Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel/Palestine - History (Modern), Israel/Palestine - Politics & Government, Israel - Diplomatic Relations, Treaties & Alliances - General & Miscellaneous, Middle East - Political Biography
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Overview
One of the great statesmen of our century, Shimon Peres, winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, has shaped the history of Israel and the future of the Middle East. In the seventies, as Israel's minister of defense, he engineered the legendary Entebbe raid against PLO terrorists; in the eighties, as prime minister, he saved the Israeli economy from near collapse; and as foreign minister, Shimon Peres is now a key negotiator in the peace accords that he helped bring about. In Battling for Peace, he tells, for the first time, the story of his amazing career. As we follow Peres from his ancestral home in Poland to Israel, from the youth village of Ben-Shemen to Kibbutz Alumot, from youth movement leader to prime minister, we are introduced both to a man and to a nation. A thoughtful, disciplined, and immensely resourceful young man, Peres was singled out by Israel's great leader David Ben-Gurion, who appointed him, while still in his twenties, director general of the Ministry of Defense. From this point on, Peres's life was inseparable from his country's history. Peres writes of his bitter quarrels with Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin, and of his great admiration for Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, and Francois Mitterrand. He discusses the origins of Israel's nuclear program, and tells how he led the way toward the Oslo agreement, describing his secret talks with King Hussein in London ten years ago, and revealing how a chance for peace was thwarted by self-serving politicians and timid American diplomacy.Certain to fascinate anyone intrigued about the future of the Middle East, these revealing memoirs of Shimon Peres, former Israeli Minister of Defense and winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, tell of his relationships with Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, and others whom he encountered during his amazing career.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
In this hopeful autobiographical memoir, Israel's current foreign minister discusses his behind-the-scenes negotiations that helped cement the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian accord, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. Born in 1923 in Poland, Peres followed his family to Palestine in the 1930s after his father, a lumber merchant, was forced out of business by punitive tax assessments. He writes about his formative years on a kibbutz and his role as head of arms procurement for the new Israeli army, providing a firsthand account of the birth of Israel. Peres, defense minister in the 1970s and later Israel's prime minister, uses diary excerpts to recreate his orchestration of Israel's rescue of passengers on a French plane hijacked by PLO terrorists and flown to Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976. He also settles scores with political rivals Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin (in whose government he currently serves) and reveals that in 1987 he held secret talks with King Hussein of Jordan in London to launch a peace conference without the PLO-an aborted plan whose failure he blames on U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (May)Mary Carroll
An entertaining memoir by a politician seems an oxymoron. But beyond his active role in Israel's--and world--history for more than 50 years, Peres is a gifted storyteller, able to sketch in a few lines the remarkable figures who enliven his narrative: Ben-Gurion and Meir, Dayan and Begin, Mitterrand, Brandt, and Kreisky, and various U.S. leaders. Peres adeptly deploys humanizing details--why, as a kibbutz herder, he preferred sheep over cows or how Dimona in the Negev Desert was prepared for the nuclear reactor Peres had convinced France to sell Israel--to tie details of arms procurement and political infighting to more mundane realities. His story is rich in drama: war and "intifada", terrorism and the Entebbe raid, Irangate and "the long search for peace," for which Peres shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Yasser Arafat of the PLO. "Battling for Peace" responds calmly to ugly charges against Peres in Labor Party rival Yitzhak Rabin's 1979 autobiography, but harshly criticizes Likud leaders Begin--for failing to control Ariel Sharon's tactics in Lebanon--and Yitzhak Shamir ("Summing Up", 1994) for destroying a hopeful opening toward peace that Peres negotiated in 1987 with King Hussein of Jordan. Insider's history at its best.Book Details
Published
May 1, 1995
Publisher
New York : Random House, c1995.
Pages
350
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780679436171