From its foundation in 1948, Israel has persuaded key opinion-leaders in the USA and Europe to join in the chorus of its state myth: that Israel, surrounded by aggressor Arab states, sought only peace. However, increasingly a new school of Israeli historians are exposing this view as inaccurate. Trawling through Cabinet minutes, private diaries and interviewing eye-witnesses, the revisionists have shown that from 1948 onward Israel was repeatedly intransigent and that Arab leaders were far more willing to talk peace than is realized. Now, for the first time, it is Israelis telling Israelis...

A History of Israel examines Israel's turbulent history from the first Zionist Congress in 1897 to the present day. The driving themes of this masterly account are Jewish immigration, war, and attempts to forge peace between Israelis, Arabs and Palestines. Bregman also uses his experience as a journalist to expose secrets never previously published to support his compelling narrative. There is a rare extract from a radio exchange between air control and Israeli pilots on the fourth day of the Six Day War, showing that the Israelis did realize that the ship they were bombing was the...