Ami Pedahzur argues that Israel's strict reliance on the elite units of the intelligence community is fundamentally flawed. Pedahzur's complex study explores this issue through Israel's past encounters with terrorists, specifically hostage rescue missions, the first and second wars in Lebanon, the challenges of the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian terrorist groups, and Hezbollah. He brings a rare transparency to Israel's counterterrorist activities, highlighting their successes and failures and the factors that have contributed to these results. From the foundations of this analysis, Pedahzur ultimately builds a strategy for future confrontation that will be relevant not only to Israel but also to other countries that have adopted Israel's intelligence-based model. --from publisher description.

The emergence of Israel's counterterrorism doctrine -- The path to the defensive model and back -- Rescuing hostages -- The Lebanese puzzle -- New challenges from the West Bank and Gaza -- The global challenge of Iran and Hezbollah -- New rivals, old responses -- A war against an elusive enemy -- The second Lebanon war and beyond -- Fighting the terrorism plague.