Air University Review, September-October 1982

Israel in Four Perspectives

Ambassador Gideon Rafael has written a book that turns out to be at least four books. Destination Peace, without question, is Rafael’s professional autobiography.* In addition, it is a chronicle of Israel’s diplomatic posture, progress, and survival during the first three decades of its modern independence. It is also a minirecord of Israel’s wars and major military engagements since independence. Lastly, Destination Peace is a collection of vignettes of the political, military, and diplomatic leadership of the modern state of Israel. It might have been better had Ambassador Rafael chosen only one of those themes or simply written four separate volumes. Each, taken by itself, could provide a fascinating and consuming tale; taken together, one senses that some aspect of each has been subsumed by one or more of the others.

*Gideon Rafael, Destination Peace: Three Decades of Israeli Foreign Policy (Briarcliff Manor, New York: Stein and Day, 1981, $16.95), 403 pages.

Having said this, I do not dispatch Destination Peace as being unworthy of the serious reader’s attention. However, I do offer the suggestion that the work should be read with all cerebal filtering systems functioning at peak efficiency. Moving through the jungle of detail presented, the reader finds trails of events abruptly halted or changed and/or paths of ideas lost in a morass of reminiscence, only to emerge suddenly elsewhere without warning or guidepost. Thus, while of great interest to readers personally or academically concerned with the Middle East, Destination Peace may not be an easy volume for the general reader to digest. In addition, its hortatory style and verbosity are not likely to earn it a place among the revered reference works on modern Israel.

Destination Peace is useful to the scholar in that it describes many key incidents and actions in Israel’s modern history. However, it falls short of the scholar’s needs because Rafael does not document or footnote the incidents and actions described in the book, apparently having relied solely on his memory or his personal diary for chronicling many important events. This failing would not be important were the book only an autobiography; however, inasmuch as the work contains much information of possible historical significance, the reader deserves documentary evidence of the events being described. For example, Rafael claims that the "Atoms for Peace" proposal originated with the Israeli Foreign Ministry in 1950 but was not put forward in the United Nations because of the outbreak of hostilities in Korea the same year. (p. 22) Similar assertions are made, without supporting evidence, that the diplomatic basis for Korean armistice negotiations grew from a seven-point plan developed by Israel (p. 28); that Israel and Romania were involved significantly in the establishment of secret diplomatic contacts between the United States and the People’s Republic of China in 1971 (p. 97); and that the famous Iron Curtain phrase originated with former Queen Elisabeth of Belgium in 1914 rather than with Winston Churchill. (p. 102) I do not suggest that these assertions or others of historical value are not based in fact but only that their credibility and that of the book in general would be better established if they and other assertions through the book had been better documented. Rafael does an excellent job in identifying and reflecting his personal views about personalities and events. His disdain for John Foster Dulles is made quite clear (pp. 64-65), as is his low opinion of U Thant’s involvement in the events prior to, and possibly causatory of, the 1967 War. (Chapter 16) Similarly, throughout the book he reflects a lack of respect for and trust of the U.S. Department of State, often making a marked distinction between the department as an entity and certain of its key personalities at any given time. Rafael also has his heroes and heroines. Throughout the book he is often highly flattering and seldom critical of David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir, and Abba Eban. Other key personalities, Israeli or other nationalities, do not receive his praise as easily nor as often.

Although Destination Peace has a heavy pro-Israeli-policy bias, it is not a totally uncritical work. In several instances Rafael asserts that some important Israeli policy failures were the result of unreconciled differences of view between the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, and the Prime Minister’s Office (pp. 252-53); Rafael also admits to errors in policy decisions which redounded to Israel’s disadvantage, such as a missed opportunity to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China; and a complacent disregard for and misreading of Egyptian capabilities and intentions, which Rafael believes contributed to the initiation of the Yom Kippur War and Israel’s near defeat there. (Chapters 32-33) He also notes that certain Israeli key personalities had biases that colored their judgment at critical times (Ben Gurion, Meir, and Eban in particular). However, these spasmodic admissions of Israeli culpability tend to be overridden throughout the book by continued placement of blame on others for Israel’s problems. He is continually critical of Israel’s friends and allies when they do not accept Israeli advice and blames the United States for the lack of progress toward a permanent peace. There is no hint that Israeli intransigence from time to time may have been a contributing factor.

Rafael admits little justification for Arab attitudes vis-à-vis Israel. Nevertheless, he exhibits considerable respect for certain Arab leaders: Charles Malik of Lebanon, several Egyptian diplomats, and latterly Anwar el-Sadat earned fairly high respect quotients. As might be expected, Gamel Abdel Nasser and Yassir Arafat do not.

Despite its compositional and dictional weaknesses, possible historical inadequacies, and pardonable partisan advocacy, Destination Peace is a useful work. It presents a valuable elementary chronology of Israeli modern history and survival. It also gives the reader valuable informal insights into a three-decade period of Israeli nation-building that are not likely to be found in an ordinary academic or historical work. Rafael’s personal views and his descriptions and assessments of the key Israeli personalities make the book worth reading. The book may not change one’s views about Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict, but one completes the book with a deeper sense of understanding and appreciation for the Israeli personality and the Israeli perspective.

Ambassador Maurice D. Bean (B.A., Howard University; M.A., Haverford College) is State Department Advisor to the Commander, Air University. He began his foreign affairs career in 1951 and has served in Djakarta, Indonesia; Washington, D.C.; Bangkok, Thailand; and the Republic of Philippines. After joining the Department of State in 1966, Ambassador Bean served as Country Director for Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei Affairs, Washington, D.C.; American Consul, Ibadan, Nigeria; Deputy Chief of Mission, American Embassy, Monrovia, Liberia; and was U.S. Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, Rangoon, Burma.

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

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