The state of Israel has endured contentious warfare for its entire existence. No sooner had it been declared in May 1948 than it became involved in a struggle for survival, fighting its neighbours in a ferocious clash. This was the first Arab-Israeli war, but it would be far from the last. Shifting Sands traces the history of the successive Arab-Israeli conflicts: from the sidelines of the Suez crisis, through the lightning Six-Day War, the guerilla-like War Of Attrition and the strategic surprise of the Yom Kippur War, all the way to the historic Osirak raid and the…