Very well done book. Got a lot of history about Israel. History about the fringe groups in Gaza and the West Bank. The alternating chapters about Rabin and the crazy killer was very engaging. Also didn’t realize or remember how close the Oslo accords were possibly creating peace between Israel and the Palestinians. hard to believe how far we have come since getting so close ( )

The story of the assassination of Yitzak Rabin and the political culture surrounding it. Rabin’s death took a moment of real opportunity and destroyed it, which was exactly what his assassin wanted to do. Ephron looks at the religious nonsense with which the assassin justified his actions—Rabin supposedly posed an existential threat to the Jewish people, making his killing an act of self-defense. It’s a hard book to read, because while peace was by no means guaranteed, it was closer than it has been since. ( )