The Accidental Empire

Israel and the Birth of Settlements, 1967-1977

Plot

After the 1967 war, the Jewish state seemed to have reached the pinnacle of success. But the Six-Day War proved to be the opening act of a complex political drama, in which the central issue became: Should Jews build settlements in the occupied territories taken in that war? Drawing on newly opened archives and extensive interviews, this is journalist Gorenberg's account of the strange birth of the settler movement, the child of both Labor Party socialism and religious extremism. It is a dramatic story featuring the giants of Israeli history as well as more contemporary figures. Gorenberg reconstructs what the top officials knew and when they knew it, while weaving in first-person accounts of the settlers themselves. He also shows how the Johnson, Nixon, and Ford administrations turned a blind eye to what was happening in the territories, and reveals their strategic reasons for doing so.--From publisher description.