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Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services | 
 enlarge | Authors: Ian Black, Benny Morris
Publisher: Grove Press
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy Used: $8.40
You Save: $9.60 (53%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 59851
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 634
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.2 x 1.6
ISBN: 0802132863
Dewey Decimal Number: 355.3432095694
EAN: 9780802132864
ASIN: 0802132863
Publication Date: 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: corners nor spine creased, clean, no marking
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Product Description
This is the first documented, comprehensive history of all three of Israel's intelligence services, from their origins in the 1930s, through Israel's five wars, up to the present, with a new chapter updating the book through the Gulf War. Highly readable and exhaustively researched, it provides the most balanced view yet of this controversial subject.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 The Dark Side of Statecraft May 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In Israel's Secret Wars Ian Black and Benny Morris explore the "secret" wars Israel fought against its Arab and Palestinian foes from the pre-state institutions of the Yishuv to 1990. They begin with the earliest manifestations of an intelligence service in the attempts of the Jewish Agency's Arab Department, following the Arab revolt of the 1930s, to keep files on Arab affairs. These note cards stored in a file cabinets became the cornerstone of Israel's espionage industry. With the founding of the state, Black and Morris take us through the evolution of these cards into the Mossad (the equivalent of the CIA) and the Shin Bet (roughly equivalent to the FBI) and their challenges in the Sinai Campaign of 1956, the Six Days War of 1967, occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the struggle against Palestinian terrorism in the 1970s, both in Israel and abroad, and the Intifada in the late 80s. The book is seemingly exhaustive in its use of available sources, is well written and generally non-judgmental, keeping its conclusions close to the "facts." Overall it is the kind of scholarship we have come to expect from a first class historian like Benny Morris.
A friend's book May 9, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this for a friend of mine and he said that is very good.
 Israeli History January 18, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Just started reading and since it is a large book, it will be awhile before it is completed.
Nitty gritty of Israeli Intelligence October 26, 2007
Comment on its cover: absolutely appealing! Comment on its scope: comprehensive!
What makes this book so much more fascinating is the fact that it was screened by the Israeli intelligence community before its release. Based on this fact, one would've assumed that the Israelis would censor huge chunks of information provided in the book. Which makes the historical account from the Israeli viewpoint brutally honest. If it was assassination, they'd call it assassination and take credit for it. One can't help but admire this brutal honesty.
You can probably find it in your local library, but this book is something you might want permanently in your bookshelf.
A must read for student's of the intelligence industry and it's players. July 14, 2005
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
For students of the history and evolution of intelligence and it's major players, ISRAEL'S SECRET WARS is one of the best comprehensive surveys of the subject available. Messer's. Black and Morris provide a balanced, thoughtfully researched, and well-written account of the complex world of intelligence operations.
The concluding points taken are poignant, and pithy.
oIsrael has consistently been good at human intelligence, the oldest form of spycraft, which remains, despite sophisticated surveillance satellites, computer cryptanalysis and the other vast technological advances of recent years, the best way to find out what an enemy is doing, thinking and planning.
oThe classic ideological spy, motivated by a belief in the system of his country's enemy, does not exist in the Middle East conflict. There are no closet Arab Zionists, no Syrian, Iraqi, Egyptian or Palestinian Kim Philbys who believe that the transformation of Palestine into Israel, the dispossession and partial exile of an Arab people, is a good and positive thing.
oIngenuity, ruthlessness and dishonesty have played their part in this history, as they have done, and continue to do, to a greater or lesser degree, in the work of all intelligence and security services everywhere.
oIsrael's secret services have always gone far beyond the traditional tasks of espionage and counter-espionage. Early operational versatility - was carried over {from the British}into the years of independence.
oObtaining weapons and advanced technologies secretly, and often illegally, and denying them to enemies remain a preoccupation.
oUsing the media to disseminate stories and warnings that help Israeli operations and undermine the country's enemies has long been a speciality.
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