Anonymous Soldiers
The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947. Winner of the Jewish Book Award 2015
(Sprache: Englisch)
Drawing on newly released documents, America's leading terrorism expert recounts the battles between Jews, Arabs, and the British that led to the creation of Israel.
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Drawing on newly released documents, America's leading terrorism expert recounts the battles between Jews, Arabs, and the British that led to the creation of Israel.
Klappentext zu „Anonymous Soldiers “
Winner of the National Jewish Book AwardWinner 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.
Lese-Probe zu „Anonymous Soldiers “
PrefaceDoes terrorism work? Its targets and victims steadfastly maintain that it does not, while its practitioners and apologists claim that it does. Scholars and analysts are divided. Given the untold death and destruction wrought by terrorists throughout history, the question has an undeniable relevance that has only intensified since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Yet a definitive answer unaccountably remains as elusive as a universally accepted definition of the phenomenon itself.
Terrorists can never win outright, Prime Minister Ian Smith of Rhodesia confidently declared in 1977. Following the 1983 suicide truck bombing that killed 241 U.S. military service personnel in Lebanon, President Ronald Reagan defiantly proclaimed that the main thing is to show that terrorism doesn t work . . . [and] to prove that terrorist acts are not going to drive us away. Margaret Thatcher described the attempt by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) to kill her at the 1984 Conservative Party Conference as illustrative not only of a failed attack but of a fundamentally futile strategy. And in July 2006, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel promised that his government will not give in to blackmail and will not negotiate with terrorists when it comes to the lives of Israel Defence Force soldiers.
Scholars have made similarly sweeping claims. The Nobel laureate Thomas Schelling observed in 1991 that despite considerable exertion, terrorists mostly have little to show for their efforts except for fleeting attention and evanescent publicity. In the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, the historical novelist cum military historian Caleb Carr consolingly averred, The strategy of terror is a spectacularly failed one. And in a 2006 article unambiguously titled Why Terrorism Does Not Work, the political scientist Max Abrahms argued that terrorism was also tactically ineffective. The notion that terrorism is an effective coercive instrument, he
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concluded, is sustained by either single case studies or a few well-known terrorist victories. 3
Yet if terrorism is so ineffective, why has it persisted for at least the past two millennia and indeed become an increasingly popular means of violent political expression in the twenty-first century? The sense of personal empowerment and catharsis articulated by Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth, based on his experiences in Algeria during that country s struggle for independence against France, only partially explains terrorism s enduring attraction to the alienated and disenfranchised, the so-far powerless [and] would-be powerful, described some forty years ago by Frederick J. Hacker, a psychiatrist like Fanon. It is necessarily incomplete because individual motivations are only one side of a coin that also must address organizational dimensions and imperatives and the collective mind-set that they reflect.
Hence, much as statesmen and scholars may trumpet terrorism s ineffectuality, it is nonetheless widely accepted that terrorist violence is neither irrational nor desperate but instead entirely rational and often carefully calculated and choreographed. Terrorism is thus consciously embraced by its practitioners as a deliberate instrument of warfare, a pragmatic decision derived from a discernibly logical process. As the doyenne of terrorist studies, Martha Crenshaw, explained in her seminal 1981 article on the causes of terrorism, Campaigns of terrorism depend on rational political choice. As purposeful activity, terrorism is the result of an organization s decision that it is a politically useful means to oppose a government . . . Terrorism is seen collectively as a logical means to advance desired ends.
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Yet if terrorism is so ineffective, why has it persisted for at least the past two millennia and indeed become an increasingly popular means of violent political expression in the twenty-first century? The sense of personal empowerment and catharsis articulated by Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth, based on his experiences in Algeria during that country s struggle for independence against France, only partially explains terrorism s enduring attraction to the alienated and disenfranchised, the so-far powerless [and] would-be powerful, described some forty years ago by Frederick J. Hacker, a psychiatrist like Fanon. It is necessarily incomplete because individual motivations are only one side of a coin that also must address organizational dimensions and imperatives and the collective mind-set that they reflect.
Hence, much as statesmen and scholars may trumpet terrorism s ineffectuality, it is nonetheless widely accepted that terrorist violence is neither irrational nor desperate but instead entirely rational and often carefully calculated and choreographed. Terrorism is thus consciously embraced by its practitioners as a deliberate instrument of warfare, a pragmatic decision derived from a discernibly logical process. As the doyenne of terrorist studies, Martha Crenshaw, explained in her seminal 1981 article on the causes of terrorism, Campaigns of terrorism depend on rational political choice. As purposeful activity, terrorism is the result of an organization s decision that it is a politically useful means to oppose a government . . . Terrorism is seen collectively as a logical means to advance desired ends.
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Autoren-Porträt von Bruce Hoffman
Bruce Hoffman is the director of the Center for Security Studies and director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is also a senior fellow at the U.S. Military Academy s Combating Terrorism Center. His previous books include Inside Terrorism, The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat: From 9/11 to Osama Bin Laden s Death, and The Failure of British Military Strategy Within Palestine, 1939 1947.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Bruce Hoffman
- 2016, 672 Seiten, Maße: 15,4 x 23,3 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Penguin Random House
- ISBN-10: 0307741613
- ISBN-13: 9780307741615
- Erscheinungsdatum: 14.03.2016
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Riveting. . . . [A] thought-provoking book. The New York Times Book ReviewGripping. . . . Pathbreaking. The Wall Street Journal
Remarkable. . . . A magisterial history that is indispensable to anyone wishing to understand how and why the State of Israel came into existence. Foreign Affairs
Anonymous Soldiers does a wonderful job of elucidating this enormously complex and important period in Jewish history. Tablet
Indispensable. . . . A first-rate portrait. . . . [A] carefully researched and balanced treatment of the Jewish underground. . . . [Anonymous Soldiers] add[s] substantially to the contemporary debate about the aspirations, motivations and tactics of resistance movements, and the challenges inherent in addressing them. The Washington Post
One to read. . . . Those interested in the Arab-Israeli conflict will want this book in their library. . . . It s straightforward scholarship, written in an interesting style, and richly footnoted. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A detailed chronicle. . . . What makes Anonymous Soldiers a valuable contribution to the historiography of the revolt is that Hoffman is the first scholar of the subject to fully utilize the many thousands of British intelligence documents from the 1940s that have been declassified in recent years. Haaretz
This book will become a classic on the shelf of those who seek to understand and fight against non-state actors, who were themselves inspired by the Israeli example. Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower and Thirteen Days in September
Gripping. . . . An even-handed work of history that is, at the same time, a morally illuminating and challenging work about the role of violence in politics. [Hoffman] also confronts us with the unsettling truth that sometimes, and especially when the adversary is a democracy that has lost its will to fight, terrorism will succeed. Jewish Journal
This is the most important book for years on the prehistory of the state of Israel.
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. . . It is an invaluable contribution to the history of political violence and counterterrorism, shedding new light on conditions in which terrorism succeeds and when it fails. Walter Laqueur, author of A History of Zionism
A deftly written account of the Jewish revolt against the British in 1940s Palestine. . . . A page-turner that leaves the reader feeling sorry once the book is finished. Washington Free Beacon
An excellent book. The Jewish Chronicle
Anonymous Soldiers is the best comprehensive study of the Jewish extremists terror/guerrilla campaign against the British in Palestine. It is also a fine case study of a modern insurgency and counterinsurgency, with lessons for all students of terrorist/urban guerrilla wars around the globe. Benny Morris, author of Righteous Victims
An authoritative, sweeping, important history. Kirkus (starred)
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. Publishers Weekly (starred)
Bruce Hoffman s magnum opus. . . . This is the definitive account of one of the key factors in the formation of Israel. Peter Bergen, author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad
A deftly written account of the Jewish revolt against the British in 1940s Palestine. . . . A page-turner that leaves the reader feeling sorry once the book is finished. Washington Free Beacon
An excellent book. The Jewish Chronicle
Anonymous Soldiers is the best comprehensive study of the Jewish extremists terror/guerrilla campaign against the British in Palestine. It is also a fine case study of a modern insurgency and counterinsurgency, with lessons for all students of terrorist/urban guerrilla wars around the globe. Benny Morris, author of Righteous Victims
An authoritative, sweeping, important history. Kirkus (starred)
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. Publishers Weekly (starred)
Bruce Hoffman s magnum opus. . . . This is the definitive account of one of the key factors in the formation of Israel. Peter Bergen, author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad
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