Customer Reviews

Israel's Lebanon War

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3 star:		(1)
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Despite the fact that the two authors are journalists, the book is accurate and credible enough to be used as academic reference. The book covers mainly the Israeli point of view, but its scope is wide and provides insight into the intricate workings and components of the Lebanese-Israeli-Palestinian interactions, as well as the internal aspects of Lebanese and Israeli politics relevant to the issues discussed. The book provides a most interesting and readable coverage of the Israeli military operation, and the behind the scenes planning and intrigue of this operation. Notable is the coverage of the deception used by the Israeli Minister of Defense, Ariel Sharon and Chief of Staff, Rafael Eitan in order to pull the wool over the eyes of the Israeli Prime Minister, Knesset and public. Quite astounding, considering the fact that these events took place in a democratic country. This book is a must for anyone who seeks to understand or research the subject.

There are also more facts that demonstrated scores of pitiful signs of agonising 'stories'.
The author did not mention, for example, that Lebanese have witnessed at the bend of roads or at the top of a rise, slow moving procession of civilians travelling along the so called 'green lines' on top of mined sand dunes.
It seemed a biblical scene.
Many people were marching on foot , parents hugging their children on the verge of tears, cursing a situation perhaps as a means used to mask their fears...

The author should have, as an added value, referred more to the other side of the coin: 'The suffering of the Lebanese people'
Many had already gone from Beirut to the mountain areas, but many who remained faced the same dilemma: whereto should they leave??
Those who left their love ones behind in Beirut (West) were on the brink of panic largely because nobody really knew what could happen.
Most people were expecting fighting would erupt in the city within a few days. But It was difficult to draw conclusions.
It was the brave who stayed behind for the most part, hoping against hope that they might be able to help Lebanon. "Radio Isreal" blared warnings that people must prepare for the rigours of a siege, and get ready for the terrors of street fighting.
Mentioning this side of the 'story' should make the picuture more balanced

This bestseller book serves two purposes. On the one hand, it documents one of the biggest military adventures in the Middle East while on the other hand, it is a lesson for Western leaders who intend to use military might to change political realities in the region.
According to the book, this military adventure consumed itself and its engineer then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, who circumvented Israel's democracy by withholding information about his true plan of invasion from Israeli politicians then unsuccessfully meddling in Lebanese internal politics.
The book is a survey of rapidly unfolding military events and a deep analysis into their immediate political consequences.
Since the book was published shortly after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the authors should consider publishing an updated version that should cover the period of Israeli occupation thereafter and the consequent withdrawal in 2000.
The authors display mastery in understanding the mosaic picture of Lebanese politics. They also succeed in painting an accurate portray of Sharon, the General/politician who always called for a military solution for the Middle East's conflict. This, however, proved to be much more complicated than to be solved in an Israeli blitzkrieg strike against Lebanon in 1982.
The book also sheds a light on the determined and shrewd personality of late Syrian dictator Hafez Assad who succeeded, as in most complicated issues that faced him, in prevailing victoriously. Assad simply displayed more skill in understanding Arab politics than his Israeli counter parts, a fact whose end result was the complete Syrian domination of Lebanon, more than two decades after Israel's Lebanon war.
American policy makers behind the liberation of Iraq should read this book in order to refresh their memory on Arab politics and remind themselves of the magnitude of regional intervention of neighboring Arab countries in Iraq affairs.

Without doubt this is the definite account of the 1982 war in Lebanon, although the reader who is more interested in the military aspects of the campaign should read also Samuel Katz's excellent "Israeli Tank Battles". The authors give plenty of information regarding the dark motives of the israeli policy in Lebanon, the alliance with the Christian Maronites and the complex games played by Ariel Sharon (Defense Minister of Israel) and Bashir Gemayel. The most astonishing fact in the book is the way that one minister (Sharon) dragged a government and a whole nation in a war adventure without telling the truth and not explaining his objectives from the beginning. The campaign of 1982 never was intented to go far beyond the Litani river, but eventually the IDF reached Beirut and put it under siege for months! Also, the clash with the Syrians in the Bekaa valley was Sharon's choice and the israeli cabinet was forced to accept it! The terrible massacres of Shabra and Shatila are also covered in many pages and in great detail. I wish the authors had devoted some more pages to the military events, such as the brilliant victory of the Israel Air Force above the Bekaa.

Schiff and Ya'ari are two "house broken" Israeli journalists, i.e. they are partisan supporters of the Labor Party and the Left. This must be kept in mind when reading this book. While they clearly show the reckless policies Sharon carried out, much of their ire towards him is political. For example, while they decry Sharon's alliance with the Gemayal's Falangist Party, correctly pointing out its Fascist tendencies and pontificate about Sharon sullying's Israel's reputation by making an alliance with what is essentially a corrupt, mafia-like organization, suddenly, 10 years later, when Peres and Rabin (whose Labor Party they support) made the Oslo
agreements with the even more murderous and corrupt Arafat and the so-called "Palestine Liberation Organization", Shiff and Ya'ari were praising the "pragmatism" of Peres and Rabin saying "you can't choose your peace partners". Thus, we see that their primary agenda is political and not "truth seeking". (Incidentally when Arafat started his war with Israel in September 2000 Ya'ari went on television and said "I always knew the Oslo agreeements were a mistake"). Similarly, they (correctly) denounce Sharon's underhanded activities during the war, keeping the government in the dark about his activities, but then in 2004 when Sharon used undemocratic, dishonest procedures to betray his promises about not destroying the Jewish communities in the Gaza district, they suddenly claim he is a great, far-sighted leader. Draw your own conclusions.

I was pleasantly surprised what a good study of Israel war with Lebanon in 1982 I had purchased in this instant history book.

Although I do not agree with all of the books conclusions it does appear that as all too common in this region (and many others) that Israel went into this war without due diligence. Everyone in the Israeli leadership had their own goals and aims. Many did not realise that they were going to war. So Israel went into the conflict without a plan how to fight. This probably costed them many troops lives.

On the Lebanese side, it appears the Phalangist desperate to remain in power made promises that they never intended or could deliver. I found it strange that never did Israel top leadership ask experts who I am sure they had many, to review the situation there for them first. Once Israel was in Lebanon, it found itself without any major ally. Condemned by almost everyone with little reason to remain.

Israel did achieve some major goals out of the conflict such as badly bruising Syria and destroying the Palestinian military as a force in Lebanon.

However Israel decision to go into Lebanon did come at a huge cost. It costed Israel the lives of many of its troops, was economically expensive and costed them much in goodwill. Later Israel refusal to leave Lebanon resulted in the growth of the Hezbollah.

To anyone interested on a study of how military strong states fail to achieve limited objectives when they use military force against vastly weaker targets will find this book useful.

Superbly written account of how Israel became mired in the Lebanese civil war. The Israeli people were essentially mislead and lied to (sound familiar?) by its government, which itself was duped by the Lebanese leadership under Bashir Gemayel. Ariel Sharon was bound and determined to invade Lebanon to drive out the PLO, and any dissenters were quickly dismissed. After Bashir Gemayel was assassinated, everything started to fall apart, starting with the international outcry following the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

Excellent detail of the underlying politics and the series of missteps, lies, miscalculations and misjudgments committed by Israel before and during the conflict.

This book gives an overview of the war. Unfortunately it is the one of the few that does. The major problem is that, at least today, the book is dated and presents nothing new. This was not the case when it was first printed however. Nevertheless it makes for a good introduction into the war.

Over 20 years after it was published, the story of the Israeli attempt to eradicate massive and repeated terrorist attacks emanating from the PLO (Bubba's/Jacques/UN's buddy Yasser) in Lebanon is no less important. Interestingly, Lebanon is still struggling to rid itself of Syrian occupation. They have gone from the vegan dictator Hafez Assad murdering opponents and journalists to the Syrian optometrist dictator murdering opponents and journalists (another killed last week 7/2005).

In this review, I will attempt to explain the story, the left-wing/doves reporter's views (and on so many levels his mistakes), and most importantly to Americans who love and support Israel, the correlation between Israel's actions and our "War on Terror."

First to the journalists, the main one being the left wing newspaper Haraatz Ze'ev Schiff. As the brilliant reviewer givbatam3 points out nearby, Mr. Schiff is a member of the Israeli left/dove/Peace Now group. This "coalition" consists of myopic people (with all due respect) that don't seem to understand good and evil. Just as our great President Bush was criticized for denouncing the "Axis of Evil" (he forgot to mention Syria and the House of Saud), these doves conveniently choose to ignore the problems with cooperating with our/their enemies. This is what lead to the fraudulent Oslo accords and the creation of the terrorist supporting Palestinian Authority. It is this "authority" that unleashed a wave of terror on Israel immediately after Clinton helped the murderer Arafat receive a Nobel Peace Prize. Fittingly, Arafat walked away from the Clinton/Barak plan in 2000, which would have created a Palestinian state, which to this day (7.8.05) does not exist despite the charade of the Road Map. The authors accuse Prime Minister Sharon of illegally leading Israel into the war in Lebanon. Most of the books I've read about Israel seem to have been written by journalists out to discredit Sharon. He seems to be the Donald Rumsfeld of Israel. I don't live there so it is impossible for me to get a read on the situation, but he WAS democratically elected, so most of the voters must disagree with the left's assessment of Mr. Sharon (yes, I know his "disengagement" is an illegal abomination, more on that later. Wear Orange to support the settlers.)

On page 39, Mr. Ze'ev describes Sharon as "a cynical, headstrong executor who regarded the IDF as his personal tool for obtaining sweeping achievements-and not necessarily defensive ones-and a minister prepared to stake the national interest on his struggle for power." Those would prove to be the "kindest" words he would have for Mr. Sharon. On page 58, he accuses Sharon of implementing a quasi-coup d'etat.

And on and on it goes. The author also accuses Sharon of duping the American government, details forthcoming.

Later on, we learn of the "courageous, freedom fighter" (my emphasis) Arafat's decision to deploy all Palestinians including 12 year old boys to kill Israelis. Of course, to this day the PA affiliated Fatah and other groups use children to murder Israeli civilians (the best non-child attack recently was the Palestinian woman who was granted permission to receive medical care in Israel who tried to kill innocent Israeli doctors/nurses using "bomber pants." Great video of her discovering the bomb wouldn't activate, however US MSM {mainstream media} other than FOX refused to air it.)

On page 92, we learn of Arafat crony and current PA leader Abu Mazen's (the same Oslo and Road Map violating, terrorist supporting/enabling, holocaust denying, chain-smoking Mazen that GW brazenly brought to the White House) recommendation to target specific ethnic types of Jews for murder.

Throughout the story, if indeed the cabinet was mislead, we learn that this deception had negative military preparedness consequences. Specifically, a failure to call up the reserves.

To his credit and unlike journalists Robert Fisk (Pity the Nation) and Thomas Friedman (NY Times, From Lebanon to Jerusalem), Mr. Schiff reminds us of the level of terror practiced by Ray-Ban Wayfarer wearing Arafat even inside his own PLO. On page 147, we learn of Palestinians killing Palestinians that were given the chance to evacuate an area prior to IDF action. In this episode, three children were gunned down in front of their father.

On page 149, the authors engage in a disgusting bit of analysis about the minds of IDF members. In discussing a particularly brutal phase of the operation, the author's ask "was it perhaps fueled by an even deeper sense of vengeance for all the harm and hatred that the Jews had suffered at the hands of others over the centuries?" And further, "How would the grandparents of these boys have reacted to the scene of mayhem...?" Are you kidding me?? These members of the citizen army were probably quite sick of repeated murders of innocent Israeli citizens and committed to seeing their country living in peace. Meanwhile, the UN, the left/doves, the media, and others seemed to downplay or turn a blind eye to Arafat's involvement in the many terrorist attacks conducted by the PLO prior to the Lebanon operation. In my humble view, something had to be done. Prime Minister Begin agreed with Sharon's initial plan on eliminating the terrorists in Beirut.

Page 152 features more America bashing, culminating in an accusation that the US was an Israeli dupe.

The story of the military operation is detailed completely. And no discussion of the Lebanon operation would be complete without mentioning the incidents in the refugee camps in Sabrit and Shatilla. I'll leave it for the reader to decide on this operation, but in short, Israel relied on their "allies" in Lebanon to rid the camps of terrorists. Most assuredly, after the Palestinians brought havoc to these people, they wanted revenge. The result: some civilian deaths to go along with the "clean up" operation and a rebuke of several Israeli figures including Prime Minister Sharon.
Folks, war is not pretty and the US faced similar choices in partnering with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. Many to this day say that is why we allegedly "lost" Bin Laden in Tora Bora instead of adequately deploying our troops on the Pakistan border. General Tommy Franks says this would not have been possible and I believe him more than the Kerry/Kedwards crowd. Our "ally" Pakistan would not have tolerated a US presence, given that they were one of only three governments with relations with the Taliban.

As for the author's attempts to rid Israeli society of Prime Minister Sharon, it didn't work. He forcefully fought the charges emanating from the investigation into the Lebanon operation. After Yasser walked all over Clinton in Barak in 2000 and launched/restarted the intifada, Israel voted for "Arik" and his platform of not negotiating with Arafat. Sadly, no tragically, he is haphazardly implementing his "disengagement plan." Six weeks prior to its start, it appears the plan is not well thought out and polls show that Israelis are increasingly against it. Moreover, turning land over to terrorist supporting Mazen will embolden those that seek Israel's destruction. Israel expects terror gangs of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Mazen's own Fatah to immediately set up shop in the West Bank and begin terror operations.

So looking back Mr. Schiff and Ya'ari, who was right? Terror coddling doves such as Rabin (who at least acknowledged the danger in trusting Arafat) and Peres or Likud hawks such as Sharon (and Netanyahu)?

Let the reader decide. I know who I would trust with my security: Likud members Sharon and Netanyahu.