Full Product Details
Author: J. Bowyer Bell ,
Moshe Arens
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Inc
Imprint: Routledge
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.40cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.657kg
ISBN: 9781560008705
ISBN 10: 1560008709
Pages: 428
Publication Date: 30 January 1996
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
An academic expert on terrorism and author of a previous book about the Mideast (The Long War, 1969) has written a unique anecdotal narrative about the Revisionist Zionist underground, the Irgun and LEHI. Bell, who interviewed many paramilitary veterans, calls himself a small-r revisionist in seeking to present their activity free of orthodox depreciation or normal aversion to terrorism; instead, he views them sympathetically as counterparts of the Irish Revolutionary Army. After they united in rejecting the dominant concept of mere self-defense against the Arabs in the late 1930s, a split occurred among the terrorists during WW II when Avraham Stern refused to support the British war effort and instead made overtures toward the Axis. After 1945, terrorism came into its own; Bell records prison escapes, arms smuggling and assassination plots in great detail (preferred disguises for the Irgun: RAF officers, Arab deliverymen, or non-kosher beef scouts). Justifications and self-justifications are enumerated. For example, Bell thinks the Irgun tried to warn the King David Hotel in Jerusalem to evacuate its occupants before they blew it up in 1946, as they claim; but, he believes, the warning never got through. And he argues that the murder of UN mediator Folke Bernadotte should be viewed in light of the Count's reputation as a Nazi collaborator and British pawn. The book's conclusion - For the underground, terror was an unavoidable means - seems an exculpatory tautology, but the stories are undeniably gripping. (Kirkus Reviews)
Author Information
J. Bowyer Bell (1931-2003) was professor of international relations at Columbia University and president of International Analysis Center. He focused on problems of unconventional law, terrorism, deception, and crisis management. He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and recipient of more than seven Guggenheim Fellowships. Bell's consultancy firm, The International Analysis Centre, which he founded, focused on problems of terrorism, deception, risk analysis, and crisis management and had many governmental clients including the United States Department of the State and the Central Intelligence Agency.
