4.0

Beautifully written and thoughtfully composed. Shavit gives a truly in-depth, personalised history of the creation of Israel, much of which looks at several different, and often conflicting, perspectives.

My only issue was the chapter on the threat of Iran, which I felt was really quite exaggerated, and played into many conceptions I have of Israel as a paranoid state. I would very much like to hear Shavit's opinions following the Iran nuclear deal of 2015.

This is still a beautiful book, written in a style to be understood by Israel experts and those new to the subject. One of the best non-fiction books I have read all year