1st Edition

Trapped Fools Thirty Years of Israeli Policy in the Territories

By Shlomo Gazit Copyright 2003

    Based upon the author's own experiences this study explores the Israeli government's attitude to the West Bank and Gaza over a period of 30 years. The "fools" in the book's title refers not only to the Arabs who rejected Israeli peace offers but to the Israelis themselves.

    Part l: Background  1. First Contact with the Territories  2. Shaping Israeli Policy in the Territories  3. Organizing the Military Administration  Part 2: The Ministers of Defense and their Policies: A Historic Chronology  4. Introduction  5. Moshe Dayan  6. Shimon Peres  7. Ezer Weizman  8. Menachem Begin  9. Ariel Sharon  10. Moshe Arens  11.Yitzhak Rabin  Part 3: The Issues  12. The Political Future of the Territories  13. Israel's Administrative Policy  14. Municipal Elections in 1972 and 1976  15. Attempts to Establish Palestinian Self-Rule in the Territories  16. The Evolution of Israel's Settlement Policy  Part 4: Lessons Learnt from the Intifada  17. A New Reality  18. Israel's Policy in the Territories - A Summary  Epilogue  Appendices  Appendix A. The Administered Territories: General Data, 1967  Appendix B. Firing Instructions in Case of Riots in Military Government Areas (10 September 1984)  Appendix C. The Israeli Peace Initiative (14 May 1989)

    Biography

    Major General Shlomo Gazit, previously Weinstein, born to a family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants in Israel was an officer in the Israel Defense Forces and head of Aman from 1974 to 1978. He served as the head of assessment in IDF intelligence before the Six Day War. Gazit's studies were interrupted in the summer of 1967, when he was appointed by Defense Minister Moshe Dayan to be in charge of a committee tasked with running the political, security, and later economic affairs in the newly captured territories. This group would be renamed "The Unit for the Coordination of Operations in the Territories". After seven years, Gazit was promoted to head of Aman, which he held for four years.

    'A fair, comprehensively sourced account of how and why things have gone so badly wrong in the territories since those heady days of June 1967.' - The Jewish Chronicle