Women in Israel are usually seen by the world as being among the most liberated, but this is far from the truth. Unfortunately the cover picture of a beautiful young woman in combat-dress, backed by a stern Golda Meir, epitomises the very myth of liberation which the author is at some pains to explode in the text.

The attitudes of Jewish men and women to each other have been formed by their religion. Ancient Judaic law has always regarded women as men's property, and to some extent the modern state of Israel is still dominated by a tiny, but politically effective