Not any workplace can brag that there were books written about it. RAFAEL, my current employer, has at least a couple. This book was written by Mr. Mardor, RAFAEL’s establisher and first CEO.

RAFAEL began as an unofficial armament development lab for the Israeli Defense Forces almost 60 years ago. A few years later, it was separated from the military and became a part of the defense ministry, developing advanced weapon systems almost exclusively for Israel’s own needs. This book covers the early period in which Mr. Mardor was RAFAEL’s CEO, until 1968. It gives an overview of the early years of Israel, and until after the 6-day war in 1967, when RAFAEL developed the Shafrir and Shafrir 2 air-to-air missiles.

The book is a mixture of a personal perspective of the writer and a historic reference on RAFAEL and early Israel. It amazed me to read how scarce the abilities and resources of Israel were back then. Truly, it is a miracle that this country has survived. This is a fact many people fail to remember, which is a pity. Such historical perspective is crucial for the understanding of our current situation, when the Israeli army is strong and RAFAEL is a billion dollar company developing advanced weapons on the verges of technology.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Israel, Book reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.