Certain to fascinate anyone intrigued about the future of the Middle East, these revealing memoirs of Shimon Peres, former Israeli Minister of Defense and winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, tell of his relationships with Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, and others whom he encountered during his amazing career.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this hopeful autobiographical memoir, Israel's current foreign minister discusses his behind-the-scenes negotiations that helped cement the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian accord, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. Born in 1923 in Poland, Peres followed his family to Palestine in the 1930s after his father, a lumber merchant, was forced out of business by punitive tax assessments. He writes about his formative years on a kibbutz and his role as head of arms procurement for the new Israeli army, providing a firsthand account of the birth of Israel. Peres, defense minister in the 1970s and later Israel's prime minister, uses diary excerpts to recreate his orchestration of Israel's rescue of passengers on a French plane hijacked by PLO terrorists and flown to Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976. He also settles scores with political rivals Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin (in whose government he currently serves) and reveals that in 1987 he held secret talks with King Hussein of Jordan in London to launch a peace conference without the PLO?an aborted plan whose failure he blames on U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
An entertaining memoir by a politician seems an oxymoron. But beyond his active role in Israel's--and world--history for more than 50 years, Peres is a gifted storyteller, able to sketch in a few lines the remarkable figures who enliven his narrative: Ben-Gurion and Meir, Dayan and Begin, Mitterrand, Brandt, and Kreisky, and various U.S. leaders. Peres adeptly deploys humanizing details--why, as a kibbutz herder, he preferred sheep over cows or how Dimona in the Negev Desert was prepared for the nuclear reactor Peres had convinced France to sell Israel--to tie details of arms procurement and political infighting to more mundane realities. His story is rich in drama: war and intifada, terrorism and the Entebbe raid, Irangate and "the long search for peace," for which Peres shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Yasser Arafat of the PLO. Battling for Peace responds calmly to ugly charges against Peres in Labor Party rival Yitzhak Rabin's 1979 autobiography, but harshly criticizes Likud leaders Begin--for failing to control Ariel Sharon's tactics in Lebanon--and Yitzhak Shamir (Summing Up, 1994) for destroying a hopeful opening toward peace that Peres negotiated in 1987 with King Hussein of Jordan. Insider's history at its best. Mary Carroll
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Battling for Credibility,
By "sharplawyer" (London, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Battling for Peace:: A Memoir (Hardcover)
Is Israel's perennial loser perhaps a winner after all? It is said that people take comfort from the setbacks of others and after his failure to win any election making him PM it would be easy to write off Shimon Peres.His autobiography "Battling for Peace" shows how a very ambitious politician uses reverses to strengthen his political backbone. Peres describes his early childhood in Poland, his emigration to Palestine and his political progress which started even while he was on a Kibbutz. Peres has been at the core of world politics for half a century and has met all other leaders of significance and his pen portraits especially of Mitterand Nixon and Clinton are most entertaining. The Olso process is reported in detail and this book is a must for anybody who wishes to acquaint temselves with the twisting currents of events in the Middle East. The book is obviously only an interim Report as it predates Rabins assassination.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Better To Read What Rabin Said About Peres...,
By givbatam3 "givbatam3" (REHOVOT Israel) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Battling for Peace:: A Memoir (Hardcover)
It was the murdered Yitzhak Rabin who described his perenniel
rival and sometimes partner, Shimon Peres, the best: "the inveterate underminer" (quoted from Rabin's autobiography). Peres is the quientessential politician who has no charisma or ideas of his own, but who works hard, harder than any of his rivals, and through endless intrigues, makes sure to place people loyal to him in positions of power and influence, so that when the time comes and he decides to make his move for power, those who oppose him are strongarmed (or worse) out of his way. Peres played a major role in building Israel's defense establishment and defense industries, and in addition served an outstanding term as Prime Minister in the years 1984-1986, but this wasn't enough for his immense ego. He wanted international recognition as a "statesman", and in a world largely hostile to the idea of a "Jewish State", he came to realize that true international approbriation comes NOT to Israelis like Ben-Gurion, Eshkol or Golda Meir, who built up Israel, but rather to those who begin to dismantle it. It truly galled him that his Likud opposite number Menachem Begin won the so-called Nobel "Peace" Prize for destroying Jewish communities in the Sinai and giving up Israel's only supply of oil to Sadat who had no intention of honoring his "Peace" agreement with Israel, so he decided to outdo Begin by bringing mass-murderer Yasser Arafat and his terrorist gangs to Israel, giving them money, weapons, and territory from which to attack Israel. Peres denounced those who did not fall into his trap as "murderers of peace", "fascists", and the such. Peres managed to convince, bribe or threaten enough Knesset members to support this madness and got the Israeli government to carry out this suicidal policy. Sure enough, Arafat launched his long-awaited terrorist war in September 2000 and it has claimed THOUSANDS of Israeli dead and wounded. Yet, in spite of this, there is not a single word of regret of remorse from Peres and he still sits near the pinnnacle of power. Peres has lost, to the best of my knowledge, every single secret-ballot election (either to the Knesset or the leadership of the Labor Party) he ever ran in where he was opposed by a serious candidate. However, in open votes, he fairs better because those who openly oppose him, often fall victim to police investigations, criminal proceedings (whether they are actually guilty of anything is irrelevant), slander in the media or worse. If you really are interested in finding out about Peres' influence on Israeli politics, I strongly urge you to read Rabin's autobiography. That will give a much clearer view of this man.
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