Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956
This revised and updated paperback edition of a highly successful study looks at the development of Israeli-Arab relations during the formative years 1949 to 1956, focusing on Arab infiltration into Israel and Israeli retaliation. He analyses Israeli decision-making processes, including the emergence and ultimate failure of Foreign MinisterMoshe Sharett's dissident policy of moderation and describes in detail the history of the Arab infiltration, including the terrorist-guerrilla raids by state-organized Fedayeen in 1955-6, and of the IDF raids against Sharafat, Beit Jala, Qibya, Gaza, the Syrian Sea of Galilee positions, and theSabha.This was a precedent-setting period in the making of Israeli defence policy, and this pattern of raiding and counter-raiding served to define Israeli-Arab relations during the subsequent three to four decades. In this revised and expanded paperback edition, Benny Morris deepens our understandingof the evolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict and of the crossroads at which a possible peace settlement was missed.