The Middle East realities are, fortunately, more complex than we may read and/or heard about in the media. The Abraham Accords launched last year did not occur overnight, but are the result of long years, if not decades, of rapprochement at different levels between representatives of Israel and various Arab countries. Most, if not all, of those contacts were set through the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, the famous - for all its goods and bads - Mossad.
Reading a book authored by a head of the Mossad may project a lot of expectations. One may think that once one start reading such a book, all the questions and curiosities about the recent history are suddenly answered. Such high expectations may apply to any book written by insiders of the secret world.
In reality thus, the very nature of the intelligence work does not allow too much disclosure. Definitely, there are much praised book offering insights to the general public, but whenm someone as Shabtai Shavit, director of the Mossad between 1989 and 1996, writes a political memoir, most likely the result will be a dairy-like with many blank spaces. Shavit has over 50 years of experience in international security and counterterrorism operations, with three decades of work in the Mossad. His military service was in the elite unit of Sayeret Matkal, where Yonathan Netanyahu and his prime minister brother, Bibi, as well as Ehud Barak, Israel´s 10th prime minister, performed their military duties. He was chosed by Yitzhak Shamir to replace Nahum Admoni, leading Israeli´s foreign intelligence service through very troubled international and internal waters. He was also the first director that do not belong to the generation that led the War of Independence which meant sometimes a different view on political evolutions and the right way to react to changes.
During his long years of service, Shabtai Shavit witnessed tremendous international events that challenged for ever the intelligence environment: the end of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany, the first Gulf War, the conclusion of the peace agreement with Jordan or the assassination of Yitzak Rabin. Those changes required a constant adaptation in terms of human resources, budgets and intelligence plans. As Shavit himself acknowledges, the political strategy may create ´strange bedfellows´ and this is available particularly after the end of the Cold War.
Shavit writes in a very systematic, bullet-points way, with the coldness and verbal scarcity of someone used to read, accumulate and categorize tons of important information every day. As a ground operative himself, he appreciates and even praises the value of human intelligence as one of the most valuable assets.
The book is organised in various chapters, with details about various operations and major international or regional events from the point of view of the information and interests of Israel´s intelligence community, such as the intelligence failures of the Yom Kippur war, the First Gulf War, the Iranian file, the Olso Agreements, the second Lebanon War. The specific details of those operations, although sometimes too general, are important for anyone interested in understanding the Middle East as it is, not as some may want to be.
The points of view are shared from the point of view of the intelligence professional and this is very important to keep this in mind while reading the book. I´ve found the observations related to the freedom of speech too general and unfair even unrealistic for the journalists, but in the end, I understood that this is the way in which people on the other side of the institutional wall see the things. Expecting the journalists to counter and eventually accept what not to disclose to the public, for high state reasons, it´s widely unrealistic and problematic for the journalist whose mission is a bit different, if not completely contradictory to such principles.
Much more interesting and source of long-term food for thought are the observations regarding the possibility of a new Sykes-Picot agreement in the Middle East. How he sees the new power chess game - a well-inspired cover, by the way - is unexpected, for at least one reason: the idea of a ´Sunnistan´, which may border Kurdistan (a new state as well, but this one I´ve heard more than once before) in the North, Iraq in the East, Jordan in the South and Syria in the West. This state may be a solution offered to Sunni populations in the Middle East. I may need a bit of time to digest further this information...
As expected, there are some thoughts about the Palestinian case as well, with an interesting insights about the ´right of return´, a claim which may made any further negotiation with the Israeli impossible. (More about this in a next review of a book dedicated to the issue by Einat Wilf). How everything started and what are the roots of the common conflict is also explained, with candid details from the very beginning of the state of Israel.
There are also some thoughts about Iran, where the author himself travelled during the Shah years, and it portrays realistically the dilemma of what exactly to expect from a strong country, with a messianic leadership, whose religious leader has the right to use the red button (or whatever colour the nuclear launcher does have in Tehran). How to operate with such an actor - which is not rational, in the way of the actors we were used to operate during the Cold War.
Admirably, the books ends with a collection of eulogies Shavit made for colleagues and other people involved in the intelligence work. It´s a moving tribute which recognize how important every single person working in this field is.
I have not been impressed by the style - nonfiction can be well, beautifully written as well - but this is not the point of the book. The other details related to the knowledge shared, based by the author´s experiences, were well convened and therefore, makes the book an useful addition to the already vast bibliography of books dedicated to the Middle East.
Rating: 4 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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