Includes bibliographical references (pages 595-604).

I. Jerusalem: "a time to mourn and a time to dance" -- Decision at Flushing Meadow -- "At last we are a free people." -- "Papa has returned." -- Two passengers of Prague -- Two peoples, two armies -- "We will strangle Jerusalem." -- II. Jerusalem: a house against itself -- "Are we not neighbors ...?" -- The Santa Claus of the Haganah -- Journey to absurdity -- "Bab El Wad on the road to the city" -- Golda Meir's twenty-five "Stephans" -- "Salvation comes from the sky" -- "We shall become as hard as stone." -- A flash of white light -- An unlikely Lawrence -- The haberdasher from Kansas City -- The convoy will not arrive -- III. Jerusalem: a city besieged -- A house in the middle of hell -- "Hang on to Jerusalem with your teeth." -- Six words on a bumper -- "One of the Arabs we killed last night" -- The peace of Deir Yassin -- "Shalom, my dear ..." -- "Attack and attack and attack." -- A message from Glubb Pasha -- "We shall come back." -- "Throw stones and die." -- By just one vote -- The last supper -- The fifth day of Iyar -- IV. A city divided -- "These shall stand." "The most beautiful month of the year" -- "Go save Jerusalem." -- "A lament for a generation" -- "Yosef has saved Jerusalem!" -- "Take Latrun." -- Ticket to a promised land -- "Execute your task at all costs." The wheatfields of Latrun -- " ... Remember me only in happiness" -- "Good night and goodbye from Jerusalem" -- "We'll open a new road." -- "The Arab people will never forgive us." -- A toast to the living -- The thirty-day pause -- The flawed trumpet.

The epic drama of 1948, in which the Arabs and the Jews, heirs to generations of bitter conflict in a land sacred to them both, fought each other for the city of Jerusalem and for the hopes of fulfillment it represented to each. Here, for the first time is an account of that struggle which encompasses the full spectrum of its participants.