cover image Israel's Fateful Hour

Israel's Fateful Hour

Yehoshafat Harkabi. HarperCollins Publishers, $22.5 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-06-016039-5

Harkabi ( The Bar Kokhba Syndrome ) was at one time the leading Israeli exponent of the position that Arab intransigence leaves Israel no leeway to negotiate with the Palestinians. He now believes the opposite: Israel's leaders must meet face-to-face with the PLO and establish an independent Palestinian stateor else face wide-spread civil unrest, military impoverishment of the nation and possibly collective suicide. Published in Israel in 1986, this powerful, important book makes urgent reading. Israel stands at a crossroads and time is running out, according to Harkabi, who teaches at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He perceives a new moderation among the Arabs and argues that a negotiated settlement is in Israel's best interests. In a voice at once humane and exhortatory, his polemic is especially valuable in analyzing how strains of nationalism and messianism, combined with a tendency to derive policy abstractly from the demands of Zionism, condition Israeli responses to Arab initiatives. (Nov.)