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Sunday, June 1, 2008

· Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy, by Natan Sharansky (PublicAffairs, $26.95). Why a state founded on ethnic identity is compatible with democracy.

· Golda, by Elinor Burkett (Harper, $27.95). A new biography aims to reveal the woman behind the legend.

· A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel, by Gudrun Krämer (Princeton, $35). A German scholar's history of modern Palestine from 1800 to 1948.

· Jerusalem: City of Longing, by Simon Goldhill (Harvard, $27.95). A history of the holy city through its architecture.

· Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, by Saree Makdisi (Norton, $24.95). What daily life is like for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

· Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape, by Raja Shehadeh (Scribner, paperback, $15). A Palestinian Christian recounts his hikes.

· The Story of Israel: From Theodor Herzl to the Roadmap for Peace, by Martin Gilbert (Carlton, $45). An illustrated history.

Find More Reviews and Features in Books

War stripped of all its glory

In "The Good Soldiers," Pulitzer Prize winning reporter David Finkel faced an unenviable task in writing his on-the-ground account of war in Iraq.

Who do men say that I am?

Though too cursory to work as an intro to the Gospels, Mary Gordon's "Reading Jesus" should appeal to anyone who wants to wrestle with the problems and paradoxes of the New Testament.