Summing Up: An Autobiography [Hardcover]

Yitzhak Shamir (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994

A major figure in Israeli politics chronicles his long career and his fervent belief in Zionism, recounting how he left Poland to join the Jewish underground of Palestine, spent years in the Mossad, and became Prime Minister. 12,500 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shamir's life story is full of high drama. Born in Poland in 1915, he emigrated to Palestine at age 20 and married his courier in the Zionist underground, Shulamit Levy. Deported by the British in 1946 to Eritrea, he left behind his wife and one-year-old son, whom he did not see again until the birth of Israel in 1948, after he made a dangerous escape from prison. In this outspoken autobiography, Israel's former prime minister defends his Likud Party's hard-line policies, recalls his exploits as a Mossad intelligence agent and as foreign minister, gives an insider's account of the Israeli air force's annihilation of an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 and aims withering barbs at Jimmy Carter, Shimon Peres, Meir Kahane and others. Shamir, who was defeated in the 1992 elections, castigates the Labor government for its pact with the PLO, calling it a reckless mistake that imperils Israel's security. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Like many other Israelis, the author was born in the early part of this century in a small village in Poland. As a young man, he became a member of the Zionist youth movement, which did much to forge his strong ideological commitment even before he emigrated at age 20 to Palestine, then a British mandate, in 1935. Shamir became an active participant in the violence of the time, serving as a member of the infamous Stern Gang, for which he was arrested and briefly exiled. Here he reviews his activities in the newly formed government of Israel, culminating with his service to the nation as its foreign minister and then prime minister. A major contribution of this book is the account of the much-publicized rancor between Shamir and American President George Bush, which brought relations between the two countries to a low point. Absolutely essential for any collection dealing with either Israel or Middle Eastern affairs.
Sanford R. Silverburg, Catawba Coll., Salisbury, N.C
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); First Edition edition (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316968250
• ISBN-13: 978-0316968256
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,539,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Irony is lost on the ideologues, May 11, 2010

By 

Matthew Smith "Roger Mexico" (TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Summing Up: An Autobiography (Hardcover)

When I first picked up this book I thought that I was going to be pleasantly suprised because the author begins with a candor and an unabashed style that gives the impression that he is prepared to render his account honsetly and forthrightly without concern for politics or detractors. He goes through and discusses his ideas without regard for whether or not you agree with him or like him, so, while I very much do disagree with the author, I at least had a respect for him for being fervent in his convictions and not lowering himself to attempting to whitewash his career. Unfortunately that grudging respect gives way as the author begins to use the pages here to attack his enemies and gloss over his own failures.

One major problem is the tone the author takes throughout his discussion of his time in power. The fact is that Mr. Shamir was in prominence in Israeli politics during a time of great upheaval for the Isreali state, but to hear this author tell it one would not get that impression. His political victories at the ballots were very slim and his coalitions very weak, but yet in this book the impression is made that the author always found the entire Israeli state firmly behind him, accept for a few unpatriotic enemies that obviously had know idea what was best for the state such as Peres. Even though the state was riven with racial and political problems the author never mentions them. The same can be said for his trips abroad where he was forever being met with a world Jewish community that was one hundred percent behind him and his vision of the Israeli state. I couldn't quite make out whether this was simply him deciding not to write about the problems or if he was in denial as to whether they actually existed. He speaks as if the Israelis are a monolith barring the few unpatriotic ones who defied his vision.

What lost the most respect for me was his discussion of his governments handling of the huge financial crises that occured under his watch. The author simply dismisses this major moment in the history of Israel with but a few sentences letting the reader know that the author had no knowledge of finacial matters, and as such the blame certainly cannot rest on his shoulders but must lie eslewhere. This would be bad enough if in his last chapter "Summing Up" the author doesn't then have the gall to take credit for financial gains that were later made under his government. Incredulous doesn't seem to do this author justice.

What the book does do well though is to show the shallowness of ideologues and their thoughts. What I found most interesting is the fact that the author only gives one visceral and physical description of this area, and this is from his boyhood before he had ever stepped foot on this soil. Subsequently there seems to be no incongruity between his boyhood visions of this perfect state and the reality of the place he found. Unlike so many other immigrants to this land who found their expectations were not met by the reality of what was there, Shamir seems to have found everything just as he had imagined it.

Another problem that displays the shallowness of his thinking is when he discusses Jabotinsky and the Palestinians. He speaks of the future Israeli state as if there is no conflict between his vision and what the Palestinains would ever accept. Shamir speaks of both people living this area peacefully as millions of Jews pour into this place pushing the Arabs to the peripheries of the state and society as Israel becomes more and more Jewish and less Arab. To him there seems to be no inevitable conflict that will take place as his national aspirations for a Jewish state mean the minimization of the other people who live there as well. What comes through clearly is that there exists no empathy at all in the author as he doesn't even recognize the reality of the impossibility of what he envisions. It is as if the Palestinians are not real people, and this flows right along to the eventual "autonomy" discussions as the author amazingly writes about the enormous benifits that will befall the Arabs with his magnanimous vision of autonomous Arab enclaves as more and more Jewish settlements move to squeeze the Palestinians tighter and tighter. It is absurd and surreal.

Lastly the author completely misses the irony of his discussion of his underground days and his encomprehension of violence from Palestinains and Jewish groups opposed to the state. It would be laughable if not so absurd. Mr. Shamir justifies his violence against the British Mandate government as being legitimate because in his eyes the British authority was not the legitimate power there. He believed that a Jewish state was the only legitimate entity to rule over this area, and as such violence against the British became not only acceptable but a national duty. Then when he speaks of Jewish and Palestinian terrorists the irony is completely lost especially when he discusses the Jewish terrorists who believe the government has no legitimate right to restrain them because all of Israel should be under Jewish rule. He doesn't seem to understand his very own justification for his violence naturally flows to both Palestinians and Jewsih terrosist who do not accept the Israeli government's authority.

In the end this author went the same way as most memoirists in that prevarications and venom abound. He uses the his pen to eviscerate his enemies and expound on his glories. In the end what he succeeds in doing is displaying the intellectual shallowness of ideologues and nothing more. These books are important to read because they give you and idea of the man behind the decisions and the history which provides the reader with a better context and understanding of events, but one always needs to understand they going to be wading through a lot of the author's unreality and attempts to rewrite history.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shamir, often left behind, not forgotten, July 17, 2003

By 

Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Summing Up: An Autobiography (Hardcover)

Mr. Shamir, former member of the Stern Gang should be lionized as one of the great leaders of the Israeli right. Yet he has been forgotten. He has been relegated to the trash bin so that leaders like Mr. Netanyahoo and Mr. Begin can have the limelight(should I include Sharon). This is his story, told in his words. Few books on Israel detail the reign of Shamir and even fewer seem to judge him in a fair light. A founder of the Israeli republic, he should not be forgotten. This book talks about his ideas and his many struggles. But alas, the book also has weakness in that it does not describe all th events that took place under his premiership. He descibes more the scandals then the positions he stood for. Mostly this is due to the fact that this book was written soon after his retirement and he felt the reader would be familiar with his struggles, but 20 years later we are not familiar.

5.0 out of 5 stars The tough fighter for and defender of Israel, May 2, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Summing Up: An Autobiography (Hardcover)

Yitzhak Shamir was , in my judgment, one of the finest of Israel's Prime Ministers. He was tough, and strong. Reality helped make him that way. He was an underground leader in the struggle to oust the British and end the Mandate. He was then a Mossad operative . Called to politics he worked his way up and became a two- term Prime Minister of Israel.

No doubt one of the formative incidents of his life was the murder of his parents in the Shoah.

Shamir was a pragmatic leader for whom Security was the first consideration. He did not trust and believe in Arab good intention. And he was dedicated to attaining and preserving all the land of Israel for the Jewish people. Towards the end of his term under American pressure he went to the Madrid conference, a conference which was a predecessor of the misfortunate Oslo