"Once in the military system, Israelis never fully exit," writes the prizewinning journalist Patrick Tyler in the prologue to "Fortress Israel." "They carry the military identity for life, not just through service in the reserves until age forty-nine . . . but through lifelong expectations of loyalt[...]

A group portrait of the political class that has created Israel's identity and strategy since the birth of the nation, and a look inside the collective militaristic mindset that sustains it[...]