Between Hope & Fear

In 1993, Israelis dared to imagine peace. Thirty years later, they woke to the deadliest day in their history. This is the story of what happened in between. From the handshake on the White House lawn to the sirens of October 7 and the wars that followed, Between Hope and Fear tells the story of modern Israel's most consequential era — three decades in which the country buried a prime minister, fought two intifadas and a dozen wars, absorbed a million immigrants, and somehow built one of the most dynamic economies on earth while rockets fell on its cities. Marc Schulman — historian, 10-year columnist at newsweekly, author of "Tel Aviv Diary", and a resident of Tel Aviv — chronicles each year as it was lived: the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the suicide bombings and the security barrier, the disengagement from Gaza, the rise of Benjamin Netanyahu, the startup-nation boom, the judicial crisis that brought hundreds of thousands into the streets, and then October 7, 2023 — the massacre, the hostages, the war on seven fronts, and the confrontation with Iran that followed. The book which is a year by year narrative of political, military and social developments also presents a narrative of the explosive growth if Israel’s Hi-Tech economy. Written from inside the story — from a city where the author counted the seconds between siren and interception — this is neither polemic nor eulogy. It is the account of a nation that lived, year by year, between hope and fear.