Ahron Bregman was born in Israel in 1958. A Captain in the Israeli army during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, he was promoted to Major after the war but then retired from the military to study at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and work as a parliamentary assistant at the Knesset. After being awarded a PhD by the Department of War Studies, King's College, London in 1994, he taught at various institutions of higher education. He is the author of three books about Israel and the Arabs: The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs (with Jihan el Tahiri, Penguin, 1998); Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947 (Routledge 1999, new edition 2002); and A History of Israel (Palgrave, Macmillan, 2002). He is also writing a definitive History of the Occupied Territories for Penguin. A contributor to national newspapers in Britain and the US, he lives in London.