The Israeli Secret Services and the Struggle Against Terrorism

While Mossad is known as one of the world's most successful terrorist-fighting organizations, the state of Israel has, more than once and on many levels, risked the lives of its agents and soldiers through unwise intelligence-based intervention. The elimination of Palestinian leaders and militants has not decreased the incidence of Palestinian terrorism, for example. In fact, these incidents have become more lethal than ever, and ample evidence suggests that the actions of Israeli intelligence have fueled terrorist activities across the globe.An expert on terror and political extremism, Ami Pedahzur argues that Israel's strict reliance on the elite units of the intelligence community is fundamentally flawed. A unique synthesis of memoir, academic research, and information gathered from print and online sources, Pedahzur's complex study explores this issue through Israel's past encounters with terrorists, specifically hostage rescue missions, the first and second wars in Lebanon, the challenges of the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian terrorist groups, and Hezbollah. He brings a rare transparency to Israel's counterterrorist activities, highlighting their successes and failures and the factors that have contributed to these results. From the foundations of this analysis, Pedahzur ultimately builds a strategy for future confrontation that will be relevant not only to Israel but also to other countries that have adopted Israel's intelligence-based model.

List of FiguresAcknowledgments1. The Emergence of Israel's Counterterrorism Doctrine2. The Path to the Defensive Model and Back3. Rescuing Hostages4. The Lebanese Puzzle5. New Challenges from the West Bank and Gaza6. The Global Challenge of Iran and Hezbollah7. New Rivals, Old Responses8. A War Against an Elusive Enemy9. The Second Lebanon War and Beyond10. Fighting the Terrorism PlagueNotesGlossaryIndex