Byman - A high price: the triumphs and failures of Israeli counterterrorism

,

A HIGH PRICE

THE TRIUMPHS AND FAILURES
OF ISRAELI COUNTERTERRORISM

DANIEL BYMAN

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Daniel Byman 2011

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Byman, Daniel, 1967
A high price : the triumphs and failures of Israeli
counterterrorism / Daniel Byman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-19-539182-4 (alk. paper)
1. TerrorismIsrael. 2. TerrorismIsraelPrevention.
3. Arab-Israeli conflict. I. Title.
HV6433.I75B96 2010
363.32516095694dc22
2010033704

9780195391824

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

SECTION II. FROM OSLO THROUGH
THE SECOND INTIFADA

More than any book Ive written, this work benefited from the help of others. At Georgetown University my thanks go to Bruce Hoffman, Ellen McHugh, Carol Lancaster, and Robert Gallucci, now President of the MacArthur Foundation. Through them I received assistance from the Center for Peace and Security Studies and the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. I am particularly grateful to the George T. Kalaris Intelligence Studies Fund for its support of this book.

I also received tremendous institutional support from the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute. Several of my colleagues at the Saban Centerexperts in their own right on this topicwere particularly helpful. Ken Pollack offered invaluable input into the research design and provided many superb suggestions for improving the final manuscript as well as the constant encouragement that is his trademark. I thank Bruce Riedel for his careful reading of my entire manuscript and many thoughtful comments during the research process. Khaled Elgindy, Tamara Wittes and Michael OHanlon also provided helpful guidance, and I am grateful to Martin Indyk for lending his expertise and helping me arrange interviews in Israel.

I was also fortunate enough to spend the summer at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. My thanks to Ambassador Zvi Shtauber for hosting me, as well as to the scholars and staff of INSS. This was an ideal location for my research.

Several friends and colleagues at other institutions played a critical role in assisting my research, serving as a sounding board, reviewing the final product, or otherwise helping make my work stronger. I thank Daphne Barak-Erez, Laura Blumenfeld, Stuart Cohen, Kim Cragin, Keren Fraiman, Boaz Ganor, Emile el-Hokayem, Michael Jacobson, Greg Jaffe, David Johnson, Charles King, David Makovsky, Peter Mansoor, H. R. McMaster, Montgomery Meigs, Ami Pedahzur, Charles Perkins, Arie Perliger, Jeremy Pressman, Yoram Schweitzer, Amit Segal, Brent Sterling, Beryl Taswell, and Victoria Wachino. Eliot Cohen offered an exceptionally helpful review of the entire manuscript, pointing out many weak points and offering his own valuable insights. Matthew Levitt not only read parts of the final manuscript, but also gave generously of his time in helping me get this project started. Pope Ward repeatedly helped me hone my message and the books structure, transforming an inchoate set of ideas into a coherent set of arguments. Also generous was Adam Stahl, whose help enriched my section on targeted killings.

I thank David McBride of Oxford University Press and my agent, Larry Weissman, for helping shape and refine the manuscript at critical stages. I am grateful to Alexandra Dauler and Michael OConnor for helping move this book through an often-onerous production process.

During the years I worked on this book I was privileged to have the support of several truly exceptional research assistants. In my efforts to secure interviews and initial research for this book, Chana Solomon-Schwartz provided a staggering amount of assistance, helping me find the most important and most useful people for my research and guiding me from start to finish in the process. Her energy and intelligence made their mark throughout this book. Shai Hazkani not only helped tremendously with the Hebrew-language sources, but, as an expert himself, also served as an in-house expert and critic, finding the faults with my work, suggesting new avenues to explore, and helping me avoid many errors. Eleazar (Lazar) Berman and Sarah Yerkes also were extremely supportive, digging up sources, critiquing the draft, and helping me make the final product much stronger. Sarahs assistance on the photos is particularly appreciated. Id also like to thank Zachary Foster, Alex Kennedy, Irena Sargsyan, Emily Solis-Cohen, Kimberly Walker, and Eric Werner for their assistance with research and editing for parts of this book.

Although this book draws on a range of documents, interviews are at its heart. In the end I interviewed more than a hundred people for this work: Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, and others with firsthand knowledge of the events or a strong analytic perspective. Some of those interviewed are cited by name in the narrative. Many of the most important people interviewedoften those in political positions or involved in intelligence, which is central to my bookchose to remain off the record. I understand their reasoning, and the absence of their names should not detract from their importance and my thanks. I thank them all for their time and patience

Finally, and most important, Id like to thank my wife, Vikki. She plunged in with me to bring the family to Israel in 2008 and supported my research before and after. She was intrepid in the face of amorous Moldovans, sleeping bears, and The Hokey Pokey sung loudly in Hebrew and French, shepherding me and our boys from one adventure to the next. In my research she has been a constant inspiration.

Despite the help of so many people, I am solely responsible for this books contents (and, of course, any remaining errors). Many of those who helped me will disagree with my conclusions, so my thanks to them should not be taken as their endorsement of my findings. This book has been reviewed by the U.S. government to prevent the disclosure of classified information, but nothing in its contents should be seen as asserting or implying U.S. government authentication of my factual points or endorsement of my opinions.

A HIGH PRICE

Map of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories established and evacuated 19672008.