and is now deputy prime minister), whose apologetic Six Days of War, ‡ powerfully critiqued by Norman Finkelstein, has an astonishing new introduction lauding the war. Spanning the decades leading up to the war, the book shows that the war "was designed and even desired by prominent military figures in [a number of] the warring countries" (p. 2). Tense military-civilian relations in Israel, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan, recurrent economic crises in the former three states, and weakened or deposed

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... vilian leaders in Israel and Syria paved the way for military pressure towards confrontation and war. Laron frames the conflict in light of the escalatory pressures, offensive military doctrines, regional instability, border disputes, and terrorism leading to World War I. An important focus of Laron's book is the significance of Syria in the escalation of confrontation, though while highlighting the military coup that overthrew Syria's parliamentary government in 1949, Laron omits the United States' role here. The period leading up to the Six-Day War was characterized by recurrent war scares, military attacks (some by Palestinian guerrillas), brinkmanship, and provocative Israeli and Arab actions, including the amassing of military forces poised to strike, and military alliances among many