The ghost warriors : inside Israel's undercover war against suicide terrorism

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The untold story of the Ya'mas, Israel's special forces undercover team that infiltrated Palestinian terrorist strongholds during the Second Intifada.

It was the deadliest terror campaign ever mounted against a nation in modern times: the al-Aqsa, or Second, Intifada. This is the untold story of how Israel fought back with an elite force of undercover operatives, drawn from the nation's diverse backgrounds and ethnicities--and united in their ability to walk among the enemy as no one else dared.

Beginning in late 2000, as black smoke rose from burning tires and rioters threw rocks in the streets, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Arafat's Palestinian Authority embarked on a strategy of sending their terrorists to slip undetected into Israel's towns and cities to set the country ablaze, unleashing suicide attacks at bus stops, discos, pizzerias--wherever people gathered.

But Israel fielded some of the most capable and cunning special operations forces in the world. The Ya'mas, Israel National Police Border Guard undercover counterterrorists special operations units, became Israel's eyes-on-target response. Launched on intelligence provided by the Shin Bet, indigenous Arabic-speaking Dovrim , or "Speakers," operating in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza infiltrated the treacherous confines where the terrorists lived hidden in plain sight, and set the stage for the intrepid tactical specialists who often found themselves under fire and outnumbered in their effort to apprehend those responsible for the carnage inside Israel. This is their compelling true story: a tale of daring and deception that could happen only in the powder keg of the modern Middle East.

INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS AND MAPS

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Author's Note (p. ix)
• Cast of Characters (p. xvii)
• Prologue (p. 1)
• Book 1 The West Bank (Judea and Samaria)
• Chapter 1 By Strength and By Guile (p. 7)
• Chapter 2 The Fuse (p. 28)
• Chapter 3 Intifada (p. 44)
• Chapter 4 The Deadly Spring (p. 58)
• Chapter 5 Itamar (p. 79)
• Chapter 6 The Hunters (p. 97)
• Chapter 7 Hostile Encounters (p. 112)
• Chapter 8 Clan Warfare (p. 126)
• Chapter 9 Highest Value Targets (p. 146)
• Chapter 10 Jenin (p. 165)
• Chapter 11 The Night Before Jerusalem (p. 182)
• Book 2 Jerusalem
• Chapter 12 The City of Peace (p. 191)
• Chapter 13 The Temple Mount (p. 200)
• Chapter 14 Proactive Deterrence (p. 217)
• Chapter 15 A Ticking Bomb in Hebron (p. 229)
• Chapter 16 Anywhere We Want by Any Means We Choose (p. 252)
• Chapter 17 O' Jerusalem (p. 266)
• Book 3 The Gaza Strip
• Chapter 18 In the Footsteps of the Philistines (p. 273)
• Chapter 19 War (p. 288)
• Chapter 20 Mogadishu (p. 302)
• Chapter 21 The Unit Commander (p. 319)
• Chapter 22 A Bloody Separation (p. 339)
• The End: Dawn
• Chapter 23 Cutting the Grass (p. 357)
• Chapter 24 The Last Shot Fired (p. 366)
• Postscript (p. 369)
• Acknowledgments (p. 372)
• Glossary (p. 376)
• Select Bibliography (p. 379)
• Notes (p. 381)
• Index (p. 393)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

The current violence in Israel and the West Bank is deemed by some as the Third Intifada, even though it lacks central direction and the mayhem pales in comparison to the Second Intifada, launched in 2000, which cost the lives of an estimated 4,000 Israelis and Palestinians over four years. The Palestinians' most deadly and effective tactic was the use of suicide-bomb attacks against Israeli buses, restaurants, and other public gathering points. To counter these well-planned terror attacks, the Israeli defense forces formed special units called Ya'mas, composed of fluent Arab speakers, to infiltrate, disrupt, and sometimes physically destroy these cells and their members. The people in these units were mostly Jews but also included Druze and Bedouins. In this tense, grim account, Middle East security expert Katz shows how these men effectively engaged in a brutal shadow war that often involved face-to-face violence. This isn't a balanced account, since Katz provides personal, humanizing portraits of the Israelis while portraying Palestinians as faceless and sinister. Still, it's an engrossing, if very disturbing, chronicle of a successful program of counterterrorism.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2015 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

An action-packed, nondidactic examination of how Israel's special operation units rose to the challenge of the Palestinian intifada. In a work of formidable research, Katz (Relentless Pursuit: The DSS and the Manhunt for the Al-Qaeda Terrorists, 2002, etc.) meticulously examines the makeup of the Israeli undercover anti-terrorist organizations, such as the Shin Bet and the Ya'mas (Border Guard), which infiltrated deep inside enemy lines (the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem) to root out Hamas-directed Palestinian terrorists bent on making Israel "bleed." Although not a "war," the protracted intifada erupting between 2000 and 2008 was as bloody as any of the other numerous wars in the region, fought not on battlefields but in shopping malls and other civilian sites where suicide bombers and lone shooters wreaked havoc. Katz moves chronologically from 2000 as several specialized units were developed to meet the growing Palestinian terrorist cells, such as the tightknit Ya'mas, a diverse mix of Israeli's minority communities, who had Arabic language and customs and could infiltrate the West Bank and elsewhere. As diplomacy broke downmost recently, the Camp David meetings between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders organized by President Bill Clinton in July 2000tensions increased when the botched attempt to assassinate leader Mahmoud Abu Hanoud aroused Palestinian ire. Conflict also followed Ariel Sharon's well-publicized visit to the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. Subsequently, the specialized forces met the intensified insurrection with renewed force and organization, launching Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in March 2002. Katz smoothly moves from one hot spot to anothere.g., Itamar, Jenin, Hebron, Jerusalem, the Gaza Stripfollowing high-profile terrorists like Hamas operative Ziad Musa and delineating specifically the operations that shut down the terrorist cells and allowed the country "to maintain the semblance of day-to-day normalcy inside a country mercilessly under siege." A detailed book that is refreshingly full of sound research rather than polemic. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.