The Best of Enemies: Memoirs of Bassam Abu-Sharif and Uzi Mahnaimi [Hardcover]

Bassam Abu-Sharif (Author), Uzi Mahnaimi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1995

A onetime Palestinian terrorist and a former Israeli intelligence officer tell how, together, they renounced the use of arms and violence and helped bring about the 1993 peace accord between the PLO and Israel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mahnaimi was an Israeli intelligence officer who recruited Arab agents; after his resignation from the Israeli Army in 1984, he became a left-wing journalist. Abu-Sharif helped mastermind terrorist spectaculars. Later, as Yasir Arafat's closest adviser (he has been mentioned as the PLO leader's possible successor), he supplied Mahnaimi with inside information about Arafat's growing willingness to renounce violence and recognize the state of Israel. This daring arrangement grew out of their mutual conviction that an historic compromise between Israelis and Palestinians was imperative. Both men were harshly denounced for their early stand on this thorniest of issues. As they explain in their eloquent double memoir, the 1993 handshake on the White House lawn between Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was the culmination of everything these two unlikely collaborators had been working toward since their first meeting, in 1988. These exceptional men movingly reveal in these pages how they shed ingrained patterns of thought and came to appreciate the viewpoint of the "other side." Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (September 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316004014
• ISBN-13: 978-0316004015
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,856,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book written by two ex-sworn enemies, December 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Best of Enemies: Memoirs of Bassam Abu-Sharif and Uzi Mahnaimi (Hardcover)

I found the book extremely interesting and enriching. At the beginning the two writers were extremely divergent, and then became slowly close in thinking and outlook. I found very interesting the parts where Uzi writes about intelligence and Shin Bet tactics, and those where Bassam talks about the revolutionary years and Wadih Haddad. Bassam and Uzi are clearly very proactive, seeing and sensing things much before other people are able to. This book, written by an Israeli and a Palestinian, is a step forward towards concensus in the Middle Eastern quagmire. Such a book would have been unthinkable of only a few years ago. It takes a strong courage to write, because the mentality of the people involved is not yet mature enough to accept peace with all the concessions it entails. The life of these two authors and men of action must be anything but a smoothly flowing river.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, June 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Best of Enemies: Memoirs of Bassam Abu-Sharif and Uzi Mahnaimi (Hardcover)

This is one book that any person professing to be open simply HAS to read, if they ever want to appreciate living in a multi racial society. It is rich as it is blunt, extreme as it is honest. Only if you have lived as one or the other, and wondered if you or anyone else ever were "the rightous ones", this is the way forward. It doesn't matter if you think your society is already well adapted or otherwise to differences. By exploring the extremes we consider the subtles, and this book works well to show how things we take for granted passing down to our children can only serve to reinforce long term prejudices, which will only serve to divide. READ IT!

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most honest books I have every read, January 5, 2009

By 

Coder (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of Enemies: Memoirs of Bassam Abu-Sharif and Uzi Mahnaimi (Hardcover)

I first read this several years ago, shortly after the September 11th attacks. No one will truly understand the hard-core terrorists until they read this book. Bassam is the perfect person to write this, having been present at many of the early meetings of the PLO and other forerunners of Hamas.

Terrorist tactics have always been present since the earliest times. Several cultures have waged terroistic campaigns of various lengths, both religious and secular. But most of them I would not equate with "true terrorism", because in early times war was how EVERYTHING spread (including knowledge, trade, enlightenment, many times even a better life for civilians). Some of them, though, I would.

You will NEVER understand that Hamas and Al-Qaida do NOT want peace in any way, shape, or reform -- only revenge -- as long as you listen to "apoligists" who insist their actions are because of U.S. and Israel policies. That's bull! Read about the earliest meetings of the forerunner of the PLO!

At some of the earliest meetings, when the United States and other countries WEREN'T EVEN INVOLVED IN THE MIDDLE EAST, the PLO literally DREAMED of terroist attacks killing thousands of INNOCENT CIVILIANS for the sole purpose of GETTING THE WORLD'S ATTENTION, BECAUSE THE FELT NO ONE KNEW OR CARED WHAT WAS HAPPENINING IN THE MIDDLE EAST while they were so busy fighting World War II!

By their own admission, they wanted to kill innocent civilians! By their own admission, it was because the rest of the world wasn't involved in the Middle East or paying any attention to it!

Once Israel became a state, they literally DREAMED of ONE DAY, FLYING A BUNCH OF JET PLANES FILLED WITH FUEL AND PASSENGERS INTO THE TALLEST BUILDINGS (of Tel-Aviv).

What I found so interesting was Bassam's transformation from a young man who just wanted to get his country back, to a cold intelligence agent waging violent battles against Israeli intelligence and even participating in an airline hijacking, to someone who finally realized -- after almost being killed by a bomb -- the horror both sides were inflicting on innocent people, and the futility and pointlessness of what he was doing.

Equally fascinating was Uzi's slow realization that the Israeli army did not always care who they hurt going after the terrorists. For example, they attacked a "convoy" that turned out to be hundreds of innocent vacationers in traffic on their way to the beach for the holiday.

Unfortunately, Bassam surmised (maybe correctly) that Yasser Arafat was not a true terrorist and secretly wanted peace. Even when he wrote this book, he thought Arafat was the key to changing the Middle East situation. Unfortunately, he misjudged Arafat's willingness to take a clear stand when confronted with threats to his life. I only vaguely remember Arafat's historic meeting with Jimmy Carter on the steps of the White House myself. According to Bassam, Arafat agreed to everything that was required by the United States for peace deal arbitration, but in his fear of PLO assassins, he was so wishy-washy in his wording of apology for terrorism that he satisfied no one.

This book was published 6 years before the September 11th attacks on civilians of the United States, and I wish many more people (especially Americans and members of NATO) had read it then. Maybe we could have prevented the attacks, maybe not.

If you know history, there are many times the Israelis have agreed to peace. Read the memoirs or histories of other U.S. presidents to get the full picture. When Israel took over the Khyber Mountain pass because the terrorists could easily see and attack many villages from there, they only agreed to a peace deal because NATO agreed to send peace-keeping forces. HOWEVER, we DEMANDED that Israel withdraw IMMEDIATELY, and then NATO NEVER SENT THE FORCES!

You want to know why Israel did not withdraw immediately from Lebanon during the recent crisis? Because they don't trust us not to lie again!

Every country criticizes Israel for not backing down, then THEY THEMSELVES don't keep their "peace-keeping" obligations, and THE CYCLE STARTS ALL OVER AGAIN!

One thing, from the beginning, that was different, was that previously when Arab conflicts ended, Middle-Eastern peoples not directly involved in the conflicts were allowed to return to their lands. But the Israelites, having suffered a massive holocost at the hands of Aldolf Hitler while their fellow citizens and neighbors allowed it, did not trust anyone. They failed to distinguish between marauding Bedoin theives in particular and all Arabs in general.

That Arabs were not allowed to return to their lands was perhaps one of the stupidest historical and tactical blunders ever made in the modern world. I would not call it evil, because Israel had no intent of suffering and revenge, they simply trusted no one. They were willing to cut themselves off from their neighbors completely. It is the stupidest thing that any modern (soon-to-be) country has ever done.

Reading this book is like reading the account of the world's biggest folly. It is truly sad, because we were so busy dealing with a much greater, stronger evil (Adolf Hitler, the murder of millions of innocent Jews, and his attempted conquest of the world).

The difference between PURE EVIL and mere retaliatory attacks is the terrorists do not even care if they solve any problem, can actually achieve realistic goals (such as security or lands returned to original families), or make life better for their people. They don't even distinguish between people who were actually displaced from their lands and all the others that have become "Palestinians" by emigrating from other Arab countries to increase the population. The Islamic terrorists want revenge for the sake of revenge -- they want to feed their pure hatred for the rest of their lives, and they think they will go to heaven if they die while killing "unbelievers". That is still the state of mind of Al-Qaida and Hamas today -- perhaps even MORE than the PLO was in the beginning!

The reason Islamic terrorists have gotten so strong, in my opinion, is they believe (correctly) that the rest of the world is too weak and has too short an attention span to commit itself to ANYTHING, MUCH LESS *REAL* PEACE.

Any other country would immediately react if they were attacked, but they criticize Israel for defending themselves after being under near-continual attack for many decades.

The worst thing NATO or anyone else can do is repeat the serious grievances they committed after arranging previous "peace deals". If they REALLY intend to stop the endless war, they MUST fulfill their commitements -- BEFORE Israel backs off. And they need to be more proactive with the offspring of terror in the rest of the world. The civilized countries of the world cannot just stand by and claim "not my problem" while Islamic terrorists involve themselves in other countries' conflicts, take over governments, attack ships, and commit holocosts. We have to stop them. The more they do, the stronger they get, and the more of them there are.

We CANNOT wait until some 3rd-world country is on the brink of total disaster (some are pretty close even now). We have to stop terrorists BEFORE countries are at that point! We have to be willing to make commitments that actually have a chance at creating lasting peace, and we have to fulfill our commitments, not just point the finger at Israel or whoever is convenient.

It is somewhat heartening to witness (in regards to the Islamic terrorist-pirates) that OTHER countries, besides the United States, are FINALLY taking a definitive action. If the world truly has the will to work together, there are more than enough countries who can split the effort to make the world a safer place, if we ALL participate. That is the key to defeating modern Islamic terrorists in the long run.

It is the only way to prevent the spread of this horror around the world, and the only way that Palestinians and the civilians of third-world countries can finally be safe and march into the modern age with the rest of us.