9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Superb Analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, September 3, 2002
General Harkabi, once head of Israeli Military Intelligence under Menachem Begin, was one of the world's foremost authorities on the Middle East. As head of Middle East Studies at Jerusalem University as well as a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution and Princeton University, he remains one of the great "Doves" in Israeli political and intellectual history whose patriotism and support of Zionism was irreproachable. In this book, he carefully analizes virtually every relevant contemporary angle of the conflict, including how Israel should understand and deal with terrorism, thereby making the book still highly relevant some 14 years after its first publication. Such exaustive, yet so clearly approached interpretations are rare indeed. It is an absolute neccessity to anyone wishing to understand why Israel finds itself in its currently very dangerous predicament as well as to anyone interested in arming themselves with arguments and interpretations which reach levels where very few other people ever have done on the subject.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In the 1980's Harkabi Was Avant Garde, February 26, 2005
This review is from: Israel's Fateful Hour (Paperback)
On February 21, 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government cabinet began charting new borders for Israel. For the first time since the 1967 War, Israel acted unilaterally in giving final approval to a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Four days later, a bomb killed 4 people outside a club in Tel Aviv. Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority leader and successor to Yassir Arafat, took quick action to qwell the violence. Israel now blames Syria.
_Israel's Fateful Hour_ was first published in 1986 in Hebrew. In four years it went through four editions. In the late 1980's the idea of withdrawing from occupied territories was a radical one in Israel. However the credentials of Yehoshafat Harkabi are impressive. He was Chief of (Israeli) Military Intelligence, Deputy Director/Adviser to Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and taught international relations at Hebrew University.
Perhaps most significant is the fact that he had lived through the four wars Israel has engaged against its neighbors (he lived from 1921 to 1994), especially the Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur War instigated by Syria and Egypt. (Syria's Asad needs more attention.)
In the late 1980's Harkabi was avant garde in his thinking but his reasoning was sound. By 1967 Israel had begun to annex areas "thickly inhabited by Palestinians." The choice was either to grant Palestinians full citizenship, in which case they would soon outnumber and outvote Jewish Israelis, create an apartheid situation, or give Palestinians a land of their own (which would appeal to the tribal thinking among Palestinians).
On one hand I want to say that _Israel's Fateful Hour_ is a time piece of the late 1980's. On the other hand the current peace between Israel and the Palestinians may fail. If so, we may again want to look at Harkabi's reasoning for granting the Palestinians "land for peace." Harkabi is well worth reading.
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