Soldier of Peace: The Life of Yitzhak Rabin (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The November 4 rally clearly seemed to Yitzhak Rabin the climax of an almost three-decade struggle to divert Israel's destiny from the path of war..." (more)
Key Phrases: rodef rule, hawkish image, including quotations, United States, Tel Aviv, Middle East (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Yitzhak Rabin's life was driven by the goal of bringing peace to Israel. Even when he served as army chief of staff during the Six-Day War, he worked actively for resolution to the conflict with Egypt, an extension of his efforts as Israel's U.S. ambassador during the Nixon administration. Years later, as Israel's prime minister, his efforts to reach a settlement with the Palestinians earned him the hatred of hardcore right-wingers and religious extremists alike, culminating in his assassination on November 4, 1995.

Dan Kurzman's biography, written in breezy,"fly-on-the-wall" prose, is based on more than 200 interviews, from Rabin's wife and son to Rabin's colleague Shimon Peres to U.S. secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and James A. Baker. The story of Rabin's rise to power intertwines with the gradual development of Israel into a Middle Eastern power, with the final legacy of both still to be resolved.

From The Washington Post

Kurzman's biography of Rabin is serviceable, even if it does not stray beyond the eminently familiar. The problem with it is that Kurzman is engaged in hero-worshipping more than in a dispassionate account of the man's life.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (April 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060186844
• ISBN-13: 978-0060186845
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,753,887 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Incomplete, but a good start, June 20, 2005

By	Ryan A. Simon "justice seeker" (Oakland, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Overall, a good beginniners guide to Yitzhak Rabin, however like most subjects, one source is never enough and provides a very narrow view of the man. The main problem I have with this book besides the time when it was written (in the regretful post assassination era) is that it does not recognize to a very good degree, the Jews role in violence in Palestine, and it portrays Arabs as mostly the aggressors and Jews in self defense. Since I dont know that much about Rabin, being just a Bay Area Jew my criticism also targets the way in which it portrays the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is overly simplistic and generally biased, there are other books that are much more worth reading and enlightening regarding the conflict that Rabin was at the center of many times.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent starting point in the examination of Rabin's life, March 30, 2000

By	David Dressler (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is an excellent first step in understanding Yitzhak Rabin, but it is by no means the last. It gives a chronological, easily written account of his life, highlighting the tremendous accomplishments and breezily whizzing by some of his faults.

If you are looking for a factual account of his life, this is a good book to use. If you are writing a 10-page paper on Rabin's life, you need look no further. If you want to truly understand the psychology of this complicated man, or you would like a balanced portrayal of him, you will need to look beyond this.

In the introduction, it states that if he had lived, he would undoubtedly have been re-elected. The facts suggest otherwise; the Israeli people had had enough of him, and it was not until after his death that the nation began to recognize what it had lost, both in its leadership and in its innocence. This book seems a product of the years of the wistfulness that often follow the death of an important leader.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! Fascinating!, October 13, 2000

By A Customer

Audio version is great! Well written, well researched, and well read! Reads like Uris' Exudus, but true!