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The Carrot and the Stick: Israel's Policy in Judea and Samaria, 1967-1968, by Major General Shlomo Gazit. Washington, DC: B'nai B'rith Books, 1995. xii + 296 pages. Appends. to p. 306. Index to p. 316. $25 cloth; $20 paper.
This book by the former head of Israeli Military Intelligence is an insult to the intelligence not only of Middle East specialists, but also of the casual consumers of international news who have followed Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories. It contains information one finds in the glossy brochures distributed by Israeli missions around the world. Shlomo Gazit was instrumental in shaping Israeli policies towards the West Bank and Gaza during the 1960s and beyond, and his tale is full of information and details. It is written with the poetic and literary skills of government bureaucrats, but should not be dismissed. Those who have been eagerly heralding the coming of a new century should read this book to realize that colonial thought persists. In Gazit's account, there is an unabashed tone of disdain for the Palestinians. He does not hide the patronizing attitude of Israeli officials toward the subject population, perhaps because he is unaware of his own biases. A transcript of a 1968 meeting between Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Palestinian mayors, concerning Dayan's order that school girls should be prevented from expressing anti-Israeli sentiments, says it all (see Appendix C). In fact, Gazit goes out of his way to praise Dayan's policies towards the Palestinians, even though non other than Dayan's former colleague-Abba Ebanhad said that "Dayan's policy was to award the Palestinians individual subsistence without national dignity," and that his policies made sure that the Palestinians "have no say in the life of the land where they live and where most of them were born. They have...