Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction to Revised Edition
Prologue

BOOK I. THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1948–1949

1. Confrontation in Palestine
Israeli forces and dispositions
Arab forces and dispositions
Military confrontation
The struggle intensifies
Operation ‘Nachshon’
Plan D
The battle for Jerusalem
The Mandate ends

2. To the First Truce 15 May to 11 June 1948
The northern front
The central front
The battle for Jerusalem
The southern front
The first truce

3. To the Second Truce, 18 July to 15 October 1948
The northern front
The central front and Jeruslaem
The southern front
The second truce

4. The Decision
Decision in Galilee
The southern front: the Faluja pocket
The southern front: The ‘Horev’ offensive

Summary: The Israeli Victory

BOOK II. THE SINAI CAMPAIGN OF 1956

New régimes: the rise of Nasser’s Egypt
The arena of war and the opposing forces
The war — the Mitla battle
The battle of Abu Agelia
The battle for Rafah
The battle for the Gaza Strip
The battle for the Straits of Tiran
The air and naval war
Britain, France and the United Nations

BOOK III. THE SIX DAY WAR, 1967

Prologue
The Confrontation
The pre-emptive strike

1. The Second Sinai Campaign

2. The War with Jordan
The encirclement of Jerusalem
The West Bank: Samaria
The fall of Jerusalem
To the Jordan Valley

3. The Golan Heights

Summary: A Vindication

BOOK IV. THE WAR OF ATTRITION

‘Defensive rehabilitation’'
‘Offensive defence’ and the Bar-Lev Line
Jordan and the PLO
The ‘liberation’ phase
‘Flying artillery’
Soviet and SAMs
The cease-fire

Summary

BOOK V. THE YOM KIPPUR WAR

Prologue

1. The Southern Front
The deception
The onslaught
Defending the Bar-Lev Line
‘Shovach Yonim’
The first counterattack
The crisis
The Israeli plan
Opening the gap
The crossing
The battle for the corridor
On the west bank
The cease-fire

2. The Northern Front
The Syrian attack
The Isreali break-in
Syria’s plight
Iraqi and Jordanian counterattacks
The recapture of Mount Hermon

3. The Air and Naval War
SAMs vs. ‘Flying artillery’
Missles at sea

Summary: A New Era

BOOK VI. THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM: ENTEBBE

BOOK VII. OPERATION ‘OPERA’ THE DESTRUCTION OF OSIRAK

Iraq’s nuclear programme
The concerns in Israel
The political backdrop
Prime Minister Begin calls for a decision
Planning Operation ‘Opera’
Operation ‘Opera’
The international reaction
The UN anti-Israeli resolution

BOOK VIII. THE WAR IN THE LEBANON

1. Operation ‘Peace for Galilee’
Summary

2. Ending the Entanglement
The war for the security zone
The night of the hang gliders
The Lebanese border during the first intifada
The Al-Naima raid
Car bomb near Metula
The end of the Lebanese civil war
Operation ‘Grapes of Wrath’
The Four Mothers movement
The Yitzhak Mordechai initiative
Changin military conditions
Ehud’s Barak’s unilateral pledge

Summary

BOOK IX. THE FIRST PALESTINIAN UPRISING

A change of Government
A new Knesset, a new government
The writing on the wall
The Palestinian uprising
The ‘Ship of Return’
The assasination of Abu Jihad
Attacks on Israelis
The Temple Mount tragedy
Reassessing the intifada
The intifada and the IDF

Summary

BOOK X. ISRAEL THE FIRST GULF WAR

Iraq occupies Kuwait
The Gulf War
Military lessons for Israel
Political Developments

BOOK XI. THE OSLO PROCESS

The Hebron massacre
The abduction of Nashon Wachsman
Beit Lid and its aftermath
A new spell of violence
The tunnel incident

Summary

BOOK XII. THE EL-AQSA INTIFADA

Background
Characteristics of the El-Aqsa intifada
Stages of the conflict
The debate over the security fence
After 1,000 days: a first balance sheet
Towards the end of the intifada?

Summary

CONCLUSION

The Israeli military experience
The Arab military experience
The role of the superpowers
The Palestinians

Select Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Chaim Herzog was a major-general in the Israeli army and later President of Israel. He died in 1997.

Shlomo Gazit is the former head of Israeli Military Intelligence.

Reviews

"The best single-volume history of the Arab-Israeli wars." --The New York Times

"A volume that anyone who wants to understand what Israel has endured will have to read." --The New York Times Book Review

"Masterly and all-embracing." --John Keegan, Sunday Times

“Lucid, remarkably fair minded.” –Business Week

“Masterly.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review