A High Price

The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism

Daniel Byman

OUP USA

496 pages | 234x156mm

978-0-19-539182-4 | Hardback | 28 July 2011

Also available as: Paperback

Price: £20.00

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Selling point: Authoritative narrative history of terrorism and counterterrorism in Israel, a country with more experience dealing with terrorism than any other
Selling point: Highlights the lessons that the Israeli experience offers for all nations, especially the United States
Selling point: A cautionary tale of how a disproportionate response to terrorism exacerbates the root problem by further alienating targeted populations

In the sixty-plus years of the Jewish state's existence, Israeli governments have exhausted almost every option in defending their country against terror attacks. Israel has survived and even thrived—but both its citizens and its Arab neighbors have paid dearly.

In A High Price, Daniel Byman breaks down the dual myths of Israeli omnipotence and—conversely—ineptitude in fighting terror, offering instead a nuanced, definitive historical account of the state's bold but often failed efforts to fight terrorist groups. The product of painstaking research and countless interviews, the book chronicles different periods of Israeli counterterrorism. Beginning with the violent border disputes that emerged after Israel's founding in 1948, 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 follows how Israel fought these groups and new ones, 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 also 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.
Israel is often a laboratory: new terrorist techniques are often used against it first, and Israel in turn develops innovative countermeasures that other states copy. Ultimately, A High Price expertly explains how Israel's successes and failures can serve to inform all countries fighting terrorism today.

Readership: Readers of the New York Times, New York Review of Books, and New Republic. Professional and academic audiences on terrorism and counterterrorism; Middle East security; Israel; and the Middle East Peace process.

1: Chapter One: The Glass House (Jewish resistance to British rule)
2:
Chapter Two: Crossborder Wars (Fighting Fedayeen attacks from Jordan and Egypt)
3: Chapter Three: The Rise of the PLO
4: Chapter Four: The PFLP and the Birth of International Terrorism
(Munich, Dawson's Field)
5: Chapter Five: Israel Strikes Back
(Operations Spring of Youth, Wrath of God, Thunderbolt, the Tunis raid, etc.)
6: Chapter Six: The Dreams of Oslo
7: Chapter Seven: The Rise of Hamas
8: Chapter Eight: Partners? (1996 Cooperation, the Tunnel Clash, Arafat's Policies)
9: Chapter Nine: Israel Organizes for Counterterrorism (Military and Intelligence Changes)
10: Chapter Ten: Clouds on the Horizon (the Road to the Second Intifada)
11: Chapter Eleven: One Million Bullets (Israel's Response to the Second Intifada)
12: Chapter Twelve: Killing Raed Karmi
(Discussion of Israel's conflicting strategies and targeted killings)
13: Chapter Thirteen: Entering the Hornet's Nest: The Battle of Jenin
(Discussion of Operation Defensive Shield)
14: Chapter Fourteen: Back to the Wall (Building the Security Barrier)
15: Chapter Fifteen: Declaring Victory and Going Home (Unilateral Withdrawal from Gaza)
16: Chapter Sixteen: Stuck in the West Bank?
17: Chapter Seventeen: Birth of a Monster (Israel's Invasion of Lebanon
and the Creation of Hezbollah)
18: Chapter Eighteen: The Rules of the Game (Limited War with Hezbollah in the 1990s)
19: Chapter Nineteen: The Promise of Normalcy in Lebanon (Withdrawal in 2000 and its
Unfulfilled Hopes)
20: Chapter Twenty: Hezbollah Returns (the 2006 War)
21: Chapter Twenty One: Destroying the Abomination
(Attacks on Arab Mayors and the Plot to Blow up the Dome of the Rock)
22: Chapter Twenty Two: To Kill a Prime Minister
23: Chapter Twenty Three: Evaluating Israeli Strategies
24: Chapter Twenty Four: Public Resilience
25: Chapter Twenty Five: Winning the Battles, Losing the War (Inevitable Tradeoffs and
the Long-Term Consequences of Counterterrorism)
26: Chapter Twenty Six: Learning from Israel

The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.

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A High Price

The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism

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