stephen  d. leece

Written by a former IDF and US soldier respectively one could be forgiven for thinking this slender piece is nothing more than an exercise in Western propaganda. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The authors carefully explain the background to the Lebanese Civil War beginning in 1975, and provide a sound overview of the main players and the various factions.

Operation: Peace for Galilee is put into its proper context- the military action being sanctioned on a false pretext- namely the bungled assassination of the Israel Ambassador to Britain by Abu Nidal Organisation being used as an excuse to knock out the PLO in South Lebanon.

Another impressive aspect of this work is the attempt to see events from Lebanese, Syrian and PLO viewpoints, and is complete with touching anecdotes such as the IDF writing out an IOU to a Lebanese Petrol Station attendant and the ordinary PLO troopers valiantly fighting on at Sidon long after their commanding officers have fled in a panic.

As is the case with all Osprey publications, there is the obligatory plate section in the middle where you see the various uniforms worn by the combatants in all their glory, provided here by one of Osprey’s leading artists Ronald Volstad.

This is a modest book, with much of interest to say and helps shed much light on one of the most complex conflicts of recent times.