A Masterpiece
This is the best one volume history of Zionism and Israel I have read. I found Gilbert's "Israel" to be an unreadable hash, as if it were translated from an obscure Phillipine dialect into English by a computer. Laquer's prose (in "Zionism")is passable, the book serviceable but no more than that.
O'Brien's prose is lively. The actors walk the planet. Historical underpinnings are set in place as a foundation.
O'Brien tells the tale through the mid 1980s and I regret he will not now get an opportunity to bring the story forward.