On October 7, 2023, Israel paid the bill for thirty years of Western complacency in a single morning. The peace dividend had been spent. Alliances were hollow. Foreign policy was paper promises made to adversaries who never believed history was over.
The Russians did not see reason. The Iranians did not see reason. China built its own world while Davos applauded. Crimea, the JCPOA, 9/11, the Second Intifada, Natanz - every warning was read past. The same political class is still in the room.
Holiday From History is the forensic account: how the post-Cold War West convinced itself history had ended, why the warnings did not break the spell, and what the collapse now reveals about the institutions meant to defend free nations. Uriel Zehavi names the architects, the doctrines, the decisions, and the cost - from Oslo's empty handshake to Iran's centrifuges, from Sykes-Picot to the Soviet vocabulary still running through Western universities, from Hezbollah's 2006 preview to the October 7 morning that made the preview unmistakable.
A book about Israel because Israel paid first. A book about the West because the West built the delusion that put everyone in range. The holiday is over.
