Summary of Uzi Eilam's The secret of Israel’s Power

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 I have carried this spirit with me my entire life. I was imbued with the strength and moral fiber of the Jewish people, as well as the physical strength and wisdom of my grandfathers.
#2 The Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 was the beginning of the violence between Palestinians and Jews in Palestine. I was a child on the kibbutz during this period, and I remember watching the Palmach members train and wondering what they were doing.
#3 The Israeli War of Independence began with the UN General Assembly’s plan to partition Palestine, which was passed on November 29, 1947. The battles in the Jezreel Valley began to intensify. The large Arab village of Zir’in controlled the main road that ran lengthwise through the Jezreel and Harod Valleys, and was a permanent source of sniper fire on Jewish vehicles.
#4 I was chosen to attend a fitness coach’s course in 1949, and was placed in a group with Amitzur Shapira, an athlete of international standing. The course participants came from both kibbutzim and towns, and included Shapira, who would go on to coach Esther Shahamorov, one of the greatest Israeli athletes of all time.

Sujets

• Israel
• Arms Control
• International Relations
• Political Science

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 12 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822507265
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Uzi Eilam's The secret of Israels Power
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I have carried this spirit with me my entire life. I was imbued with the strength and moral fiber of the Jewish people, as well as the physical strength and wisdom of my grandfathers.

#2

The Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 was the beginning of the violence between Palestinians and Jews in Palestine. I was a child on the kibbutz during this period, and I remember watching the Palmach members train and wondering what they were doing.

#3

The Israeli War of Independence began with the UN General Assembly’s plan to partition Palestine, which was passed on November 29, 1947. The battles in the Jezreel Valley began to intensify. The large Arab village of Zir’in controlled the main road that ran lengthwise through the Jezreel and Harod Valleys, and was a permanent source of sniper fire on Jewish vehicles.

#4

I was chosen to attend a fitness coach’s course in 1949, and was placed in a group with Amitzur Shapira, an athlete of international standing. The course participants came from both kibbutzim and towns, and included Shapira, who would go on to coach Esther Shahamorov, one of the greatest Israeli athletes of all time.

#5

I was chosen to take part in the Gadna squad commanders’ course held at IDF Camp No. 80 near the town of Hadera during summer vacation of 1949. I was a man by 1951, and I knew I would need to provide for myself. I wanted to change my life by moving from the kibbutz dairy barn to work outside with the field crops, but my efforts were unsuccessful.

#6

I worked hard to improve my language skills, and I continued reading books in English during my military service as well. I had passed all the exams, even English, the subject that gave me the most concern.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

I was keen to join the secret Unit 101, which was set up to attack and destroy the Arab village of Sataf. I requested a formal transfer, but was denied. I decided to leave Gadna and study engineering at the Technion.

#2

I was finally able to breathe easily when the kibbutz voted to approve my studies. I had been determined to pursue academic studies, and the Technion had told me that I would be able to continue my studies at any time.
Insights from Chapter 3

#1

I was assigned to A Company, under the command of Sa’adia Alkayam, who we all called Supapo. The atmosphere in the paratrooper base was different from that of other military units. It seemed less like a military unit and more like a group of irregular guerilla fighters.

#2

The Gaza Strip had been a constant point of origin of cross-border infiltration operations since the end of the War of Independence. The operations were carried out primarily by the population of Gaza, at the explicit encouragement of Egyptian intelligence.

#3

We knew something was going to happen because a few days earlier, a jeep from C Company, which was part of the battalion, had blown a mine while driving on the patrol road that ran along the border of the Gaza Strip. Sharon had convinced Ben-Gurion and the General Staff of the logic of a broad-scale reprisal attack on the Egyptian military forces in the Strip.

#4

The Israeli force advanced slowly and quietly, and after reaching the area surrounding the Egyptian command center, the target of the operation, Sharon positioned his staff at the corner of an orange orchard just a few hundred meters north of the base.

#5

I was tasked with taking over the Egyptian base. I ran ahead and took out the positions within the camp, then took over the building and mop up the headquarters. When I reached the center of the camp, Micha Livni, a native of Kibbutz Ginnosar, was shot dead right next to me.

#6

The headquarters building had been abandoned and suddenly everything was quiet. The silence was eerie, almost deafening after all the gunfire and explosions. I sent Saverdlik to inform Davidi that the base had been cleared, and we could now begin blowing up the buildings.

#7

I was awarded the Medal of Courage, and I was discharged from the hospital with my arm in a cast. I went to the end-of-the-course celebration, and, in the chronicles of the Eilam family, the rest is history.

#8

Between Black Arrow and the Khan Yunis Operation, which took place in February and August 1955, the 890th Battalion carried out cross-border reconnaissance patrols with select teams from the company. The almost automatic response to attacks from across the border was to declare an alert for an operation.

#9

In late 1955, Meir Har-Zion returned to the battalion after a few months of suspension. He had been my classmate in the Tel Yosef - Ein Harod joint high school, and I knew that neither I nor anyone else could compete with his navigating skills or his combat experience.

#10

I began to understand how Sharon’s mind worked after serving as his intelligence officer for a year and a quarter. I knew exactly how his mind worked because I had to plan operations at a dizzying pace.

#11

I was able to report for another complex operation on my arm. But my knowledge of Sharon’s modus operandi was always at the back of my mind. After leaving hospital, I was again assigned to Convalescent Home 3 on Mt. Carmel, where I found Micha Kapusta from the paratroop reconnaissance unit. We somehow got wind of the plan to attack the Jordanian fort at Husan.

#12

I continued to fly elliptic routes between Hebron and Bethlehem, and soon heard the sounds of gunfire and explosions coming from the battle at the Jordanian fort. I warned Sharon, who asked me if I could direct the artillery fire of the brigade’s relatively meager 25 pound cannon at the reinforcements.

#13

I returned to brigade headquarters after visiting the Sayeret reconnaissance unit at Sataf. I was not going to be discharged, and I was not going back for any medical treatment.

#14

The war started with a long drive and a night encampment at Hatzeva in the Arava near the road to Eilat, which was meant to deceive the Egyptians into thinking that Jordan was the target of our operation. We left Hatzeva in a long convoy of trucks via the Faran riverbed toward the Egyptian Kuntila police station near Eilat.

#15

After the war, the brigade was debriefed. The most controversial issue was the battle of Mitla, in which dozens of paratroopers were killed. The commanders who fought and suffered heavy losses at Mitla were unable to forgive Sharon for not being involved in the difficult part of the fighting.

#16

The stormy but unique period during which I took part in Israel’s reprisal operations, which culminated with Operation Kadesh, had a lasting impression on the IDF. Looking back in retrospect, we can perhaps better assess not only the positive aspects of this activity, but its darker side as well.

#17

The contribution of the 1950s reprisal operations, in which Israeli forces attacked military bases beyond its borders, must be considered in broad historical perspective as a torch leading the Israeli military.
Insights from Chapter 4

#1

I was a disabled IDF veteran, and as such, I was eligible to receive a tuition scholarship as well as a small loan to cover living expenses. I began to undertake more public activities, first as the chair of the committee of my program’s students and later, during my third year, as the elected chair of the Technion’s Student Union.

#2

I was elected chair of the student union during my third year at the Technion, and I spent my free time participating in extra-curricular activities. I was planning on getting married, and I met with kibbutz secretary Meir Shachar to tell him that I was leaving the kibbutz.

#3

I was elected to the Technion Student Union committee responsible for foreign relations, and I spent the summer vacation of 1959 in the Far East, where I met many friends and colleagues from Asian countries. I continued to improve my English during the program.

#4

The class on industrial engineering and management was taught by Professor Yoel Kahan, an intelligent and experienced engineer who had worked for the Dutch railroads prior to World War II. He had a small industrial engineering consulting firm named Kheshet. I was hired as one of the firm’s seven engineers.

#5

I was asked to take the course’s lectures as well as its discussion sections. It was a quantum leap, somewhat reminiscent of my jump from squad commander to company commander in the 890th Battalion. I began teaching at the university in Jerusalem, and two years later I was accepted to Stanford University’s special training program for business administration instructors.

#6

I returned to Israel in January 1960, and immediately began looking for work and a place to live. I contacted the Weapons Development Department of the IDF Operations Branch and asked for a meeting with the department director, Colonel Yitzhak Yaakov. I decided not to join his team.

#7

I took over production management of the Amnur factory in Beit Shemesh. The job was demanding and extremely time consuming, but I enjoyed it. When I was summoned to the office of Uzi Narkis, who was now the IDF’s director of operations, I was promoted to major.

#8

I was offered a job by the defense ministry, but I turned it down. I was hired by the General Staff Weapons Development Department, and I was excited to begin working there.
Insights from Chapter 5

#1

The initial training program of a new reserves battalion is a crucial event for the batta