Man in the Shadows
Inside the Middle East Crisis with a Man Who Led the Mossad
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Israel's Mossad is thought by many to be one of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world. In Man in the Shadows, Efraim Halevy—a Mossad officer since 1961 and its chief between 1998 and 2002—provides an unprecedented portrait of the Middle East crisis. Having served as the secret envoy of prime ministers Rabin, Shamir, Netanyahu, Barak, and Sharon, Halevy was privy to many of the top-level negotiations that determined the progress of the region's struggle for peace during the years when the threat of Islamic terror became increasingly powerful. Informed by his extraordinary access, he writes candidly about the workings of the Mossad, the prime ministers he served under, and the other major players on the international stage: Yasir Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Hafiz al-Assad, Mu'amar Gadhafi, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. From the vantage point of a chief in charge of a large organization, he frankly describes the difficulty of running an intelligence agency in a time when heads of state are immersed, as never before, in using intelligence to protect their nations while, at the same time, acting to protect themselves politically. Most important, he writes fiercely and without hesitation about how the world might achieve peace in the face of the growing threat from Islamic terrorist organizations.
In this gripping inside look, Halevy opens his private dossier on events past and present: the assassination attempt by the Mossad on the life of Khaled Mashal, now the leader of Khammas; the negotiations surrounding the Israeli-Jordan Peace Accord and its importance for the stability of the region; figures in the CIA, like Jim Angleton and George Tenet, with whom he worked (Halevy even shares his feelings about Tenet's abrupt resignation). He tells the truth about what the Mossad really knew before 9/11. He writes candidly about assessing the threat of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the region and beyond, and what this spells for the future of international stability and survival. He touches on the increasing visibility of the CIA in the Middle East and openly shares his misgivings about both the report of the 9/11 Commission and the Middle East road map to peace that was pressed on all sides of the conflict by the U.S. government. He looks at the terrorist attacks in Madrid and London and their far-reaching effects, and states the unthinkable: We have yet to see the worst of what the radical Islamic terrorists are capable of.
Sure to be one of the year's most talked-about books, this fierce and intelligent account of will be a must-read for those looking to hear from a man who wielded his influence, in the shadows, to save the Middle East and the world from a never-ending cycle of violence and destruction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Never mind the dramatic title and jacket: readers expecting fireworks from the former head of the Israeli secret service will be disappointed. Written with the dispassion of an intelligence report, Halevy's memoir turns out to be a 20-year political history that includes much secret maneuvering but little skullduggery. Born in London in 1934, Halevy joined the Mossad in 1961 and quickly moved up to become a deputy division chief. His book opens in 1988-89, when the end of the Iran-Iraq war and the invasion of Kuwait suddenly changed the terms of Mideastern politics. The U.S. increased pressure on Israel to settle its Palestinian problem, and the first intifada heated up. Diplomatic progress was glacial; most of it involved careful political negotiations, dully detailed. The text perks up when Halevy becomes head of Mossad in 1998 and al-Qaeda enters the world stage by blowing up two U.S. embassies in Africa. Halevy delivers insightful and often acerbic portraits of world leaders and shows a surprising sympathy toward the Arab point of view. He also describes several operational fiascoes that made the news, but he writes as a loyal Israeli bureaucrat, so secrets stay put.
Customer Reviews
Good book
Good book on mossad