ISRAEL

Historical

Bell, J. Bowyer. "Assassination in International Politics: Lord Moyne, Count Bernadotte, and the Lehi." International Studies Quarterly 16, no. 1 (1972): 59-82.

Bell, J. Bowyer. Terror Out of Zion: Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Palestine Underground, 1929-1949. New York: St. Martin's, 1977.

Ben-Ami, Yitshaq. Years of Wrath, Days of Glory: Memoirs of the Irgun. New York: Speller, 1982.

Black, Ian. "Review Article: The Origins of Israeli Intelligence." Intelligence and National Security 2, no. 4 (Oct. 1987): 151-156.

"Several recent Hebrew works ... have shed considerable light on how, by the final days of British rule in Palestine (1917-48) the legal and underground institutions of the Jewish Yishuv (community) had developed an impressive capacity for military and political intelligence, propaganda and special operations both in Palestine itself and, to a lesser extent, the neighboring Arab states." The author covers Hebrew-language works by Ezra Danin, Yoav Gelber, Zvika Dror, and Yitzhak Levy.

Butcher, Tim. "Israeli Hero 'Was Spy Who Betrayed Jews.'" Electronic Telegraph, 31 Mar. 2007. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk]

"Teddy Kollek,... mayor of Jerusalem for almost 30 years, fed sensitive information to MI5 when Britain ran Palestine under a League of Nations mandate. Evidence of Kollek's secret past has been disclosed in documents discovered at the Public Record Office in Kew by ... an investigative journalist working for the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.... [I]t appears he only gave information in as much as it served the Jewish Agency's side in the fratricidal conflict with the hardliners."

Charters, David A. "Eyes of the Underground: Jewish Insurgent Intelligence in Palestine, 1945-47." Intelligence and National Security 13, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 163-177.

"This article ... describes the origins and development of Jewish insurgent intelligence organizations and their operations against the British in Palestine, 1945-47.... [T]he Jewish insurgent intelligence effort was extensive, formidable, and very largely successful."

Dekel, Ephriam [pseud. for Ephriam Krassner]. Shai: The Exploits of Hagana Intelligence. New York: Yoseloff, 1959.

Constantinides: Shai was founded in 1921 as the intelligence and security arm of the Hagana. The author headed the organization at one point. The focus of the work is on the organization's successes.

Engle, Anita. The Nili Spies. London: Hogarth, 1959. Jerusalem: Phoenix Publications, 1989. Intro., Peter Calvocoressi. London: Frank Cass, 1997.

According to Constantinides, the Nili intelligence organization operated in Palestine in 1917. It was organized by Zionists Aaron and Sarah Aaronson, and provided assistance to the British with the hope of support for Jewish aspirations after the war. The organization's work is not the focus of this sympathetic book. There is more to be done in assessing Nili's contributions.

Commenting on the reprint of this book, Tauber, I&NS 7.3, says that there is too little emphasis on the group's intelligence activities, either what the group collected or how the information benefited the British. However, the main faults of the book are a general lack of footnotes and the fact that it is based on Nili documents without reference to British or Ottoman sources.

See also, Verrier, Agents of Empire (1995).

Gil-Har, Yitzhak. "British Intelligence and the Role of Jewish Informers in Palestine." Middle Eastern Studies 39, no. 1 (Jan. 2003): 117-149.

Heller, Joseph. The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics and Terror, 1940-1949. London: Frank Cass, 1995.

Maglio, I&NS 12.2, says Heller "casts new light" of this Jewish-underground movement. The work "is an admirable attempt at the objective reconstruction of an immensely complex subject; the range of primary sources is impressive.... Nevertheless, The Stern Gang seems sometimes overloaded by the amount of detail to the point where it can generate confusion.... Heller's style is undoubte[d]ly exhaustive and accurate, but also lacking in focus."

Sheldon, Rose Mary. "Jesus, the Security Risk: Intelligence and Security in First Century Palestine." Small Wars and Insurgencies 9, no. 2 (Autumn 1998): 1-37.

Sheldon, Rose Mary. Spies of the Bible: Espionage in Israel from the Exodus to the Bar Kokhba Revolt. St. Paul, MN: MBI Publishing, 2007.

According to Peake, Studies 51.3 (2007), the author "provides the historical detail to understand the circumstances of the times and the intelligence requirements they generated.... [She] concludes that many of the espionage tales of the Bible didn't take place, at least as described. Professor Sheldon provides ample evidence to support her conclusions.... As to the existence of spies in ancient times, Professor Sheldon argues that the documented military battles make their existence a practical necessity, but the best the historian can do with regard to specifics is make 'an educated guess.'"

Denton, IJI&C 21.4 (Winter 2008-2009), nots that this work "bridges two disparate acaemic communities: Biblical studies and intelligence studies." It is "an excellent overall example of engagingly thorough scholarly writing." The book's "bibliography and index [are] 'exhaustive.'"

For Kruh, Cryptologia 33.1 (Jan. 2009), this work "is well written and, while some familiarity with Scripture is necessary to enjoy [it], the reader does not need to be a Biblical scholar, by any means.... Sheldon explains what we need to know as she goes along." This is "an excellent book on the nature of warfare in the ancient world."

Sheldon, Rose Mary. "Taking on Goliath: The Jews Against Rome, AD 66-73." Small Wars and Insurgencies 5, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 1-28.

"The war of liberation fought by the Jews against the Romans in AD 66-73 provides an interesting study on the strengths and weaknesses of guerrilla warfare, terrorism, and insurgency in an ancient Near Eastern context. The war also illustrates the intelligence needs of a small country waging war against a larger occupation force."

Silman-Cheong, Helen. Wellesley Aron: A Rebel With a Cause -- A Memoir. London: Frank Cass, 1991.

Surveillant 2.2 identifies this as the biography of a "Jewish Palestinian who worked clandestinely for the Hagannah in the US during Israel's War of Independence."

Tauber, Eliezer. "The Capture of the NILI Spies: The Turkish Version." Intelligence and National Security 6, no. 4 (Oct. 1991): 701-710.

The author seeks to shed some light on how the Jewish NILI spy ring was wrapped up by the Ottoman authorities in 1917 by using the memoirs of 'Aziz Bek, head of intelligence for the Ottoman Fourth Army.

Verrier, Anthony. Agents of Empire: Anglo-Zionist Intelligence Operations, 1915-1919; Brigadier Walter Gribbon, Aaron Aaronsohn and the NILI Ring. Washington, DC: Brassey's, 1995.

According to Surveillant 4.2, Verrier uses Brig. Walter Gribbon's private papers and Aaron Aaronsohn's diaries to tell the story of a collaboration that "set in motion an intelligence operation which greatly helped General Allenby defeat the Turkish Army in the Levant, giving Britain its 'moment' in the Middle East and lay[ing] the foundations for a Zionist state." See also, Engle, The Nili Spies (1997).

Wagner, Steven. "British Intelligence and the Jewish Resistance Movement in the Palestine Mandate, 1945-46." Intelligence and National Security 23, no. 5 (Oct. 2008): 629-657.

The author asserts that "the British had strong political intelligence on the Yishuv as a whole but poor operational intelligence on the Haganah, and even less on Irgun or Lehi [Stern Gang]. The limited information which was available was not put to effective use....[T]he problem was much more policy than intelligence."

Winstone, H.V.F. The Illicit Adventure: The Story of Political and Military Intelligence in the Middle East, 1898-1926. London: Cape, 1982. Frederick, MD: UPA, 1982.

http://www.cloakanddagger.com/dagger: "A first-rate work on the development of countries in the Middle East, highlighting intrigue and intelligence. Wonderful bibliography is included."

Zadka, Saul. Blood in Zion: How the Jewish Guerrillas Drove the British Out of Palestine. London: Brassey's, 1995.

Maglio, I&NS 12,2, sees Blood in Zion as "a complete review of structure, tactics, operations" of the Irgun. While "[n]o study of such a complex and important subject is likely to be exhaustive,... this book is certainly one of the most thorough examinations of the 1940s Jewish terrorist campaign and subsequent British reaction. A wide bibliography of primary and secondary sources includes invaluable interviews with some of the protagonists of the armed insurrection."

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