The book is a detailed long-winded account of Israeli wars following seven paratroopers. The highlights include:
Kibbutz Ein Shemer becomes a character.
Ayn Rand (writer of The Fountain Head) is followed by some kibbutz members even though she’s anti-communist.
Secularism was considered temporary to revitalize the nation of Israel but eventually would yield to the longings of the Jewish soul for god.
Paratroopers roasted nonkosher porcupines!
Paratroopers were fighting along with rabbi’s and dealing with religious customs about The Mount. The fear of walking over sacred ground where the Great Temple stood.
Looting by Jews in the Old City of Arab stores?
Meir writing a song that’s a takeoff of Jerusalem of Gold
Refugees of Kfar Etzion kibbutz were told to avoid saying abba (translated father) in the presence of children without fathers. It was fraying so they had to disband.
For lovers of Jewish Israeli history this is a must read. For the rest of us maybe not so much.

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I bought this book when it was first published. Since then, I have been trying to finish it. I would read a chapter, and say "okay, maybe I'll find it more engaging in the next few pages." Then I'd finish the next chapter and say the same thing. After reading 2/3rds of the book, I'm calling it. #DNF. I would love to love it, but just couldn't. I guess sometimes we have readers block? ( )

Really different approach to Israel. Focuses on people in the 1967, Yom Kippur, etc wars. Not so much on the wars themselves. Very interesting to rad about kibbutznick, orthodox, military, civilians, etc. Author folllowed the same people through many parts of the founding of Israel. The varying viewpoints and opinions were really interesting. Good read. ( )

Really learned a lot about Israel after 1967. Found this book vivid in it's portrayal of this group of soldiers who represented various shades of political and religious communities. ( )

This is not so much a review of this book, but a reaction to it, albeit, from someone I don't think the author intended to read it. I'm neither an Israeli nor even a Jew. While I was once engaged to marry a self-described "Jewish princess" and I once studied Judaism in college, it would be best to discard the first fact -- it turns out it was a big misunderstanding...she didn't really like me -- and the college professor was emphatically biased toward Christianity and against every other religion. In short, I'm not well versed in the day-to-day nuances of modern Israeli history, and this book basically covers Israel for nearly 40 years, starting with 1967. Like the entire book, the author gives extra importance to a particular event, in this case the Six-Day War, and then embellishes that particular event to mean much more than it really does. He does this by choosing a handful of the paratroopers in that war, and then makes them represent all of Israeli society for the next few decades. In essence, he interlaces multiple biographies together, but with little of the obvious synchronization that might follow a more conventional history, such as all the cadets at West Point in, say 1846, that ended up fighting with or against each other a few years later in the American Civil War. Moreover, the book took a great many historical dates and religious customs for granted for the reader, going far beyond the handful of Jewish holidays that many Americans are familiar with. At times, it seems that nearly everyday and every location in Israel has some deep significance. And everyone seems to take offense that someone else isn't giving that significance due weight. If there is one aspect of this narrative that caught me most off guard, it was how much Israelis apparently dislike each other. There was only one subject of the mini biographies that struck me as more logical than emotional, and even he was chastised by his wife for not caring enough for others reactions to his actions. I'll offer two quotes from the book that get at the heart of the narrative. Almost inevitably the book draws out this conclusion, "How were Israelis to argue with restraint when both right and left were convinced that their opponents prevailed, the state would be not merely diminished but destroyed?" It's at this point the author tries to make this just two sides of an Israeli issue, when throughout the narrative, he repeatedly points out multiple shades of gray. In short, even if a person was supposedly on one side or other of the left/right line, each person also had multiple reasons for disagreeing with others on their "side" why and how they should be "left" or "right". Somewhat later in the book, the author points out, "...the left had been correct about the dangers of occupation, but the right had been correct about the chances of peace." I found this just a little bit funny that he was giving the "sides" so much credit, since neither "side" would have been willing to do so. And that's not even including the Palestinians or other Arabs into the discussion. In the end, I thought this was unnecessarily difficult to absorb, but, nevertheless, extremely enlightening and worthwhile for me to read. Frankly, I'm a bit disturbed that American news media has not done a better job of pointing out the issues raised in this book. ( )