Out Of Palestine : The Making Of Modern Israel

Hadara Lazar, a prominent Israeli journalist, has been interviewing
witnesses to the historic events of 1948 for a quarter of a century in an
effort to understand the sources of this intractable enmity. Her book, a
series of in-depth conversations with Israelis, Arabs, and British
political figures who lived through the end of the British Mandate and the
founding of the Jewish state is less a work of history than a chorus of
distinctive voices: among Hadara's subjects are lawyers, policemen,
intellectuals, soldiers, teachers, and housewives. She visits her subjects
in their offices and homes, evokes their personalities, and brings them
alive as characters in a drama with no last act. Out of Palestine is the
most vivid, comprehensive account we have of how Israel became Israel.