The Six-Day War

Reviews

“The author looks beyond Cold War maneuvering to examine the conflict in other lights, including the economic…Laron connects many of those events to current trends and developments, including Israel’s ‘cult of the offensive.’”

“Scholars of political economy, US foreign relations, Middle East history, and international relations will find much food for thought here.”

“In this fine work, Guy Laron, a young historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, takes a fresh look at the war and its causes…Like all the best history, Laron’s book is studded with fascinating facts and anecdotes that shed light on his theories.”

“Since the thirty-year declassification rule opened up the Israel State Archives to researchers in 1997, a number of books…have recast the David and Goliath myth that had risen up around the events of May and June 1967. Israel is no longer seen as the weak and passive actor threatened with a second Holocaust and forced into a pre-emptive attack, but as a confident strategist taking advantage of Egypt and Syria’s blundering brinkmanship to fulfill a long-planned expansion…A new history of the lead-up to the war by Guy Laron, The Six-Day War…reinforces this narrative..This was a boost to uncompromising nationalistic visions on both sides, giving birth to a messianic settler movement and violent strains of Palestinian terrorism.”

“A lively study…his work is to be commended.”

“Israel today has a raft of ‘post-Zionist’ academics and journalists for whom everything the country has done is a standing moral reproach. Writing more in sorrow than in anger, Guy Laron takes a different approach, examining how and why the war occurred at all.”

“Both impressive and disheartening…it should be required reading for President-elect Donald Trump. Readers will learn that it’s sometimes much easier for leaders to go to war than to make peace…At the very least, we ordinary citizens should read it.”

“Drawing upon interdisciplinary knowledge and exhaustive archival research, The Six-Day War is a sober, edifying, and highly recommended contribution to public and college library audiobook collections.”

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