Aaron Klein is one of a new breed of young jour­nal­ists who are revi­tal­iz­ing their pro­fes­sion with insight, style, and intel­lect. More than any­thing, his book is a polemic. His pur­pose is not just to tell a good sto­ry but to raise crit­i­cal ques­tions that will have a huge impact on the future of Israel and Israeli deci­sion mak­ing.
Klein attacks his sub­ject head on by ask­ing: Is the won­der­ful, leg­endary Israeli mil­i­tary upon which men and women have been weaned for gen­er­a­tions been rel­e­gat­ed to a his­tor­i­cal mem­o­ry? Has Israel been reduced to noth­ing more than a nation plagued by inter­nal crises and prob­lems of great pro­por­tion?
Klein address­es these issues with can­dor and con­cludes that the inter­nal con­flicts Israel con­fronts impact direct­ly on the nation’s abil­i­ty to defend her­self from exter­nal threats.
The most con­vinc­ing argu­ment Klein makes in this pow­er­ful­ly ana­lyt­i­cal work cen­ters round Israel’s response to the Hamas ter­ror­ist assault ema­nat­ing from Gaza. Israel’s shap­ing and reshap­ing of its oper­a­tion to pro­tect Israeli cit­i­zens under dai­ly bar­rage was, in the author’s eyes, a tell­tale sign of Israel’s weakness.