High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism

Over the course of its existence, Israel has suffered more from terrorism than perhaps any other country in the world. The second intifada, to name only one of Israel's recent terrorism challenges, has led to over 1,000 Israeli deaths. And the Palestinians have lost far more, as Israel responded to the intifada with frequent and devastating force. In A High Price, Daniel Byman provides an authoritative dual history of terrorism against Israel and the state's often disproportionate responses to it. This is not just an Israeli and Palestinian story, however; the techniques terrorists have used against Israel have often been harbingers of new forms of international terrorism. When Palestinian leftists first hijacked several airplanes flying to Israel, the world dismissed it as a problem that only Israelis would have to deal with. Over a decade later, suicide bombing was invented as a weapon to fight Israel and its perceived allies in Lebanon. Israel's counterterrorism efforts are also rich in lessons for other nations, both in what to do and in what to avoid. Israel often displays dazzling creativity and innovation in fighting terrorists. Too often, however, it ignores the long-term implications of its tactics, often perpetuating problems rather than solving them. America and other democratic states can gain insight into one of the essential issues of counterterrorism: the tradeoff between killing, arresting, and otherwise prevailing over terrorists seeking to kill you today, and the risks of alienating swathes of the population the terrorists seek to lead. A High Price explores Israeli counterterrorism policy since the state's creation, focusing both on the accomplishments of the Jewish state and where it has fallen short.