Operation Peace for Galilee: The Israeli-PLO War in Lebanon

by Richard A. Gabriel

Book Overview

The first book about the 1982 war in Lebanon, is based on hundreds of interviews with the soldiers of both sides, the guerrillas, who fought in it, and the civilians caught in the middle. Although the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809074540
• ISBN13: 9780809074549
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Hill & Wang
• Length: 241 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Then was the PLO, today is the Hezbollah?

In my opinion Israel's short but extremely violent campaign in Lebanon in 1982 is a subject that must be studied with great attention since it can teach us many political and operational lessons in order to evaluate the current situation in the Middle East and the way that Israel responds to periodic violence from Hezbollah. Mr Gabriel gives the background of that conflict and the subsquent military operations in great detail, accompanied by numerous black and white maps which show the situation on the ground every day. Once Egypt signed a treaty with Israel in 1979 and Sinai became a buffer zone, Israel became safe from a full peripheral war. Jordan was not going to launch an attack and Syria by itself could not strike. The danger to Israel became Palestinian operations inside Israel and the occupied territories and the threat posed from Lebanon by the Syrian-sponsored group Hezbollah. In 1982, Israel responded to this threat by invading Lebanon, It moved as far north as Beirut and the mountains east and northeast of it, cutting in the process the Beirut - Damascus highway. Israel did not invade Beirut proper, since Israeli forces traditionaly do not like urban warfare as it imposes too high a rate of attrition. But what the Israelis found was low-rate attrition. Throughout their occupation of Lebanon, they were constantly experiencing guerilla attacks, particularly from Hezbollah, until the were forced to withdraw their troops from Lebanon in 2000. Although the overall analysis is good, my complain is that the author does not devote enough pages to the terrific air battle of Bekaa Valley or the slaughter of the Syrian Air Force (the Israeli pilots achieved a score in the region of 81:0) and he makes some mistakes regarding the total number of weapons available to the IDF, like number of tanks, self propelled artillery etc. Despite this, the book is a very good introduction to the Lebanon War and the author does not avoid the hot issue of the Sabra / Shatila massacre, even though he does not blame Sharon openly. The book can be read together with Zeev Schiff's excellent "Israel's Lebanon War" and Martin van Creveld's "The Sword and the Olive" which is very critical of the Israeli choices but expertly written.

Great Account of the 1982 Lebanon War

If you are looking for a politically-skewed analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict or an overly biased account of the war, this is not your book. I say overly biased because all author have an opinion that is expressed overtly or covertly in their writing. Richard A. Gabriel, a well-respected professor of politics at St. Anselm College, former US Army intelligence officer, and consultant to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees as well as the Pentagon, has written what is probable the most objective and well-written account of the 1982 War in Lebanon between Israeli, Syrian, Lebanese, PLO, and other forces. He has written numerous books about military actions including several books that constructively criticized the American actions in Vietnam. Several of his books have since become requred reading for courses at military academies.Prof. Gabriel went out of his way to write an objective analysis of the combat, going so far as to interview PLO officials, IDF soldiers, and others. He also toured the battefields as they occurred as a guest of the IDF. Even more to his credit, he made a stipulation of his touring the front with the IDF that IDF miltary censors not be able to review his transcripts at all until after publishing. This means that he was able to effectively write whatever he wanted.The book itself is brilliant. Within its' 242 pages are numerous analyses of various tactical and strategic conflicts of the 1982 War. He lists grievances and events of all sides into the war and yet hesitates to make value judgements about any of them short of miltary stance. While avoidings making the book a massive judgement of the political stance of any of the fighters, he doesn't hesitate to list political factors that the combatants considered at the time of the war.One of the greatest treasures of having toured Lebanon and the conditions there is that he was able to disprove many of the false accounts that the media of the time forwarded to the public. Being a meticulous researcher also means that he always quotes sources and provides appropriate background. For instance, the PLO (through the Lebanese newspaper "An Nahar")claimed that Israeli forces killed 17,825 civilian noncombatants killed and wounded 30,103 civilians. Mr. Gabriel analyzed all of the data available from various sources (including interviews with village mayors and other on-the-site witnesses) and came up with a more likely figure of 4,000 to 5,000 killed and 12,000 to 14,000 wounded.If you are looking for an account of the 1982 war that objectively evaluates military actions of the combatants then Prof. Richard A. Gabriel's "Operation Peace for Galilee - The Israeli-PLO War in Lebanon" is unparallelled. I highly recommend reading this book whether you are looking for more background on the Arab-Israeli conflict, are a military historian, a wargamer, or just someone interested in knowing more about the Middle-East. Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

Brilliant, objective study of Israeli-PLO war in Lebanon.

Books that portray an objective, fair and unbiased assessment of Israel's `Operation Peace For Galilee' are very difficult to find..In my experience most books on this subject appear to have a hidden agenda of vilifying Israeli military involvement in Lebanon whilst casting aside the wholesale, indiscriminate cross-border terrorism of Palestinian terrorist entities that caused such an involvement in the first place. Other books appear to be dedicated to the de-humanisation of then Defence Minister, Ariel Sharon, for an alleged connection to the horrific massacres of Palestinians at the Sabra/Shatila refugee camps by Lebanese `Christian' Phalange militia.This book is refreshing and perhaps unique in that it seeks to provide as balanced an analysis as is possible. Richard Gabriel, Professor of Politics, only proceeded with this book on the understanding that he was able to avoid any involvement with the Israeli censors and that he was permitted to obtain a neutral publisher. The final results of Professor Gabriel's study only being seen upon publication by any interested parties at the very same time as everyone else.Professor Gabriel was able to draw upon interviews with many journalists - Lebanese, European, British, American and Israeli. The author was also able to spend unsupervised time with `PLO suspects' detained in Israeli and Lebanon to gather the personal impressions and opinions of these prisoners in relation to their treatment and the conflict itself. Access was also provided to numerous Palestinian Doctors and Nurses in Lebanese camps and also to many high officials in the Lebanese Government and combatants/members of the `Christian' militias, the Druse militia and the Amal Moslem milita, thus providing some `enlightening' information on the nature of the ethnic and religious hatreds prevalent within Beirut and Lebanon. Similar access was provided to the Israeli side which also included interviews with the battalion & company commanders in the field together with the `common' soldiers who bore the brunt of the combat.The author was provided with his own transport and able to travel throughout the Lebanese battle zones, retracing by car or on foot, all the major routes of advance taken by the major Israeli units. This included the Bekaa Valley, Damour, the outskirts of Beirut itself and the region overlooking Damascus.The author, having access to the actual terrain of the battle sites and with some eighteen years as a former Army & Intelligence officer, was able to comment in knowledgeable context about the operations at first hand.One is left in no doubt about the horrors of this conflict and the traumas of having to frequently fight against an enemy hiding in civilian areas, with the harrowing experience which unavoidably ensued, of seeing civilians die as a result of military actions.The author analyses the Sabra & Shatila massacres in some detail and credits the Israeli Government for not following the path of the debatable U

Fascinating Military Analysis of 1982 War

If you are looking for a politically-skewed analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict or an overly biased account of the war, this is not your book. I say overly biased because all author have an opinion that is expressed overtly or covertly in their writing. Richard A. Gabriel, a well-respected professor of politics at St. Anselm College, former US Army intelligence officer, and consultant to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees as well as the Pentagon, has written what is probable the most objective and well-written account of the 1982 War in Lebanon between Israeli, Syrian, Lebanese, PLO, and other forces. He has written numerous books about military actions including several books that constructively criticized the American actions in Vietnam. Several of his books have since become requred reading for courses at military academies.Prof. Gabriel went out of his way to write an objective analysis of the combat, going so far as to interview PLO officials, IDF soldiers, and others. He also toured the battefields as they occurred as a guest of the IDF. Even more to his credit, he made a stipulation of his touring the front with the IDF that IDF miltary censors not be able to review his transcripts at all until after publishing. This means that he was able to effectively write whatever he wanted.The book itself is brilliant. Within its' 242 pages are numerous analyses of various tactical and strategic conflicts of the 1982 War. He lists grievances and events of all sides into the war and yet hesitates to make value judgements about any of them short of miltary stance. While avoidings making the book a massive judgement of the political stance of any of the fighters, he doesn't hesitate to list political factors that the combatants considered at the time of the war.One of the greatest treasures of having toured Lebanon and the conditions there is that he was able to disprove many of the false accounts that the media of the time forwarded to the public. Being a meticulous researcher also means that he always quotes sources and provides appropriate background. For instance, the PLO (through the Lebanese newspaper "An Nahar")claimed that Israeli forces killed 17,825 civilian noncombatants killed and wounded 30,103 civilians. Mr. Gabriel analyzed all of the data available from various sources (including interviews with village mayors and other on-the-site witnesses) and came up with a more likely figure of 4,000 to 5,000 killed and 12,000 to 14,000 wounded.If you are looking for an account of the 1982 war that objectively evaluates military actions of the combatants then Prof. Richard A. Gabriel's "Operation Peace for Galilee - The Israeli-PLO War in Lebanon" is unparallelled. I highly recommend reading this book whether you are looking for more background on the Arab-Israeli conflict, are a military historian, a wargamer, or just someone interested in knowing more about the Middle-East.