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Daniel Byman

A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism 1st Edition

by Daniel Byman (Author)

4.1 31 ratings

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The product of painstaking research and countless interviews, A High Price offers a nuanced, definitive historical account of Israel's bold but often failed efforts to fight terrorist groups. Beginning with the violent border disputes that emerged after Israel's founding in 1948, Daniel Byman charts the rise of Yasir Arafat's Fatah and leftist groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine--organizations that ushered in the era of international terrorism epitomized by the 1972 hostage-taking at the Munich Olympics. Byman reveals how Israel fought these groups and others, such as Hamas, in the decades that follow, with particular attention to the grinding and painful struggle during the second intifada. Israel's debacles in Lebanon against groups like the Lebanese Hizballah are examined in-depth, as is the country's problematic response to Jewish terrorist groups that have struck at Arabs and Israelis seeking peace. In surveying Israel's response to terror, the
author points to the coups of shadowy Israeli intelligence services, the much-emulated use of defensive measures such as sky marshals on airplanes, and the role of controversial techniques such as targeted killings and the security barrier that separates Israel from Palestinian areas. Equally instructive are the shortcomings that have undermined Israel's counterterrorism goals, including a disregard for long-term planning and a failure to recognize the long-term political repercussions of counterterrorism tactics.

ISBN-10

0195391829
ISBN-13

978-0195391824
Edition

1st
Publisher

Oxford University Press
Publication date

June 15, 2011
Language

English
Dimensions

9.3 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
Print length

464 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A great introduction to Israeli counterterrorism."--Thomas E. Ricks, Foreign Policy

"Meticulously researched...a fascinating account of Israel's techniques for recruiting informants in hostile territory and its evolving efforts to make its interrogation practices conform to the strictures of international law."--Wall Street Journal

"An admirably even-handed book."--The Economist

"A definitive work on Israel's war against Palestinian terrorism. Packed with statistics and excellent documentation, it will certainly be an important reference for years to come."--Moment

"For a democracy, some ways of defeating terrorism can be a Pyrrhic victory. Byman shows us what Israel did against terrorists that failed, what worked, and what was counter-productive. We can learn from Israel's experience. We do not have to repeat their mistakes... if we know what they were."--Richard A. Clarke, author of Against All Enemies and Cyber War

"Daniel Byman has produced a vitally important, invaluable history and analysis of Israeli counterterrorism policy and practice. His research and judgments are balanced, nuanced, grounded in evidence and highly credible. He shatters the easy myths about Israeli brilliance and bungling against its terrorist adversaries and leads us to an understanding of why it remains so important for Israel to discover a path forward that will integrate its counterterrorism tactics into a wider strategy that can produce, as the author puts it, 'peace within its borders and with its neighbors.'" --Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars and The Bin Ladens

"On a topic that excites great passion, Dan Byman has written a cool, lucid, and balanced work. This is, and for years to come will remain, the best book explaining the Israeli experience, its successes and its failures, to all democracies facing terrorist threats."--Eliot A. Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies, SAIS, Johns Hopkins

"Israel has been fighting terrorism from its first days as a state more than six decades ago. In this first in-depth, comprehensive history and analysis of Israel's counter-terrorism strategy Dan Byman has done an extraordinary job of marshalling the facts and presenting a compelling critique. Anyone with an interest in combating the scourge of terrorism or understanding Israel's unique approach to the challenge will find this book an insightful, thought-provoking guide and a fascinating read."--Martin Indyk, Vice President and Director of the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel

"Byman has produced a meticulously researched and well-written book that both informs and engages the reader. The hope is that his painstaking and clear-eyed historical analysis of the theory and practice of Israeli counterterrorism, illuminating unnecessary setbacks as well as improbable successes, will help open space for a more efficacious and salutary integration of counterterrorism and policy."--Survival

"[A] comprehensive account of the effectiveness of Israel's counterterrorism campaigns since the country became independent.... This book is enriched by [Byman's] research visits to Israel and meetings with leading Israeli security officials cited throughout the volume." --ashington Times

"Recommended not only as an introductory text to readers new to the subject, but also as a reference book for experts. The quality of the research makes it a valuable research." --Army History

About the Author

Daniel Byman is Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He has served on the 9/11 Commission staff and as an analyst with the U.S. government.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (June 15, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195391829
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195391824
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.71 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,497,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #560 in Arms Control (Books)
- #598 in Middle Eastern History (Books)
- #1,128 in Military History (Books)

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4.1 31 ratings

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Daniel Byman

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Daniel Byman is Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and Senior Fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He has served on the 9/11 Commission staff and as an analyst with the U.S. government.

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Gilead Lombroso

too much emphasize on Israel faults

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2011

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I am half a way to the end of this book.I do like the details and statistics brought forward.
Unfortunately Daniel tries real hard to blame the Israelis, or at best constantly try to explain why the
Palestinians suffered more. It clearly looks like Daniel is very much leftist who tries "scientifically"
to prove Israel must change. To my opinion, and compared to other wars around the world, the Israeli army behaved
always almost like angels. If the IDF were to imitate other armies, there would have been no wars in the middle east,
and the human cost on the long run would subside substantially. Though the book is interesting, I rate it only two stars.
I am trying to draw the attention of the future readers to understand that Daniel see the IDF from the eyes of a leftist, and
therefore the information is always biased by his own opinion. I am at the end of this book, and as I said before Daniel is heavily biased to the left. He also always suggests the American approach as good solution for the IDF, though he knows very well it would not work for Israel. Daniel constantly doubt the human approach of the IDF. This book should be totally ban.

4 people found this helpful

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angry_dork

A High Price Mini-Review

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2012

Verified Purchase

Middle East conflict has always been a staple of nightly news, but leave it to the talking heads on TV to leave out the details of events to serve more airtime to faux celebrities. This book highlights interesting details that surrounds the issue of Israel's continued threatened existence and Palestine's morbid "resistance" against the "occupiers". Missed opportunities of lasting peace, assassinations, and foreign meddling of talks - it somehow makes me feel depressed after reading each chapter, it made me believe peace shall never be attained in Israel/Palestine in my lifetime or the next two generations.

Helpful

Pinhas Romik

Byman wrote a very good book, well describing the history of Israel fighting ...

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2017

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Mr. Byman wrote a very good book, well describing the history of Israel fighting terrorism, its successes and failures. The book ends at 2010, and since then there tectonic changes occurred in the Middle East. Would be very interesing to read Mr. Byman views and perspective on the changes. A sequel to "A High Price" is highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

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Mike Osborne

Interesting perspective on the situation in Israel and the Middle ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2018

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Interesting perspective on the situation in Israel and the Middle East. It was balanced with plenty of criticism of all sides.

Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2016

A page turner

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2015

Verified Purchase

well documented, wish there could have been more current updated chapter

Helpful

BernardZ

A good account of Israel's problems

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2013

I thought the book started off well about how the writer was going to discuss Israel Terrorist problem and show how it had lessons for everyone. As I kept reading I thought well it was not doing that. It turned out to be more centered on Israel with little to generalize although to be fair at the end it started to generalize more when he discusses tactics more.

The book itself, shows the writer has a rather narrow knowledge of Israeli history. It is much more complex then the writer makes out even in his narrow scope. Which I thought was disappointing as there are several good books on Israel's politics better than this one. What I would have preferred is a book that discusses the tactics. For example, he makes the comment that Israel had about 5,000 agents in Gaza. That is actually a huge number for such a small society. It would have been interesting if the writer could have discussed more about it.

Having said that, I think his discussions on terrorism as far as Israel is concerned is basically correct. He does show the restrains that a democratic country finds itself when facing terrorism. He does discuss many of the methods Israel uses to fight and stop terrorism.

One observation he makes that I thought was particularly good was that Israel trying to fight terrorism in the short term sometimes makes a long-term problem. This, however, is a very difficult problem overall as a short-term problem is real while the long-run is often only a possibility. I would say that Israel by going into Oslo thinking it was making a risky short term path but a long term good move, in retrospect actually made it worse both in the long and short term.

It is certainly worth a read.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Jonathan Mattson

Minus some 'cute' political science theory, you are left with a good detailed history of Israel and Terrorists

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2018

I will give the author credit, he makes some interesting claims and ideas on how to approach things to try and stabilize the mid east... of course I personally think some of the claims are a bit naïve and/or unrealistic. More appropriate for a political science class than real life i think. The idea that you should accept more casualties today to hope for peace in the future. Or support this terrorist group and not undermine their leadership because they are 'nicer' then what could emerge.

But besides that, it is a wonderful account of the history of terrorism and Israel. Especially once one sees the different results on the different borders in more recent times, I think an informed reader can quickly judge what has been more effective in promoting peace vs what hasn't been.

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Lucius

Gründlich, sorgsam, kenntnisreich

Reviewed in Germany on January 12, 2014

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Daniel Byman schildert und analysiert die Geschichte des gegen Israels gerichteten Terrorismus auf der einen Seite und die Antiterrormaßnahmen, die Israel unternimmt, auf der anderen Seite. Der zeitliche Horizont bewegt sich zwischen der Zeit unmittelbar vor der Staatsgründung Israels bis etwa 2010. Herausgekommen ist ein ungemein kenntnisreiches, gründliches und sorgsam gearbeitetes Buch, dass vom Terrorismus diverser säkularer Palästinensergruppierungen über die Hamas und die Hisbollah sowie dem Terrorismus durch jüdische Israelis selbst bzw. den diversen Mitteln des Counterterrorismus vom militärischen Einmarsch bis zu gezielten Tötungen alles umfasst, was in dieser Zeit wichtig war. Byman gelingt es meisterhaft, auf diesem verminten Gelände durchweg neutral und abgewogen zu bleiben. Seine Darstellung und Analyse folgen nicht dem Narrativ irgendeiner Partei, es gelingt ihm aber zugleich, Verständnis für die Sichtweisen, Handlungen und auch Fehler aller Beteiligten zu erzeugen. Diese wissenschaftliche Abgewogenheit gilt auch mit Blick auf die Kritik von Menschenrechtlern in Europa und USA am Vorgehen Israels.

So ist es ein Buch geworden, dass sich an alle Leute richtet, die interessiert sind, sich mit dem Thema Terrorismus fundiert, realitätsbezogen und ernsthaft auseinander zu setzen. Die Lehren, die Byman zieht, und die er immer wieder von der Einleitung bis zum Schlusskapitel anspricht, gelten dabei weit über den Schauplatz Nahost hinaus. Einfache Antworten gibt es in der Terrorismusbekämpfung nicht, dass wird deutlich. Egal, wofür man sich entscheidet – und es mag, wie Byman nachweist, auch gute Argumente für bestimmte gewaltsame Maßnahmen geben – man gibt immer andere Ziele und Güter auf oder setzt sie aufs Spiel.

Im Zuge der Lektüre hat sich bei mir ein immer stärkerer Pessimismus eingestellt. Wenn man Seite um Seite liest, welch schlimme Gewalt und Gegengewalt ausgeübt wird, wie sich die Fronten immer weiter verhärten, wie auch große Teile der breiten Bevölkerung aller Seiten kaum noch friedens- und kompromissfähig scheinen und entsprechenden Druck auf die jeweilige politische Führung ausüben, scheint es mir nahezu ausgeschlossen, dass in Nahost ein stabiler Friede geschaffen werden kann.

2 people found this helpful

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Dipak Nambiar

The last word on Israel's problems in the basket-case Middle East.

Reviewed in India on December 11, 2017

Verified Purchase

An encyclopedia when it comes to information. At times too detailed but a nice book for those interested in Israel's travails with its crazy neighbors.

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