The Rabin File: An Unauthorized Expose [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Uri Milstein (Author), Aryeh Amit (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1999 | ISBN-10: 965229196X | ISBN-13: 978-9652291967 | Edition: illustrated edition

For more than 50 years, Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister and Defense Minister of Israel, had a direct impact on the political, social and economic fabric of the Jewish State. Unfortunately, from the time that Rabin joined the Palmach, until his assassination in 1995, he accumulated one security failure after another.

Even so, most people view the late Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister and the Chief-of-Staff during the Six Day War of 1967 as a wise and courageous leader. In The Rabin File - An Unauthorized Expose, Dr. Uri Milstein delves into Rabin's military performance - from his early involvement in the militia in 1941 to his assassination in 1995 - and reveals for the first time Rabin's controversial security biography.

By vigilantly investigating Rabin, presenting him as a personified reflection of the political and military culture of the State Israel, this riveting and thought-provoking book explains how little children were able to chase the mighty Israeli Defense Forces from the Gaza Strip; how the Hizbullah defeated the IDF in Southern Lebanon; and how Israel turned from a strategic ally of the United States to an American economic burden.

Dr. Milstein researches the principles of military philosophy and war as a means of understanding the behavior of individuals and their civilizations. As a writer and a historian he is neither bashful nor deterred by controversy. His provocative studies and books on the Israeli War of Independence, the Yom Kippur War and the Israeli Paratroopers have earned him much publicity in Israel and abroad.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Hebrew

About the Author

Dr. Uri Milstein was born in Israel in 1940. He is married and has two children. Serving in the Israeli Army as a paratrooper, he fought in the Six Day and Yom Kippur wars.

Milstein received his MA in Philosophy from Hebrew University in 1966, and completed a Ph.D. in political science in 1972. As a lecturer on Israeli military history, Dr. Milstein has taught for a number of prestigious institutions, including Israel Military Industries, the Israeli Air Force and Judea and Samaria College.

One of Israel's foremost scholars and a man with strong convictions, Dr. Milstein is no stranger to controversy. When his Hebrew version of The Rabin File was published in 1995, just a few months before Rabin's assassination, Rabin and his aides tried to ban the book and its author. Despite them, The Rabin File was an Israeli best-seller, with over 10,000 copies sold in one year.

Dr. Uri Milstein has written extensively on Israeli security issues, and has authored books on the Israeli War of Independence, the Yom Kippur War and the History of the Israeli Paratroopers. His book, The General Security Code: The Principle of Survival, discusses in depth the code he has developed and how it reflects on his military philosophy. The Rabin File exemplifies his finest scholarship infused with sophisticated philosophy and insight.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 472 pages
• Publisher: Gefen Books; illustrated edition edition (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 965229196X
• ISBN-13: 978-9652291967
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,703,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AUTHORS COMMENT, March 4, 1999

By 

Uri Milstein, Ph.D. (Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rabin File: An Unauthorized Expose (Hardcover)

DR. URI MILSTEIN P. O. Box 9003, Ramat Ef'al, 52190 Israel, Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone] E-mail: [e-mail] AUTHOR'S COMMENT My book, "The Rabin File - An Unauthorized Expose", originally appeared in Hebrew, in April 1995, half a year before Rabin's assassination. As any reader will discover, I have described in detail the military activities of Rabin, including his flight from the battlefield as a brigade commander in Israel's War of Independence in 1948, and argued that Rabin knew nothing about army reality and the military ethos, and that he had actually failed in all his activities in this area. The most dramatic vindication of my argument was provided by his very assassination: half a year after his murder, a National Inquiry Commission headed by Supreme Court Justice Me'ir Shamgar determined that the General Security Service, whose responsibility it was to protect the Prime Minister, had failed in its performance, and that the entire intelligence apparatus and the system for ensuring the Prime Minister's safety had been woefully flawed. Prime Minister Rabin was directly in charge of the activities of the GSS, so that this awful failure was not only that of then-head of the GSS, Carmi Gillon, but of Rabin himself. Which means that Yitzhak Rabin was one of those responsible for the success of his murderer. I said this in the Israeli media immediately after his assassination. The result: my book about Rabin was banned in Israel, the bookstores refused to carry it, historians and intellectuals refused to relate to it and to discuss it in the newspapers, on the radio or on TV, my employ at Bar Ilan University and the College of Judaea and Samaria was terminated, and I could not secure any position in any Israeli university. From that time on, I have had no permanent employment or steady income. This attitude towards me supports one of the main theses of the theory that I have developed in my work, "The General Theory of Security -- The Survival Principle" (which also appeared in English( namely, that the security setup has become a religion, and most people regard army generals as superior God-like personalities immune to criticism. Thus, the security framework is anti-intellectual; processes of drawing practical lessons and correction of errors do not exist in it, and it functions at a dangerously low level. These shortcomings became apparent in the American army in the Vietnam War and in the Soviet army in Afghanistan, and have now surfaced in the IDF in its war with the Hizbullah in South Lebanon. Conclusion: Only our ability to critically analyze the performance of generals and statesmen like Yitzhak Rabin can enable us to understand the military ethos and army reality, improve the security systems of the democratic countries, and avert the danger of terrorist activity that makes use of nonconventional means, which, more than any other factor, poses a threat to Western culture. Yours Uri Milstein

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book. Brings to light the real character of Rabin., April 8, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rabin File: An Unauthorized Expose (Hardcover)

In this book, "The Rabin File", Dr. Milstein shatters the myth of Yitzhak Rabin, "Mr. Security" - the nickname that brought him to power in the '92 Israeli elections. Almost everyone who follows Israeli and middle eastern politics wonders what brought "Mr. Security" to sign the Oslo agreement that took Israel back to the days of the war of independece in 1948. It is even more preplexing if we consider the political background of this move which is the defeat of the IDF (the Israeli army) by the hands of stone throwing children of the Arab "Intifada". Milstein's book starts us on the path to the explanations of these two events.

"The Rabin File" is a biography of Rabin. It begins with Rabin's childhood as an unwanted child of an extreme communist agitator in Haifa. It continues to describe Rabin's career as an officer in the Hagana (the jewish semi-underground defense forces during the days of the British mandate in Palestine) where he distinguished himself as a reliable tool in the hands of the leaders of the jewish institutions who used him for actions against the opposition. To them (his leaders) Rabin most important characteristic was his total misunderstnding of military issues and his servility.

Dr. Milstein then describes the battles in which Rabin participated or commanded. The climax is the story of a convoy to Jerusalem which Rabin commanded. When the convoy entered an Arab ambush Rabin fled for his dear life. The rest of his brigade's operations he commanded from a safe distance, usually in his HQ in Jerusalem.

Dr. Milstein uses Rabin's biography to demonstrate the character of the IDF and the general "survival principle" that he develops more deeply in his other books. But even without any knowledge of this principle, this book is most important as it brings to light the real character of Rabin, creator of the Oslo agreement. I can hardly wait for the second part of Rabin's biography that will cover his life from '48 till his murder in '92.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars potential classic historiography and far-reaching appraisal, May 6, 1999

By 

Eric Charles (Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rabin File: An Unauthorized Expose (Hardcover)

This book could and should be read as a sample of a very important revision and as such as a piece of far- reaching historiography. It shows the pivotal role myth making plays in contemporary politics and highlights the need for a search for truth and how far actually this has been lacking. Implicitly the reader can detect the degree to which superficiality has taken over from properly founded research in the creation of standardised interpretation. Therefore the book, as an expose, is something special academically. It is a product of the willingness to question 'orthodox' opinion and to research in detail and to document fearlessly. Therefore author and publisher are to be congratulated on being willing to allow scholarship to advance by the production of a book that spells out in no uncertain terms just what may well be the terrible truth about the 'real' Rabin. In the light of the eulogies about him this brave appraisal is all the more important. Truth is a casualty through death as well as war: President Kennedy's status changed as a result of his assassination and the same to some degree may be true of Rabin. But this change may be anything but beneficial for the way in which Israel runs its democratic processes and understands its position vis a vis its neighbours' intentions. With Rabin neither the master strategist nor 'Mr Security' much is open to question and needs to be. This book starts everyone thinking differently. And it does so with diligence and thoroughness.