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 author's 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.
Introduction 1.The Making of Modern Israel Tel Aviv: Zerach Barnett and the Founding of the First Hebrew City World War I and the Jewish Question The Left and the Right: A 1933 Murder Mystery: The Killing of Haim Arlosoroff Avraham Stern and his 'Gang' 2.The Nation-Builders In the Beginning: Theodor Herzl Chaim Weizmann and Vladimir Jabotinsky David Gruen from Plonsk 3.The Zionists and Pre-War Nationalism The Germans The Italians The Irish The Ukrainians 4.The Road to Independence World War II and Zionism The Aftermath The Debate over Partition Arieh Handler: Seeing Ben-Gurion proclaim the State of Israel How British Jews reacted to the Rise of Israel 5.Israel in the Eyes of the History Makers Disraeli and a mythical Zion Churchill and the Jewish State Stalin and Soviet Jews: 1948-1953 The Kennedys and the Promised Land Richard Nixon and the Yom Kippur War 6.The Slow Disintegration of Labour Zionism Imperialism, Zionism and Arab Nationalism Labour Dissension after 1967 Yigal Allon Moshe Dayan Abba Eban 7.The Ascendency of the Right The Persona of Menahem Begin Begin in Poland The Irgun and after Abba Ahimeir and the Attraction of Fascism The Influence of other Struggles 8.Israel and Pariah Regimes Turning away from the past The Afrikaners The Argentinians The Chileans 9.Evangelical Zionists The Legacies of Christianity and Islam The American Religious Right and the Likud Evangelical Enthusiasm for Israel 10.The Struggle for Soviet Jewry The Genesis of the Jewish Problem How the Soviet Jewry Movement Started The Change in Israeli policy and Jewish Activism The First Trials of Soviet Jews The Village of Ilyinka 11.Human Rights and the USSR Marxist-Leninist Zionists The Use and Abuse of Political Psychiatry in the USSR Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov on the Jewish Question Speaking to Sharansky 12.The Life and Death of Yitzhak Rabin Rabin's Resurrection 1992 Rabin's Election and Government The Incitement by the Right The Killing and its Justification The Aftermath 13.The Mystery of Ariel Sharon Mr 'Inconstituency' Who was Ariel Sharon? From Russia with Love The Drift to the Right The Twilight Years From Mr Hyde to Dr Jekyll 14.The Islamist Rejectionists Hamas and Palestinian Resistance Negotiating with Hamas: An Exchange with Uri Avneri Gaza under Hamas Rule Hezbollah in the North 15.In the Company of Critics Critical Friends Margaret Thatcher, British Jews and Israel Nye Bevan and Zion 16.Different Diaspora Voices A History of Dissent After 1945 Jewish Apostates? Uncivil War A Plethora of Jewish Critics 17.Non-Jewish Jews and Israel Isaac Deutscher and Elisha Ben-Abuya Ralph Miliband and Jewish Reality Eric Hobsbawm and 1940 The Long March of the Corbynistas 18.Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions The Campaign and its Origins The Anti-Normalisation Campaign Apartheid Israel Jewish Reaction to the Boycott 19.Twenty First Century Politics The Rise of the Far Right In Government with Lieberman and Bennett Supporting the Right Recognising Israel as a Jewish State
