This is an excellent work on this subject. Gorenberg has given readers a valuable look into how Israel's spectacular victory in June 1967 has become one of the most entangled quagmires in the world. His research and scholarship have laid open the events of June 67 and the eventual occupation like never before with a level of detail rarely matched. His book is a clinical account of the circumstances and the political players who drifted towards the situation that eventually reigned.
The most fascinating aspect of this account and history of this occupation is how it came about. It was not the inevitable consequence of a determined leadership guiding a resolute population, but was instead the bungling of a ruling political party in its last gasps and a fractured population riven with ethnic, religious and political strife. The governments of Eshkol, Meir and Rabin were almost completely ineffectual, and hamstrung by their own inertia so that instead of guiding occupation policy their governments were guided by the policies of occupation and settlement. After 67 Israel was in a unique position in its very short history, they had the power. Instead of the little besieged nation fighting for its existence, Israel had become a warrior nation of mythic proportions, and Israel needed a strong determined leadership to shore up its gains and present a decisive negotiating partner on the international stage. Instead Israel's labor leaders let Israel drift with no real policy, while allowing fringe groups to dictate settlement policy to the government.
I was extremely impressed by the author's attention paid to those settlers. He gives readers an excellent glimpse into the minds of these vastly different people. He offers their letters and correspondences to give readers an insight into what settler life was like for the different ranges of settlers from the religious to the secular leftists. He not only offers the viewpoints and perspective of the leaders of these movements, but also the grassroots level people. This top down perspective gives his audience a feel for the complexity and diversity of Israeli society, and also the almost impossible tightrope political leaders were forced to walk to keep this society together (or the more cynical viewpoint to keep their ruling coalitions together so they could hang on to power).
The author does not limit his focus to Israel though. Instead the author gives us a macro look detailing the outlooks and policies pursued by successive U.S. administrations, and writing somewhat of the Palestinian perspective as well. These different international perspectives are essential to understand what the Israeli political leaders faced and what options they had. It also goes a long way in showing the inherent difficulty in dealing with a superpower that has an election every four years that can drastically change policies directed towards those politicians and their country.
The fact that this offer tackled such a complex and sordid topic, and did so with such a tremendous level of research and courage is astounding. The author has done the world a service in producing this work, and giving us a very unique and detailed look into this extremely important 10 years (67-77). If you are interested at all in Israeli history or the Middle East then this book has to be on your shelf. I highly recommend this book.
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