannot answer these questions until we understand Israel’s people and the questions and conflicts, the hopes and desires, that have animated their conversations and actions. Though Israel’s history is rife with conflict, these conflicts do not fully communicate the spirit of Israel and its people: they give short shrift to the dream that gave birth to the state, and to the vision for the Jewish people that was at its core.
Introduction: A Grand Human Story
Chapter 1. Poetry and Politics: The Jewish Nation Seeks a Home
Chapter 2. Some Spot of a Native Land
Chapter 3. A Conversation, Not an Ideology: Zionist Divisions at the Turn of the Century
Chapter 4. From a Dream to Glimmers of Reality
Chapter 5. The Balfour Declaration: The Empire Endorses the State
Chapter 6. Nowhere to Go, Even If They Could Leave
Chapter 7. The Yishuv Resists the British, the Arabs Battle Partition
Chapter 8. Independence: The State Is Born
Chapter 9. From Dreams of a State to the Reality of Statehood
Chapter 10. Israel Enters the International Arena
Chapter 11. Israel Confronts the Holocaust
Chapter 12. Six Days of War Change a Country Forever
Chapter 13. The Burden of Occupation
Chapter 14. Yom Kippur War: The “Conception” Crashes
Chapter 15. Revolution Within the Revolution: The Rise and Revenge of Israel’s Political Right
Chapter 16. Taking a Page from the Zionists: The Rise of Palestinian Nationalism
Chapter 17. The Peace Process Stalls
Chapter 18. A Jewish Renaissance in the Jewish State
Conclusion: A Century After Balfour—“A National Home for the Jewish People”
Appendix A: Glossary of People Mentioned
Appendix B: Glossary of Non-English Terms
Appendix C: Israel’s Declaration of Independence
Appendix D: Israeli Prime Ministers and the American and Israeli Presidents with Whom They Worked
Appendix E: Israeli Political Parties and Their Changing Balance of Power