Synopses & Reviews
Completing his acclaimed trilogy on the history of Israel, Leslie Stein brings readers right up to contemporary events in Israel Since the Six-Day War. Stein vividly chronicles Israel's wars and military engagements, but he also incorporates fascinating assessments of many other issues, including Israel’s economic development, the nature of the PLO and Palestinian Authority, and Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Furthermore, Stein explores broader social issues, such as extremist Jewish movements and the varying fortunes of migrants from Russia and Ethiopia, to convey clearly a sense of the diversity and complexity of modern Israel.
Wide-ranging and judicious, Stein's cogent and compellingly readable account of Israel’s recent past will engage students and general readers alike.
Review
"This account of Israel in war and peace during these difficult times is exceptional. Professor Stein treats Israel’s successes and its failures with equal care, and brings massive evidence to support his judgments. He has taken to heart the ground rule of historiography, which is to describe things as they really are. This has to be the beginning of wisdom where the Middle East is concerned."
—David Pryce-Jones, former senior editor of National Review, former literary editor of the Financial Times and of the Spectator and author of The Closed Circle
"Beautifully written, informative and authoritative, this book is a little treasure that ought to be read by all those interested in Israel and the Middle East."
—Ahron Bregman, Kings College London
"Leslie Stein's book on the history of Israel since 1967 is a thorough, comprehensive and well documented study embracing the political, intellectual, economic, military and social history of the country. With a deep understanding of the issues at hand, Stein has produced the most up to date general survey of Israel's contemporary history with the added bonus that it is written in a fluent and pleasing style."
—Raphael Israeli, Professor at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem
"With this volume Leslie Stein completes his impressive trilogy on Israel’s remarkable rebirth, bringing the story to the present. Focusing on the international dimension since 1967, Stein gets under the surface and provides reasoned explanation rather than simple dry facts. Israeli perspectives - emphasis on the plural - have seldom been as well delineated. Above all, Stein tells the story with exemplary clarity and exceptional readability, making this a book to be enthusiastically recommended to both general readers and students."
—Alan Dowty, Emeritus Professor at the University of Notre Dame
"A historically tense book. After all, no country in the world other than Israel lives among enemies united only to destroy it. Leslie Stein’s narrative is intricate and also clearheaded. It is the clear-headedness of Zion’s leaders against whom politicians and diplomats lodge all kinds of complaints. But we are coming to realize that the Arab orbit around Israel is a disaster, and peace with it more of a risk than an opportunity. This is not just a devastating chronicle. It is an enhancing revelation."
—Martin Peretz, former long-standing editor-in-chief of The New Republic
About the Author
Leslie Stein was educated at the London School of Economics, and was associate professor at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia until his recent retirement. He is the author of The Hope Fulfilled: The Rise of Modern Israel and The Making of Modern Israel, 1948-1967. He served as the editor of Praeger Press’s series on Israeli and Jewish Studies in 2003-6, and has been an academic visitor to the economics department of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem on a number of occasions.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Early Aftermath of the Six Day War
Chapter 2 The War of Attrition and the Prelude to the Yom Kippur War
Chapter 3 The Yom Kippur War
Chapter 4 Major Events over the years 1974-1979
Chapter 5 The Decade of the 1980’s
Chapter 6 The Fateful 1990’s
Chapter 7 The al Aqsa Intifada
Chapter 8 Beyond the al-Aqsa Intifada
Chapter 9 Social and Economic Developments
Conclusion
Appendix: General Election Results