A History of Israel (Palgrave Essential Histories Series)

"A History of Israel" examines Israel's turbulent history from the first Zionist Congress in 1897 to 2002. The driving themes of this account are Jewish immigration, war, and attempts to forge peace between Israelis, Arabs and Palestines. Bregman also uses his experience as a journalist to expose secrets to support this narrative. There is a rare extract from a radio exchange between air control and Israeli pilots on the fourth day of the Six Day War, showing that the Israelis did realize that the ship they were bombing was the American USS Liberty, but still went on to attack it. Also included is the never-before-published protocol of the secret meeting between Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and President Sadat's emissary Hassan el Tohami, in Morocco in 1977, which shows that contrary to common belief, no promise was made a priori to President Sadat that he would get the Sinai back before his arrival in Israel. Bregman had access to The Syrian Declaration of Principles of 1992, the basis for talks between Israel and Syria, and this appears in this book in its entirety. But perhaps the biggest coup is the revelations on the work of the most senior spy Mossad ever had in Egypt, and possibly in the Arab world. Bregman tells of how the spy turned his back on Mossad at the eleventh hour and betrayed and misled the Israelis to become the jewel in the crown of the Egyptian deception plan for the October 1973 war.