In the public eye, at least in Israel, I am often seen through the lens of my incarceration-as the first prime minister to have ended up in prison. But sixteen months is a brief period of time, and when 1 look back on a career spanning five decades, I know that I have been blessed to take part in the history of my country.... It was more than just a ringside seat. In a wide range of areas, from the development of trade and health policy to the municipal life of the most important and controversial city on earth, I was given the opportunity to make a real impact through decisions that rested on my own shoulders. As prime minister, I led my country in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, which, though controversial at the time, has given our northern communities a decade and a half of peace. I directed a successful military strike in 2007 to eliminate the possibility of Syria having a nuclear weapon-which would have affected not just Israel but the entire world, especially after Syria later descended into an unthinkable chaos. In the story that follows, I will also delve into the circumstances of my legal downfall-the forces behind it, which included major players not just in Israel but also in the United States; the deluge of cases that suddenly appeared when I became prime minister but none of which pertained to anything I allegedly did while in that office; and the long-term implications of how money and ideology can distort the democratic process, not just in Israel but around the world. And most important perhaps, I led the most serious, ambitious effort to reach a final peace agreement with the Palestinians-to fulfill the deepest and most urgent aspirations of both the Israeli and the Palestinian people. This effort came within a hair's breadth of resolving the world's most vexing conflict and changing the fate of both our peoples. But to understand any of it, it's important to first take a look at the world in which 1 was born, in the years before the founding of Israel, when the land was still ruled by the British, and the State of Israel was itself still a dream. We need to go back to the beginning. Book jacket.