This is the title of the book of the Moscow Publishing House "Muravei". The author of the book is a well-known international journalist Konstantin Kapitonov. This is the first attempt to study in complex the role of personality in the present life of Israel. It consists of a number of essays reflecting the life and activities of outstanding Israeli personalities. The author has chosen those who built Israel and who are playing an important role in the present life of Israel.

Separate chapters are about the author of the anthem of Israel Naftali Gerts Imber, about the officer of the Russian Imperial army Joseph Trumpeldor who perished long before the proclamation of the State of Israel. There are some stories about the "Iron lady" of the Middle East Golda Meir and about the most popular (at least in the USSR) at the end of the 1960-1970's general Moshe Dayan.

The chapter "Presidents" includes two essays. One is about the 7th President Ezer Veitsman, the second article is on the 8th one - Moshe Katsav. The chapter "Prime Ministers" tells us about Ariel Sharon, Yitzchak Rabin, Yitzchak Shamir, Shimon Peres, Binyamin Netanyahu and Ekhud Barak.

Of particular interest is the chapter called "The knights of cape and dagger". It is about 9 directors of the Israeli secret service MOSSAD: from the first - Reuver Shilokh to the last - Efraim Galevi who resigned not long ago. The art of describing a political portrait of a public or state leader is not a simple genre in social and political literature. The difficulty is not only in choosing the right personality and collecting data on his personal life for analysis. The difficulty is to avoid mere description of one's biography but to "harmonize" this personality with the context of the political and social situation in Israel. The author has achieved it successfully!

It is not surprising. Konstantin Kapitonov (born in 1946) graduated from the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations (Arab section of the department of journalism). Still a student, he collaborated with the "Izvestia" newspaper and was invited after the graduation to work as a correspondent of its foreign department.

In late 1975 he began working for the "Trud" newspaper. From 1976 to 1981 he was an accredited correspondent of this newspaper in Egypt. From 1982 till 1988 he was an accredited correspondent of "Literaturnaya Gazeta" in Lebanon. At present, he is an accredited correspondent of the "Rossiya" newspaper in Israel and also a stringer at the newspaper "VREMYA MN" and at the radio station "Echo of Moscow". He cooperates with a number of Russian-speaking foreign editions - "Russkaya mysl'"(France), "VESTNIK"(USA), "YSJ"(Canada).