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Sto caricando le informazioni... Loud and Clear: The Memoir of an Israeli Fighter Pilotdi Iftach Spector
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A recently retired Israeli Air Force general and its second-highest-scoring fighter ace, Iftach Spector is one of Israel's living legends. He was the leader of the flight that attacked the USS Liberty in 1967. After the 1967 and 1973 wars, in which he commanded a squadron of fighter-bombers, he rose to head the IAF's Training and War Lessons Section and later became its the Chief of Operations. He was one of the eight Israeli pilots who attacked Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirik in 1981. In 2003, his career took an even more dramatic turn: he was the senior signatory of the famous "Pilots' Letter," in which Spector and 27 other Israeli pilots stated their refusal to bomb targets in Palestine where collateral damage would likely be severe. His maverick conscience is well on display in this artfully written memoir, which is currently a 10-week-and-counting bestseller in Israel and has been licensed in Brazil as well. The son of a family that immigrated to Palestine at the turn of the 20th century, whose father and mother served in the Palmach, Israel's early clandestine commando force, Spector has written a rich and reflective meditation on loyalty, on what is right and wrong in war, and on his dedication to the idea and reality of the state of Israel. The Pilots' Letter ended Spector's military career, but also made him one of the most compelling and celebrated defenders of the conscience of the Jewish state. In that battle, as in his previous battles against Nasser's MiGs, his mother's constant lesson to him sustained him: "All from within." General Spector's first book, A DREAM IN BLACK AND AZURE (1992; never translated into English), won the Sade Literary Award, given to him personally by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He has a B.A. in history and Middle East Studies from Tel Aviv University and a masters in political science from UCLA, both with honors. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)358.40092Social sciences Public Administration, Military Science Air forces and other advanced weaponry Air Forces Biography; History By Place BiographyClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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His description of how he gradually fell out of step with the strategic thinking with his own radical ideas and exceptional foresight is the beginning of his self-disciplined, and self-respecting 'opposition' - which culminates where the book begins: his signing of the Pilots' Letter to the Israeli Air Force command in late 2003 following the IDF's indiscriminate bombing of a terrorist target in Gaza. I salute him for making that small but important sacrifice.
The chapters come thick and fast as the ace pilot becomes a ground-breaking squadron leader and first class leader of men. A frightening episode on the way to Damascus during the Yom Kippur war is retold breathtakingly. As are countless others - a disastrous dog-fight with the ethereal 'Hasan' over Jabal Druze is edge of your seat stuff, and a virtually fuelless getaway through the wadis of south Sinai is almost unbelievably dramatic right to the last word of the chapter. All the aircraft he flies from the Mystere to the Mirage, the Phantom to the F-16, come alive with their own personalities in the author's thoughtful words.
I was ready to give this book 5 stars before the final chapters, but they just exceeded everything up to here. The reunion evening 20 years after the raid on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor is incredibly moving, especially the passages about the personal fears and the tragedy of the doomed Columbia astronaut Ilan Ramon. And then, to finish we're taken back to the beginning and the reason he signs the Pilots' Letter. His assessment of where Israel has gone wrong, and why, is spot on, and his proposals for their remedy are exactly how I see it and would want the leaders of Israel to see it. Israel needs men of Iftach Spector's integrity and calibre right at the very top. A great book and a great man. ( )