The saga of Israel is fascinating, unique, and controversial. Yet the whole is constructed from individual episodes. This book concentrates on relating such episodes rather than narrating a formal, conventional history up until the present day. Each section deals with a different aspect of this journey through the decades. The chapters are based on the authors own articles, published over the last fifty years in many outlets, from The New York Times and The Jerusalem Post to The Guardian. Each section and essay is linked to the next by an explanatory introduction. Most subjects are often unconventional and unusual. They do not cover old ground and are often intentionally revelatory as they relate the history of Israel in a vivid, engaging way.

Colin Shindler was the first professor of Israel Studies in the UK and is emeritus professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the author ofThe Rise of the Israeli Right, winner of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy Book Prize for 2016.

IntroductionThe Making of Modern IsraelTel Aviv:Zerach Barnett and the Founding of the First Hebrew CityWorld War I and the Jewish QuestionThe Left and the Right: A 1933 Murder Mystery: The Killing of Haim ArlosoroffAvraham Stern and his GangThe Nation-BuildersIn the Beginning: Theodor HerzlChaim Weizmann and Vladimir JabotinskyDavid Gruen from PlonskThe Zionists and Pre-War NationalismThe GermansThe ItaliansThe IrishThe UkrainiansThe Road to IndependenceWorld War II and ZionismThe AftermathThe Debate over PartitionArieh Handler: Seeing Ben-Gurion proclaim the State of IsraelHow British Jews reacted to the Rise of IsraelIsrael in the Eyes of the History MakersDisraeli and a mythical ZionChurchill and the Jewish StateStalin and Soviet Jews: 1948-1953The Kennedys and the Promised LandRichard Nixon and the Yom Kippur WarThe Slow Disintegration of Labour ZionismImperialism, Zionism and Arab NationalismLabour Dissension after 1967Yigal AllonMoshe DayanAbba EbanThe Ascendency of the RightThe Persona of Menahem BeginBegin in PolandThe Irgun and afterAbba Ahimeir and the Attraction of FascismThe Influence of other StrugglesIsrael and Pariah RegimesTurning away from the pastThe AfrikanersThe ArgentiniansThe ChileansEvangelical ZionistsThe Legacies of Christianity and IslamThe American Religious Right and the LikudEvangelical Enthusiasm for IsraelThe Struggle for Soviet JewryThe Genesis of the Jewish ProblemHow the Soviet Jewry Movement StartedThe Change in Israeli policy and Jewish ActivismThe First Trials of Soviet JewsThe Village of IlyinkaHuman Rights and the USSRMarxist-Leninist ZionistsThe Use and Abuse of Political Psychiatry in the USSRSolzhenitsyn and Sakharov on the Jewish QuestionSpeaking to SharanskyThe Life and Death of Yitzhak RabinRabins Resurrection 1992Rabins Election and GovernmentThe Incitement by the RightThe Killing and its JustificationThe AftermathThe Mystery of Ariel SharonMr InconstituencyWho was Ariel Sharon?From Russia with LoveThe Drift to the RightThe Twilight YearsFrom Mr Hyde to Dr JekyllThe Islamist RejectionistsHamas and Palestinian ResistanceNegotiating with Hamas: An Exchange with Uri AvneriGaza under Hamas RuleHezbollah in the NorthIn the Company of CriticsCritical FriendsMargaret Thatcher, British Jews and IsraelNye Bevan and ZionDifferent Diaspora VoicesA History of DissentAfter 1945Jewish Apostates?Uncivil WarA Plethora of Jewish CriticsNon-Jewish Jews and IsraelIsaac Deutscher and Elisha Ben-AbuyaRalph Miliband and Jewish RealityEric Hobsbawm and 1940The Long March of the CorbynistasBoycott, Disinvestment and SanctionsThe Campaign and its OriginsThe Anti-Normalisation CampaignApartheid IsraelJewish Reaction to the BoycottTwenty First Century PoliticsThe Rise of the Far RightIn Government with Lieberman and BennettSupporting the RightRecognising Israel as a Jewish State