By Iftach SpectorHardcover, 6.25 x 9.25
432 pages, 21 b/w photos, 5 maps
ISBN: 978-0-7603-3511-6
$30.00 / $32.95 CAN / £19.00
A recently retired Israeli Air Force general and its second-highest-scoring fighter ace, Iftach Spector is one of Israel’s living legends. Throughout moments of supreme valor and unwelcome controversy, Spector was able to fulfill his dream of taking to the skies, all while stridently defending the nation he loved. In his vivid memoir Loud and Clear, Spector illuminates what it was like coming of age in the fledging Jewish state of Israel and how he defended both its territory and its conscience as he rose through the ranks as a fighter pilot.
Spector’s career in the cockpit reads like a history of the Israeli Air Force. During the Six Day War in June 1967, Spector led the flight that attacked the U.S. surveillance ship USS Liberty off the Sinai Peninsula, an apparent case of mistaken identity that remains controversial to this day. 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. Because of this, Spector and twenty-seven other pilots would be labeled “refuseniks.” Spector disputed the term—does refusing to commit war crimes make one a refusenik? Nevertheless, it brought Spector’s military career to an end, while also making 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 Egypt’s MiGs, his mother’s constant lesson sustained him: “All from within.”
Loud and Clear 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.
About the Author
Iftach Spector is a retired brigadier general in the Israeli Air Force (IAF). General Spector lives in Ramot-HaShavim, Israel. Since 2001, he has been active in the Movement for Disengagement from the Palestinians. 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 BA in history and Middle East Studies from Tel Aviv University and a master’s in political science from UCLA, both with honors. General Spector lives in Ramot-HaShavim, Israel.
