Summary

Gates begins Chapter 11 with a discussion of the tension between Iran and Israel and its impact on the United States. He had met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu some years earlier and found him arrogant and outlandishly ambitious. President Obama tried and failed to negotiate a strategy to quell Iran’s nuclear ambitions and, concerned that Israel might launch a sudden military strike against Iran, Gates pressed the administration to formulate a response strategy and he embarked upon a trip in which he visited a number of key countries to discuss the Iran/Israel problem. He sums up the discussion by saying that while Israel has a constant struggle for its very survival, the country worsens its situation by its own actions.

After much controversy, a plan to install a new missile defense system in Poland was scrapped and replaced...