Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947

383 Pages·2016·3.154 MB·English

by  Ahron Bregman

Israel’s Wars
Fourth edition
Israel’s Wars is a fascinating and essential insight into the turbu-
lent history of this troubled country which, since its foundation,
has endured almost constant violence. Bringing its coverage up
to date with recent conflicts, this fourth edition includes a new
chapter on the Gaza wars from 2007–2014, a new preface and
an updated concluding chapter.
From the 1947–8 Jewish-Palestinian struggle for mastery of
the land of Palestine to the Al-Aqsa intifada, the second Lebanon
war and the Gaza wars, Bregman exposes hitherto unknown
facts, including details of secret Soviet involvement in inciting
the 1967 Six Day War, Israeli bombing of the American warship
the USS Liberty, and Israeli assassinations of leading Palestinians
in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Illustrated throughout with maps and photographs, this new
edition is valuable reading for students of Arab-Israeli conflicts
over the last seventy years.
Ahron Bregman was a captain in the Israeli army during Isra-
el’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and worked as a parliamentary
assistant at the Knesset. Bregman is author of The Fifty Years War
(1998), the companion book to a six-part BBC television docu-
mentary; Elusive Peace (2005), the companion to a three-part BBC
television documentary; A History of Israel (2003); and Cursed Vic-
tory (2014). He teaches at the Department of War Studies, King’s
College London.
Ahron
Bregman
Israel’s Wars
A history since 1947
Fourth edition
This edition published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Ahron Bregman
The right of Ahron Bregman to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
First edition published 2000 by Routledge
Third edition published 2010 by Routledge
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bregman, Ahron, author.
Title: Israel’s wars : a history since 1947 / Ahron Bregman.
Description: Fourth edition. | Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :
Routledge, [2016] | “2016 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015047047 | ISBN 9781138905351 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781138905368 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315646893 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Arab-Israeli conflict.
Classification: LCC DS119.76 .B74 2016 | DDC 956.04—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047047
ISBN: 978-1-138-90535-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-90536-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-64689-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Joanna and ScalaSans
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For
Ehud Barak
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CONTENTS
List of maps viii
List of figures ix
Preface to the fourth edition xi
Preface to the third edition xiv
Preface to the second edition xvi
Preface xviii
1 The 1947–9 war 1
2 A nation-in-arms 1949–67 42
3 The six bad years 1967–73 65
4 War and peace 1973–9 108
5 War in Lebanon 1982 152
6 Intifada 1987–93 188
7 The Al-Aqsa intifada 2000–5 214
8 The second Lebanon war 2006 265
9 Gaza wars 2007–14 309
10 Conclusions 331
Select bibliography 337
Index 345
MAPS
1 Palestine 1947: the UN Partition Plan 13
2 Israel 1949: armistice lines 35
3 The 1967 Six Day War: Israel’s conquests 98
4 The 1973 Yom Kippur War: the Syrian front 141
5 The 1973 Yom Kippur War: the Egyptian front 145
6 Lebanon, ‘Operation Peace for Galilee’ 6–11
June 1982 174
7 The Al-Aqsa Compound 217
8 The Gaza Strip 223
9 Israel’s security zone in South Lebanon 269
10 Israeli attack on Lebanon, 2006 302
FIGURES
1.1 Jewish troops march in Haifa after its
capture in the 1948 war. 19
1.2 Palestinians flee from their village
near Haifa in 1948. 21
3.1 Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin and Defence
Minister Moshe Dayan flying home from
the front at the end of the 1967 war. 94
3.2 Israeli soldiers at the Western Wall, East
Jerusalem after its capture in the 1967 war. 95
4.1 Egyptian troops plant their flag on the Bar
Lev line after crossing the Suez Canal on
6 October 1973. 138
4.2 General Ariel Sharon and Defence Minister
Dayan on the West Bank of Suez Canal after
Sharon managed to counter-attack and
cross the Canal. 146