Epstein Secrets

o other officers, whom I knew less well at first but who would become key members of my team. In their case, it was the younger one who joined first. Binyamin Netanyahu — Bibi, as everyone called him — had been a member of Amiram Levin’s team when I was Digli’s deputy. He’d also been a part of one of our several — th

m I knew less well at first but who would become key members of my team. In their case, it was the younger one who joined first. Binyamin Netanyahu — Bibi, as everyone called him — had been a member of Amiram Levin’s team when I was Digli’s deputy. He’d also been a part of one of our several — thankfull

training teams. When Danny Yatom left the following year to train as an armored officer, I made Yoni my deputy. However different in some ways, the Netanyahu brothers were close. They seemed almost driven, to excel and to succeed. As I got to know them both, I sensed that the drive did not come merely from

come up through the unit and was one of our most experienced team leaders. And Danny Yatom. Born not far from Mishmar Hasharon, but a city boy, from Netanya, he was smart, level-headed and a sure-handed organizer, and with whom I’d somehow clicked from time he arrived in the sayeret. I made him my deputy

rael’s finest sons, one of its most courageous warriors, one of its most promising commanders.” The first evening I was back, however, I visited the Netanyahus at their family home in Jerusalem: Ben-Zion and Tzila, the parents; Ido, the youngest of the three children, and Bibi, who was still at MIT. It was a

didn’t rein in Arafat’s men, Israel would take whatever action necessary. But the decisive moment came on the eighteenth of March. A school bus near Eilat, in the far south of Israel, hit a Fatah landmine, killing the driver and a teacher, and injuring 10 of the children. I was called up the night befo

oats held together by nylon cord, with the assistance of Shayetet 13, Israel's 112 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_027960 equivalent of the American navy SEALs. But Bibi's dinghy got tangled up, and he found himself in the canal, being tugged down by the current. Only the SEALs, and Bibi's mix of calm and endurance, a

r training teams. When Danny Yatom left the following year to train as an armored officer, I made Yoni my deputy. However different in some ways, the Netanyahu brothers were close. They seemed almost driven, to excel and to succeed. As I got to know them both, I sensed that the drive did not come merely from

come up through the unit and was one of our most experienced team leaders. And Danny Yatom. Born not far from Mishmar Hasharon, but a city boy, from Netanya, he was smart, level-headed and a sure-handed organizer, and with whom I'd somehow clicked from time he arrived in the sayeret. I made him my deputy

srael's finest sons, one of its most courageous warriors, one of its most promising commanders." The first evening I was back, however, I visited the Netanyahus at their family home in Jerusalem: Ben-Zion and Tzila, the parents; Ido, the youngest of the three children, and Bibi, who was still at MIT. It was a

didn't rein in Arafat's men, Israel would take whatever action necessary. But the decisive moment came on the eighteenth of March. A school bus near Eilat, in the far south of Israel, hit a Fatah landmine, killing the driver and a teacher, and injuring 10 of the children. I was called up the night befor

igence and a sardonic sense of humor. Both had tested the patience of our teachers to breaking point. Ido had been sent off to a vocational school in Netanya. Moshe was moved to Mikveh Israel, a school which focused mostly on agriculture. On Friday evenings and Saturdays in the kibbutz, however, they fille

e, Bibi Netanyahu. Much of what I say in this book about war and peace, security and Israel’s future challenges, will make uncomfortable reading for Bibi. But very little of it will surprise him, or his own Likud rivals further to the right, like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the Economy Minis

ures and chart a way forward. So what is that way? It begins with the mindset. On more than one occasion in the past few years, after Prime Minister Netanyahu had warned our country of a nuclear Iran or the spread of Al Qaeda-style hatred and violence, as if prophesying the coming of Armageddon, I would say

peace talks, or recognition of the State of Israel. And in October, Egyptian missile boats attacked and sunk Israel’s largest warship, the destroyer Eilat, killing nearly 50 people on board. Without this renewed violence, perhaps, we in Israel might have been able to consider more deeply the future imp

igence and a sardonic sense of humor. Both had tested the patience of our teachers to breaking point. Ido had been sent off to a vocational school in Netanya. Moshe was moved to Mikveh Israel, a school which focused mostly on agriculture. On Friday evenings and Saturdays in the kibbutz, however, they fille

e, Bibi Netanyahu. Much of what I say in this book about war and peace, security and Israel’s future challenges, will make uncomfortable reading for Bibi. But very little of it will surprise him, or his own Likud rivals further to the right, like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the Economy Minis

ures and chart a way forward. So what is that way? It begins with the mindset. On more than one occasion in the past few years, after Prime Minister Netanyahu had warned our country of a nuclear Iran or the spread of Al Qaeda-style hatred and violence, as if prophesying the coming of Armageddon, I would say

peace talks, or recognition of the State of Israel. And in October, Egyptian missile boats attacked and sunk Israel's largest warship, the destroyer Eilat, killing nearly 50 people on board Without this renewed violence, perhaps, we in Israel might have been able to consider more deeply the future impli

he White House turn if it wants some kind of peace process in the Middle East? Syria. After all, in his first term as prime minister, back in 1998, Benjamin Netanyahu did authorize indirect negotiations with Syria. And the IDF—and especially Ehud Barak, a former head of the IDF, Israel's defense minister, and a c

direct negotiations with Syria. And the IDF—and especially Ehud Barak, a former head of the IDF, Israel's defense minister, and a close adviser to Netanyahu—has long favored such a deal. The IDF theory was that if Syria made peace, so would Lebanon, and then Israel would be at EFTA_R1_02029152 EFTA0268

tside imperial power, Israel does not face a threat from the southwest. Israel is similarly protected from the southeast. The deserts southeast of Eilat-Aqaba are virtually impassable. No large force could approach from that direction, although smaller raiding parties could. The tribes of the Arabia

regime managed to survive. There have been four subsequent attempts by Israeli prime ministers -- one=by Ehud Barak, one by Ehud Olmert, and two by Benjamin Netanyahu -- to for=e a peace with Syria. This shared history with the As=ad regime is relevant when considering Israel's strategy toward the ongo=ng civil w

China. Prospects for U.S. brokerage of Israeli/Palestinian peace are bleaker than they've been in a long time.=President Obama's relationship with Netanyahu, to put it mildly, is not wa=m, and the continued split between Fatah and Hamas complicates matters fur=her. The administration has also publicly si

> =/span> <=span> 10 May 2013 -- The rocket strike= that a militant Islamist group recently fired from the Egyptian Sinai int= the Israeli city of Eilat served as yet another reminder of how delicate bilateral relations remain two years afte= Egypt's revolution. Terrorist activity could easily cause

ey: Erdogan, pissed at getting no love or acceptance from the E.U., flexing neo-Ottoman muscles, and genuinely repulsed by the diplomatically obtuse Netanyahu administration (more his coalition than Bibi alone) ... chooses to play to the fundamentalist Moslem street and has done a pretty good job in Turke

e from the E.U., flexing neo-Ottoman muscles, and genuinely repulsed by the diplomatically obtuse Netanyahu administration (more his coalition than Bibi alone) ... chooses to play to the fundamentalist Moslem street and has done a pretty good job in Turkey and in the rest of the Middle East. He tappe

itary, seeing the writing on the wall, have also allowed a substantial Al Qaeda/ Hezbollah presence in South Sinai... and more attacks like that in Eilat are expected. Plus it is believed they (the terrorists in Sinai) also have obtained some anti-air missiles left over from the recent Libyan conflict

that Israel had lost the public-opinion contest and may even be forced to relax the embargo on Gaza. Having found that it had done nothing wrong, the Netanyahu government refused. If domestic politics in both countries appeared to prevent a compromise from emerging, the fact is that there were many behind th

n the towel? You mean disbanding the Palestinian Authority? The Authority was born to transfer Palestinians from occupation to independence. If Mr. [Benjamin] Netanyahu [the Israeli prime minister] thinks he can make this Authority in name only while he is the sole master and source of authority, he will sweat. If we

ause of the breakdown in law and order in recent months. The attacks on the pipeline bringing Egyptian gas to Israel, and the recent terror attack in Eilat, are testimony to this. So while the "Shia crescent" may have suffered a strategic setback as a result of the upheavals in the Arab world, the space