Ten years have passed since this book was completed. Those ten years have seen a surfeit of history in this land that, since creation of the Jewish State in 1948, has known—has been allowed—too little peace and quiet. Yet amid the conflict that sometimes seems almost to overwhelm the enthusiasms and hopes of Jewish statehood, progress is made, aspirations are fulfilled, the path to peace is still being taken. It is my hope that the two extra chapters, taking the story up almost to the sixtieth anniversary of statehood, will show not only the perils, fears and setbacks of the last ten years, but also the lines of a beneficent future.
Martin Gilbert
Merton College
Oxford
10 December 2007