Levi Eshkol From Pioneering Operator to Tragic Hero – A Doer

This book provides a new, original description and analysis of a crucial period in Israel’s history and the history of the Middle East through the lens of the charming, lesser known, energetic, yet problematic persona of Israel’s third prime minister, Levi Eshkol. It examines Eshkol’s career from his arrival in Ottoman Palestine as a socialist pioneer in 1914, to his roles as the Czar of Israel’s rural settlement efforts before and after independence, his major contribution to the absorption of the waves of immigration in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, his decisive role in the development of Israel’s economy, and his controversial role as PM and Minister of Defence all the way to the Six Day War of 1967 and the subsequent ramifications. The author used newly opened domestic and foreign archives in his research.

Shlomo Aronson was Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Hebrew University, and Visiting Professor at Tel-Aviv University, and at the Tel-Aviv-Jaffa College, of which he was a member of the Academic Board. Dr Aronson published extensively on the history of the Holocaust, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, domestic Israeli politics and foreign affairs and the issue of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

CONTENTS
List of Plates
Preface
List of Abbreviations
1.A Practical Idealist in Ottoman and British Palestine
2.Eshkol, the Nazis, the Palestinians and the British
3.Eshkol during the Second World War, Trouble at Home and Abroad
4.Arch-Settler, Treasurer and Minister of Finance
5.Eshkol’s Bid for Rescuing Mapai
6.Eshkol’s New Era
7.Eshkol Response to a Stormy Period
8.Mr Eshkol’s Tea and Coffee
9.Eshkol’s Supreme Test
10. Levi Eshkol and the Lost Glory
11. Eshkol’s Exploitation of a Problematic Victory
12. Eshkol’s Last Acts
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index