Israel's Wars: A History since 1947 (Warfare and History) [Paperback]

Ahron Bregman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415287162 | ISBN-13: 978-0415287166 | Publication Date: July 21, 2002 | Edition: 2

During the twentieth century, Israel has achieved notoriety, witnessing almost constant conflict and violence. Israel's Wars is a masterly account of Israel's wars with the Palestinians and the Arabs. From the 1947-8 Jewish-Palestinian struggle for the possession and mastery of the land of Palestine, through Israel's wars with its Arab neighbours, to the Al-Aqsa Intifada, this book unearths new insights and exposes unknown facts for the first time, including secrets relating to: the Soviets' involvement in inciting the June 1967 Six Day War; the Israeli bombing of the American USS Liberty; President Sadat's right-hand man, who was a top agent of Mossad; Israeli assassinations of leading Palestinians during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Israel's War's explores the effects of the wars on the people of Israel and provides a fascinating account of this intriguing and turbulent period of Israel's past.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Illuminating and timely..
–Bernard Josephs, Jewish Chronicle

About the Author

Ahron Bregman was a Captain in the Israeli army during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and worked for three years as a parliamentary assistant at the Knesset. A journalist and writer, he is author of The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs (1998), the companion book to a six part BBC/PBS documentary.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (July 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415287162
• ISBN-13: 978-0415287166
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,446,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Flight Introduction., December 22, 2006

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Bernard Chapin "Ora Et Labora!" (CHICAGO! USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Israel's Wars: A History since 1947 (Warfare and History) (Paperback)

A subtitle for this book could have been, "Just the Action Please," because that's exactly what these 200+ pages contain. For slightly ignorant readers like this reviewer, Israel's Wars fills us in about a nation's history with clear and unbiased prose. As a matter of fact, I think that objectivity is almost as much a point in Bregman's favor as is brevity. The author gives us an outline from which we can fill in specific events at a later time (with the aid of single theme books). I had no idea before opening it just how much the 1982 Invasion of Lebanon was a turning point in Israel's history, and just how conflicted were the decisions of Ariel Sharon. One longs to go back in time and cancel out the occupation of Gaza as it has brought so much misery to everyone involved. At any rate, Israel's War is a magnificent introduction to a fascinating subject.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Quick Introductory Read to Arab-Israeli Wars, September 21, 2006

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U. Marsolais (Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Israel's Wars: A History since 1947 (Warfare and History) (Paperback)

Israel's Wars by Ahron Bregman is a quick introductory reading on all the Arab-Israeli conflicts that happened since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948. It's well-written, and straight to the point. It focuses on the most important events of each conflict (in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 and the recent Intifadas of the 80-90s and 2000s). Obviously it does not cover the recent Israel-Hezbollah conflict since the book was written before.

Although Bergman is a former Israeli army captain, I did not find any pro-Israeli bias in the book. In fact you would not know it is written by an Israeli if you did not know the author. It is written in a journalistic style, and the author does not make moral judgments. In fact, the author is quite fair and extend on the plight of Palestinians in the last 30 years, and he also debunks the myth that Israel resisted against all odds in 1948. Although vastly outnumbered numerically by Arabs, Bergman shows that numbers does not convey the exact reality on the field.

A note of caution: if you are an experienced reader of Middle East conflicts, this book won't show you anything. It's aimed to a public that don't know much about Arab-Israeli conflicts and want to learn more about the different wars without having to read a 1,000 pages book. It is also not going into details regarding Middle East politics and society. For example, the whole period between the Yom Kippour war and the Lebanon invasion is basically skipped by the author. It focuses really on the conflicts themselves. I found the last part about the Intifadas a bit weak, as if the author struggled to define and make sense of such a low-intensity conflict without any direction or purpose other than expressing the rage of the Palestinians on one hand and the inability of the Israelis to solve the issue on the other.

So overall, it's good enough introductory book about the Arab-Israeli conflicts.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well done recapitulation with astonishing insights, October 5, 2010

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Roman Nies (Helibrunna) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Israel's Wars: A History since 1947 (Paperback)

This book gives an overview of Israel`s wars with the Palestinians and Arabs. It starts with the 1947-1948 struggle between Palestinians and Jews for possession and mastery of the land of Israel. The author calls this land Palestine which is an indication to where his sympathies go. Then it goes till the confrontations between 1987, 1993 and 2000 Intifada clashes. Then there were the wars with the arabian neighbours, such as in the years 1948, 1956, 1967, 1968-1970, 1973 and 1982.
But besides that the book is also about the people of Israel, a nation-in-arms, who are, as it is often said soldiers in eleven months annual leave. By looking at more than five decades of conflict it is visible that the Israelis, in spite of tremendous difficulties, have for many years demonstrated an extraordinairy willingness to carry the burden, pay high taxes, endure long military service, and fight both in wars and betweeen them.
But the author shows also that after the Six days war 1967 the population in Israel became more critical of their leadership, dissent grew, and there was also a pronounced tendency to reject the idea that preparations for war need always be at the expense of social services and justify indifference towards domestic problems. Yet the Israelis remained loyal to their leadership, always rallying behind it in times of war.
The turning point however seemed to have come duroing the 1982 war in Lebanon when, for the first time in Israel`s history, national solidarity showed signs of breakdown. The decline in the motivation of Israelis to fight such wars gathered pace and reached a peak during the Intifada, the Palestinain revolt in the occupied territories between 1987 and 1993.
This book is more than just a chronicle of the events. There are examinations of how the ongoings were operated and for what reasons. It is sometimes more about politics and less about the events on the battlefield. These in fact cover only a lesser part of the book. But this gives the book a wider scope and deeper insight into the proceedings. It is going beyond the task of a narrative or description, it comments and explains. And the bias is clearly not pro Israel. I found it rather balanced with a touch of an uncritical approach to the Palestinain side of the medal.
The book contains the striking revelation of Sadats right-hand-man, who was at the same time an agent of the Mossad. He carried a major responsibility of the Yom Kippur war, not known untill our times. This is embarrassing to know that sometimes one single person can push the button of serious results even for whole nations! The author has met many who had taken part in making history and got information from first hand.
It is interesting to read how the wars and the threat of assult and destruction melted the Jews from different countries together to one nation, to one society, to one Israeli organism. It made them rally round the flag and their leadership. But the author also shows that Israel experienced a shift from collective ideals and priorities to individual ones. While the early generation of Israelis - the builders and founders of the state - possessed an ideological sense of mission and took it for granted that the state came before the welfare of the individual, the younger generation saw things differently.
For them, individual priorities often seemed more important than collective ones, and in contrast to their parents they were motivated by their individual achievments rather trhan by patriotic values. The perception of a decreased external threat, the disappearance of the Holocaust generation and a shift from colective ideals and priorities to individual ones, resulted in the emergence of a more confident Israel nation, less fearful for ist existence and les traumatized and haunted by its past. Do they lose their awareness? Has the threat really decreased? This can be doubted. A look out on Iran and the growing anti-Israel front in the West augures mischief in the near future. This book shows: Israe`s existence is on fragile grounds.
This book is a well-done recapitualtion of the history of Israel`s wars from the view of a journalist. It is recommandable for all those who want to start their apporach to the theme with an unemotional overview.