The wave of Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel in the 1920's shaped the character of the future state more than any other. Including such notables as Ben Gurion and Golda Meir, young idealists came and through their back-breaking labor, they turned the desert into a nation. But the Arabs would not accept this influx of Jews peaceably and began a campaign of terror, riots, and pogroms. Most tragically of all, the British response was to restrict Jewish immigration at a time when escape from Europe was becoming more and more of an imperative.

• resisting the lure of cheap Arab labor; a battle since lost
• Menachem Ussishkin - sweeping steps with the janitor
• socialism and the kibbutz
• Jabotinsky and Revisionist Zionism
• Trumpeldor and the battle of Tel Hai
• the birth of the Haganah
• how the Arab riot of 1929 caused the British to back down