Ari Shavit's history of Israel is more like chatty, long-form journalism than a traditional history, but it is thoughtful and well-informed. Shavit is both a devoted patriot and a thoughtful critic, an exponent of a middle ground -- albeit from a distinctly Israeli point of view -- which is quite refreshing after the usual shrill rhetoric on both sides of the Arab/Israeli conflict. Shavit is mindful of how the dispossessed became the dispossessors, how Israel's fragile military superiority potentially fuels a regional arms race, and how Israel's origins and its occupation have corroded the Zionist enterprise both practically and morally. At the same time, he paints a vivid picture of a dynamic society with a rich culture that has succeed in creating an improbable nation against implacable odds. Shavit's subtitle is "triumph and tragedy," and he seems keenly aware that Israel's triumph may yet turn to another Jewish tragedy if it cannot resolve contradictions both internal and external. Shavit sees Israel as surrounded by concentric circles of threats -- external, primarily in the form of Iran; closer to home in the brutal struggle to maintain an unjust occupation among a population uprooted for more than half a century, and internal as the political scene is fractured among a multiplicity of parties of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. Devoted as he is to his country, Shavit projects an agonized concern over its future. The book is a nuanced perspective on an Israeli point of view too often caricatured by both the right wing hawks and religious fundamentalists in America on the one hand and the left wing critics who see the country only through the lens of the occupation to the exclusion of the country's desperate struggle to survive in a hostile environment. In the end, however, Shavit seems deeply pessimistic about the ability of his country to wean itself from the self-destructive occupation and come to terms with the dark side of its success.