Good Arabs The Israeli Security Agencies and the Israeli Arabs, 19481967 [Paperback]

Based on his reading of top-secret files of the Israeli police and the prime minister's office, Hillel Cohen exposes the full extent of the crucial, and, until now, willfully hidden history of Palestinian collaboration with Israelisand of the Arab resistance to it. Cohen's previous book, the highly acclaimedArmy of Shadows,told how this hidden history played out from 1917 to 1948, and now, inGood Arabshe focuses on the system of collaborators established by Israel in each and every Arab community after the 1948 war. Covering a broad spectrum of attitudes and behaviors, Cohen brings together the stories of activists, mukhtars, collaborators, teachers, and sheikhs, telling how Israeli security agencies penetrated Arab communities, how they obtained collaboration, how national activists fought them, and how deeply this activity influenced daily life. When this book was first published in Hebrew, it became a bestseller and has evoked bitter memories and intense discussions among Palestinians in Israel and prompted the reclassification of many of the hundreds of documents Cohen viewed to uncover a story that continues to unfold to this day.

Hillel Cohenis Research Fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author ofArmy of Shadows: Palestinian Collaborators with Zionism 1917-1948(UC Press),The Present Absentees: Palestinian Refugees in Israel since 1948,andThe Marketplace is Empty: The Rise and Fall of Arab Jerusalem 1967-2007.

A fascinating story. . . . With the publication of this book, we can abandon several accepted clich?s. Ha'aretz

While many IsraelisJews and Palestinians alikealready had a sense that these shadowplays were part of the state's history,Aravim Tovim (Good Arabs)supplies the evidence. Case after case is summoned to illustrate how collaboration permeated all aspects of Palestinian slC#