Anonymous Soldiers
The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the National Jewish Book Award
Winner of the Washington Institute Book Prize
One of the Best Books of the Year
St. Louis Post-Dispatch * Kirkus Reviews
In this groundbreaking work, Bruce Hoffman—America’s leading expert on terrorism—brilliantly re-creates the crucial thirty-year period that led to the birth of Israel. Drawing on previously untapped archival resources in London, Washington, D.C., and Jerusalem, Anonymous Soldiers shows how the efforts of two militant Zionist groups brought about the end of British rule in the Middle East. Hoffman shines new light on the bombing of the King David Hotel, the assassination of Lord Moyne in Cairo, the leadership of Menachem Begin, the life and death of Abraham Stern, and much else. Above all, he shows exactly how the underdog “anonymous soldiers” of Irgun and Lehi defeated the British and set in motion the chain of events that resulted in the creation of the formidable nation-state of Israel.
One of the most detailed and sustained accounts of a terrorist and counterterrorist campaign ever written, Hoffman has crafted the definitive account of the struggle for Israel—and an impressive investigation of the efficacy of guerilla tactics. Anonymous Soldiers is essential to anyone wishing to understand the current situation in the Middle East.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hoffman (The Failure of British Military Strategy in Palestine, 1939 47), director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University, covers the activities of the Jewish underground, particularly the Irgun and Stern Gang, during the revolt against the British rule of Palestine between February 1944 and the U.N. partition resolution of November 1947. He shows that the Jewish guerilla war, unlike the Arab revolt of 1936 39, was largely urban, and notes that the Jewish Agency and the Haganah, the mainstream Zionist political and military bodies, usually acquiesced to and sometimes openly cooperated with the Irgun, as in the crucial July 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel. Hoffman is particularly good at showing how the British advantage was eroded by vacillating strategies and policies toward the Yishuv (Jewish settlement), which viewed British soldiers and police as "an unpopular, repressive occupation force," despite British soldiers and police outnumbering Jewish underground members by 20 to 1 in the mid-1940s. The British attempt to bring the revolt to heel was also undermined by woefully inadequate intelligence on the Jewish underground. Drawing on prodigious research and employing fine narrative pacing, Hoffman has produced a first-rate work on the "endgame" in the Zionist struggle to establish a Jewish state.
Customer Reviews
Anonymous Soldiers
In this extraordinary book, Professor Hoffman relates in detail the story of how the British Empire took on the Mandate of Palestine as an accident of war and conquest and from the outset never could figure out what to do with the Mandate or how to combat the development of terrorism and violence that resulted in the creation of the State of Israel.
It is told in a fast- paced narrative and the reader learns much on almost every page.
One of the most interesting facets of the narrative is how well the author traces the progress and success of Menachem Begin's role directing the Irgun, especially between 1944 and 1948. The lessons of this often over- looked period of history ring true today as the world's current Superpower the United States struggles to defeat the many types of terrorism that plague us today. An excellent book that should be read by everyone in Washington, London, Jerusalem and around the world.