Son of the Cypresses : Memories, Reflections, and Regrets from a Political Life

"Now that I am seventy years of age, it is my prerogative to offer a summing up," says Meron Benvenisti, internationally known author and columnist, Jerusalem native, and scion of Israel's founders.

Born in Palestine in 1934 to a Sephardic father and an Ashkenazi mother, Benvenisti has enjoyed an unusual vantage point from which to consider his homeland's conflicts and controversies.

Part memoir and part political polemic, "Son of the Cypresses" threads Benvenisti's own story through that of Israel.

The result is a sharply drawn eyewitness account of pre-state Jerusalem and Israel's early years.

In remembering his life as an Israeli sabra, Benvenisti offers a vivid record of the historical roots of the conflict that persists today.