Most books on Israel are polemics, designed to attack or defend the actions of what is seen as an exceptional state. Isabel Kershner’s compelling insider’s analysis of populism, polarisation and a retreat from idealism under Benjamin Netanyahu has many uncomfortable echoes of Trump’s America and even Johnson’s Britain.
Born in Manchester and now a correspondent for the New York Times, Kershner has been based in Jerusalem since 1990. She therefore lived through the second intifada at the start of this century, when “the deadly booms of familiar neighbourhood cafes and bars blowing up reverberated through the living room”, and shared the anguish of other parents when her sons served in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
