A High Price

The product of painstaking research and countless interviews, A High Price offers a nuanced, definitive historical account of Israel's bold but often failed efforts to fight terrorist groups. Beginning with the violent border disputes that emerged after Israel's founding in 1948, Daniel Byman charts the rise of Yasir Arafat's Fatah and leftist groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-organizations that ushered in the era of international terrorism epitomized by the 1972 hostage-taking at the Munich Olympics. Byman reveals how Israel fought these groups and others, such as Hamas, in the decades that follow, with particular attention to the grinding and painful struggle during the second intifada. Israel's debacles in Lebanon against groups like the Lebanese Hizballah are examined in-depth, as is the country's problematic response to Jewish terrorist groups that have struck at Arabs and Israelis seeking peace. In surveying Israel's response to terror, the author points to the coups of shadowy Israeli intelligence services, the much-emulated use of defensive measures such as sky marshals on airplanes, and the role of controversial techniques such as targeted killings and the security barrier that separates Israel from Palestinian areas. Equally instructive are the shortcomings that have undermined Israel's counterterrorism goals, including a disregard for long-term planning and a failure to recognize the long-term political repercussions of counterterrorism tactics.
"A great introduction to Israeli counterterrorism."--Thomas E. Ricks, Foreign Policy

"Meticulously researched...a fascinating account of Israel's techniques for recruiting informants in hostile territory and its evolving efforts to make its interrogation practices conform to the strictures of international law."--Wall Street Journal

"An admirably even-handed book."--The Economist

"A definitive work on Israel's war against Palestinian terrorism. Packed with statistics and excellent documentation, it will certainly be an important reference for years to come."--Moment

"For a democracy, some ways of defeating terrorism can be a Pyrrhic victory. Byman shows us what Israel did against terrorists that failed, what worked, and what was counter-productive. We can learn from Israel's experience. We do not have to repeat their mistakes... if we know what they were."--Richard A. Clarke, author of Against All Enemies and Cyber War

"Daniel Byman has produced a vitally important, invaluable history and analysis of Israeli counterterrorism policy and practice. His research and judgments are balanced, nuanced, grounded in evidence and highly credible. He shatters the easy myths about Israeli brilliance and bungling against its terrorist adversaries and leads us to an understanding of why it remains so important for Israel to discover a path forward that will integrate its counterterrorism tactics into a wider strategy that can produce, as the author puts it, 'peace within its borders and with its neighbors.'" --Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars and The Bin Ladens

"On a topic that excites great passion, Dan Byman has written a cool, lucid, and balanced work. This is, and for years to come will remain, the best book explaining the Israeli experience, its successes and its failures, to all democracies facing terrorist threats."--Eliot A. Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies, SAIS, Johns Hopkins

SECTION AND CHAPTER OUTLINE ; I. BEGINNINGS (1940-1967) ; CHAPTER ONE: THE GLASS HOUSE (JEWISH RESISTANCE TO BRITISH RULE) ; CHAPTER TWO: CROSSBORDER WARS (FIGHTING FEDAYEEN ATTACKS FROM JORDAN AND EGYPT) ; II. THE BIRTH OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM (1967-1993) ; CHAPTER THREE: THE RISE OF THE PLO ; CHAPTER FOUR: THE PFLP AND THE BIRTH OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM ; (MUNICH, DAWSON'S FIELD) ; CHAPTER FIVE: ISRAEL STRIKES BACK ; (OPERATIONS SPRING OF YOUTH, WRATH OF GOD, THUNDERBOLT, THE TUNIS RAID, ETC.) ; III. COUNTERTERRORISM AND THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (1993-2000) ; CHAPTER SIX: THE DREAMS OF OSLO ; CHAPTER SEVEN: THE RISE OF HAMAS ; CHAPTER EIGHT: PARTNERS? (1996 COOPERATION, THE TUNNEL CLASH, ARAFAT'S POLICIES) ; CHAPTER NINE: ISRAEL ORGANIZES FOR COUNTERTERRORISM (MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE CHANGES) ; CHAPTER TEN: CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON (THE ROAD TO THE SECOND INTIFADA) ; IV. THE DARK DAYS OF THE SECOND INTIFADA (2000-2002) ; CHAPTER ELEVEN: ONE MILLION BULLETS (ISRAEL'S RESPONSE TO THE SECOND INTIFADA) ; CHAPTER TWELVE: KILLING RAED KARMI ; (DISCUSSION OF ISRAEL'S CONFLICTING STRATEGIES AND TARGETED KILLINGS) ; V. <"VICTORY>" AND ITS LIMITS (2002-PRESENT) ; CHAPTER THIRTEEN: ENTERING THE HORNET'S NEST: THE BATTLE OF JENIN ; (DISCUSSION OF OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD) ; CHAPTER FOURTEEN: BACK TO THE WALL (BUILDING THE SECURITY BARRIER) ; CHAPTER FIFTEEN: DECLARING VICTORY AND GOING HOME (UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA) ; CHAPTER SIXTEEN: STUCK IN THE WEST BANK? ; VI. FIGHTING HEZBOLLAH (1982-2007) ; CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: BIRTH OF A MONSTER (ISRAEL'S INVASION OF LEBANON ; AND THE CREATION OF HEZBOLLAH) ; CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE RULES OF THE GAME (LIMITED WAR WITH HEZBOLLAH IN THE 1990S) ; CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE PROMISE OF NORMALCY IN LEBANON (WITHDRAWAL IN 2000 AND ITS ; UNFULFILLED HOPES) ; CHAPTER TWENTY: HEZBOLLAH RETURNS (THE 2006 WAR) ; VII. JEWISH TERRORISM ; CHAPTER TWENTY ONE: DESTROYING THE ABOMINATION ; (ATTACKS ON MAYORS AND THE PLOT TO BLOW UP THE DOME OF THE ROCK) ; CHAPTER TWENTY TWO: TO KILL A PRIME MINISTER ; VIII. A REPORT CARD ; CHAPTER TWENTY THREE: EVALUATING ISRAELI STRATEGIES ; CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR: PUBLIC RESILIENCE ; CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: WINNING THE BATTLES, LOSING THE WAR (INEVITABLE TRADEOFFS AND ; THE LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES OF COUNTERTERRORISM) ; IX. LESSONS FOR AMERICA (AND EUROPE) ; CHAPTER TWENTY SIX: LEARNING FROM ISRAEL