No Room for Small Dreams

In 1934, eleven-year-old Shimon Peres emigrated to the land of Israel from his native Poland, leaving behind an extended family that would later be murdered in the Holocaust. Few back then would have predicted that this young man would later become one of the towering figures of the Twentieth Century. Peres would eventually serve the new nation as Prime Minister, President, Foreign Minister, and head of several other ministries. He was central in the establishment of the Israeli Defense Force and the defense industry that would provide the young nation with a robust deterrent power. He was crucial to launching Israel's nuclear energy program, and the creation of its high-tech, "Start Up Nation" revolution. His refusal to surrender to conventional wisdom and political conventions helped save the Israeli economy and prompted some of the most daring military operations in history, among them the legendary "Raid on Entebbe". And yet as important his role in creating and deploying...