Israelis today who grew up after its economic take-off in the 1980s have no experience of the extraordinary struggles that Peres describe. As a child in Poland, inspired by Zionism; emigrating to Israel at age 11 and thus escaping the massacres during Nazi occupation, which wiped out family members who stayed behind. Growing up in British mandated Palestine already marked by conflict and violence between Jews and Arabs. Pioneering work on a kibbutz, first in back-breaking agriculture and then raising sheep, while joining the socialist movement. Training for war in the Haganah—the armed underground; the bitter war of 1948—fought while resettling desperate refugees—and in which one per cent of the population was killed. Being catapulted into the leadership ranks of Israel at 25, procuring arms for the newly independent state—first from Czechoslovakia, then from black markets, then the US, and finally as director-general of the Defence Ministry, from France. The wars of 1967 and 1973, the fight against terror, including the audacious raid that freed hostages at Entebbe airport 2,000 miles from Tel Aviv.