Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Intelligence Book Review: Balancing Three Personas in "Son of Hamas."

It is important to understand the Arab-Israeli conflict, for it is at the literal and figurative center of religious and political strife today.  Son of Hamas give the reader a ground view of this conflict from 1987 to 2007 through the eyes of its author, Mosab Hassan Yousef. His perspective is a unique one, for not only is Yousef the first born son of one of founders of Hamas, he became an intelligence asset of the Shin Bet - Israel’s internal security service.  Balancing these two whether patrolling the streets of Ramallah or incarcerated in the Israeli prison system was daunting and dangerous. Keeping up his two personas became even more complicated when Yousef was introduced to, and eventually converted to Christianity.

Son of Hamas is an important book for those who are interested in intelligence, particularly human intelligence, and an imperative for any studying international relations or security issues. A well written account with Ron Brackin, it is a quick read and will provide invaluable anecdotes of the human condition that can be referred to again and again.  

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Stephen. I'm intrigued by your titles. I'll have to add them to the top of my reading list.

Ron Brackin
Son of Hamas
ronbrackin@aol.com
ronbrackin.com
ronbrackin2.wordpress.com