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This book is a historical study of the survey and mapping system of Palestine under the British Mandate. It traces the background and the reasoning behind the establishment of the survey programme, examines the foundations upon which the system was based, and strives to understand the motivation of those who implemented it. This study shows that the roots of the modern survey system of Palestine are to be sought in the Balfour Declaration and its implications regarding land in Palestine. The land issue was at the core of the mapping of Mandatory Palestine, and it remains as a core issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. ... Read more

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The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories provides non-specialist readers with an introduction and historical overview of the issues that have characterized and defined 130 years of the still unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

• Provides a fresh attempt to break away from polemical approaches that have undermined academic discussion and political debates
• Focuses on a series of core arguments that the author considers essentially unwinnable
• Introduces readers to the major historiographical debates sparked by the dispute
• Encourages readers to consider more useful ways of explaining and understanding the conflict, and to go beyond trying to prove who is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’

"This volume suggests a fresh and original interpretation to the history of the Arab Israeli conflict. Caplan juggles skillfully and even-handedly between the two narratives, reflecting the parties’ own views without embracing the cause of any party."
–Joseph Nevo, University of Haifa

"An impressive and very valuable work. One could not ask for a better short history of the conflict. Caplan offers readers a study that is extremely well-informed, resolutely fair-minded, and filled with thoughtful insights."
–Mark Tessler, University of Michigan ... Read more

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For undergraduate courses in History, Political Science, Jewish Studies, International Relations, Foreign Relations, and Diplomatic History that specifically cover the Arab-Israeli Conflict or the Middle East.This concise and comprehensive text presents a balanced, impartial, and well-illustrated coverage of the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The authors identify and examine the issues and themes that have characterized and defined the conflict over the past century. The updated Fourth Edition includes a new final unit that examines the many developments since 9/11. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Awesome concise review
This book really summarizes the issues.I took several classes in the Spring of 06 on the Israeli-Arab conflict, and this was one of the best I read.Straight to the point, gives the important facts, and not biased.

reader
For anyone interested in but unfamiliar with the detailed history and politics underlying the Arab-Israeli conflict, this thorough, scholarly and ambitious book is an excellent resource.If you aren't looking for all the details contained in a university textbook (complete with helpful maps and charts), you need not look further than the authors' Introduction, which presents an impressive and objective (rare, with this subject matter) overview of the multi-faceted considerations at play.If you are interested in the gritty details, this book is an unparalleled, concise, factual resource that must be on your shelf.

Nice introduction to subject but little detail
A concise history of the Arab Israeli Conflict 4th Ed.This book
is 379 pages published by Pearson Education.This details info about Islam and Judaisim and moves very fast into the 20th century where the crux of the conflict occured.It explains in detail but at the same time in general themes if that is possible.It is not as detailed as some books I have seen but it will do the reader very nicely who wants to go deeper than the surface about the inticacies of this conflict.The author does incorporate a stunning photo on the cover with the view of the Wailing Wall and Dome of the Rock.While documents are provided at the end of the chapters, there are some that I feel are essential to look at but are left out.While its a good book I am goign to rate this one average because I know of a much better book (Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict by C.D. Smith).

Gives equal time to truth and lies
Let's start with the good things about this book.It has extensive quotes from no less than 67 documents that are relevant to the conflict, along with five tables, two charts, and 23 maps.And it does supply plenty of facts.

But this book completely misses the big picture, partially due to bias and partially due to poor scholarship.Absurdly irrelevant events, such as Arafat saying (for the thirtieth time) that he might do something to promote peace, are given star treatment when they deserve no mention at all.Major aspects of the conflict, such as the training of a generation of Arabs to be nihilistic antisemites, get little attention.It is taken for granted that small details about borders are the main issues: the possibility that the fight is over something as fundamental as human rights is discounted.

The authors explicitly realize that the task of the historian is to determine truth, explain it, weed out lies, infer as yet unknown details, and predict the future.They simply fail in that task.Not only do they implicitly accept many manifest fabrications (only to take out their suspicions on those who ought not be mistrusted without good cause), they often fail to distinguish between errors of judgment and outright malice.It is sad to see such problems with what could have been a far more useful reference.

Most even-handed book on the conflict I've read
I have read a few books on the Arab-Israeli conflict (and skimmed many more), and was pleasantly surprised at this one.Most books on this subject are clearly biased one way or the other and ridden with propaganda.I found this book to be one of the few (if not the only) that was balanced and gave equal time to both sides.Neither side is potrayed as innocent victims (because neither side in this conflict is innocent), nor is either side portrayed as bloodthirsty demons.Believe me, if you've spent any time looking at books on the Arab-Israeli conflict, you will know that this is truly rare.There is an abundance of primary source material included, which many books do not provide.

Overall I found the book to indeed be concise (as the title claims), informational, and easy to read.This would be an excellent background book for anyone who knows nothing about the conflict in the Middle East and would like to learn more without being fed huge amounts of propaganda by either side.Anyone who already knows a great deal about the history of the area would probably be bored by this book, because it doesn't offer a great deal of analysis or theory, just information. ... Read more

Product Description
In the United Nations, on university campuses, and among a growing number of our most prestigious Western newspapers, the historical record has been rewritten so thoroughly that Israel is seen as the worst of the oppressive Western occupiers of the Third World. So successful has this propaganda campaign been that Palestinian spinmeisters and their apologists have effectively declared the Israelis, a people living in the shadow of the Holocaust, to be "Nazis." How could this happen? How did unacceptable anti-Semitism morph into justifiable anti-Zionism, and odious Jew-hatred turn into a politically correct Israel-hatred?

In History Upside Down, David Meir-Levi exposes the ideological DNA of Palestinian nationalism and its ludicrous "alternative" histories, revealing how Nazi fascism gave the Arab world's amorphous hatred of the Jews an intellectual structure and how Soviet communism masked its genocidal intentions with the mantle of national liberation. Meir-Levi then explodes the cornerstone myths that the Palestinian movement created--myths that rationalize and celebrate decades of unremitting terror and genocidal ambitions, turning the history of the Middle East upside down and inside out, making the victim the aggressor and the aggressor the victim.

History Upside Down is the first wave in a counterattack against this Arab war on history. It rejects the idea that the basic situation in the Middle East has changed since the United Nations first established the Jewish state and the Palestinian state that would have stood alongside it. Sadly, argues Meir-Levi, the issue in the Middle East is today what it has been since the Muslim invasion in the seventh century: the Arabs' hatred of the Jews. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

There is no such thing as a "Palestinian"
The basic fact is that "Palestine" was never a country, state or nation throughout the entirety of this Earth's history; ego any "nationality" - for any people - is a-historical.In this case it is purely a politically guided agenda to wipe out Israel.It is such a shame that the rater above: David Pryce-Jones had contorted the base "Arab-Israel Conflict" into the "Israel-"Palestinian" Conflict" insinuating the exact opposite of the subject of this book that Israel is the aggressor however anyone that seeks the facts over politically correct perversion and too reads the Islamic scriptures themselves will get a taste of the realities from a Islamic context.Joan Peter's "From Time Immemorial" is perhaps the best composed work on this highly bastardized subject.Happy Reading... MZ

Excellent analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict
With the rise of anti-Semitic insanity in the UN, in the media, and in the university campuses [the central piece of this anti-Semitic insanity is the slanderous blood libel-type accusations against Israel], this book is a useful and refreshingly accurate guide on the Arab-Israeli conflict. This book debunks many common anti-Israel myths such as the claim that the Jews stole Arab land to build Israel, the claim that Israel is a brutal occupier and the claim that the Palestinian terrorist struggle is a war of national liberation against the "evil" Jews. This book has two parts: the influence that Nazi Fascism, Islamo-Fascism, and Communism had on the Palestinian terrorist struggle and the rebuttal of the anti-Israel myths with actual facts that actually puts the proper context behind Israeli anti-terrorism actions, which are incorrectly perceived by many people as signs of Israel's imaginary "oppression". For example, in this book, you'll learn how living standards for Palestinians improved when they were under Israeli "occupation" and you'll learn the background on the settlements, which includes the vital facts that debunk the notion that Israeli settlements are illegal. In this book, you'll see how Islamo-Fascists were influenced by and collaborated with the Nazis.
This book gives you a glimpse of Islamic anti-Semitism, which I believe existed even in Islam's early days when Muhammad carried out anti-Semitic atrocities against the Jews of Medina [in those days Medina was called Yathrib]. To get off topic a little bit, in my mind, Muhammad's actions against the Jews in Medina was the real ethnic cleansing, not Israel's actions toward the Palestinians. For, as you can see in this book, the Palestinians were [and are] worse off under their Arab and Muslim "brothers" than they were [and are] under Israeli "occupation".
In this book, you'll see the real genocidal face of the Palestinian terror struggle and the kind of stuff that little democratic Israel has to deal with daily.
This book debunks the anti-Israel narrative that comes from anti-Semites and left-wing politically correct Islam apologists, the latter of whom even embrace anti-Semitic concepts. After the Nazi Holocaust, the world understood the ugliness of anti-Semitism. Political correctness rightly viewed Holocaust denial with contempt. But with political correctness' crazy embrace of Islam, anti-Semitism is becoming seen as more acceptable if it's dressed as legitimate criticism of Israel. And the ridiculous anti-Semitic claim that Israel is exploiting the Holocaust to oppress Palestinians is even welcomed by political correctness.
This book is an antidote to the kind of insanity and idiocy we deal with from anti-Semites, Islamo-Fascists and left-wing politically correct Islam apologists. This is a real refreshing history guide of the Arab-Israeli conflict. David Meir Levi deserves thumbs up for debunking common anti-Israel myths.

INFORMATION AS A WEAPON
This is a review of HISTORY UPSIDE DOWN: THE ROOTS OF PALESTINIAN FASCISM AND THE MYTH OF ISRAELI AGGRESSION by Professor David Mier-Levi who now teaches Middle Eastern History at San Jose State University. Professor Mier-Levi's slim volume is just a little over 100 pages long, not counting over 20 pages of notes and a useful index.

Professor Mier-Levi writes well and organizes a lot of complicated material into a coherent, readable narrative.He focuses on how information can be framed to shape the dialogue and influence the outcome. Using the example of Vietnam,Professor Mier-Levi illustrates how the Communists realized early on the critical importance of framing their invasion of the South so that it would not be perceived as an "invasion."

This was to be a "war of national liberation" not just another military conquest.And, it worked.The imagery of nationalism struck a chord in the West, even the US which was committed to resisting a classic, over-the-border invasion by armored divisions equipped with the latest T-54 tanks.

The Communists managed to cast themselves in the role of pajama-clad Davids to South Vietnamese/US Goliaths. The US won the military conflict but the Communists won the war by carefully framing its discussion to their advantage.
Political support eroded within the US and American troops withdrew without having experienced a military defeat. Indeed, US forces were raiding close to Hanoi looking for POW camps as the last combat troops pulled out.

The Communists won the war, however, because they weaponized the information about the war much more successfully than did the US.And, among the students of this weaponization of information was Yassir Arafat.

He learned his lessons well.A Kuwaiti businessman born in Cairo married to a French teenager, he established himself as the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization.Against him was Ariel Sharon, who was born in Palestine and was often described as a "Palestinian" himself.

Arafat co-opted the term "Palestinian" equating it with PLO and excluding Jews, Christians and others who were previously included when the term was used. Arafat also created the idea that Palestine was "occupied" and that the PLO were the helpless victims of brutal, Israeli oppression. He cast the Israelis as "European invaders" into the "Palestinian homeland."

This was a stunning achievement and it worked.People forgot that Israel had always been part of Palestine and that the Jews were historically a "Palestinian people" themselves.

They also forgot that Arafat's PLO had been kicked out "the Palestinian state" of Jordan after trying to take it over from King Hussein.Instead of wondering how many "Palestinian states" Arafat demanded, the West accepted his reframed debate of the issue and pivoted against Israel pressing it to trade "land for peace" and "restrict settlements on occupied land."

This while PLO and other anti-Jewish terrorists slaughtered innocent, unarmed Jewish men, women and children in various "martyrdom operations". So successfully had the discussion been reframed that terrorists could operate with impunity assured that the West would condemn Israel for any efforts to defend themselves.

This is the "upside down" history mentioned in the book's title.Rather than criticizing the aggressors, the West criticized the Israelis for refusing to commit suicide. It is truly a case of history being turned upside down by the realization that information can be weaponized successfully enough to bring strategic victory.

If you're interested in the Middle East and looking for a coherent, concise explanation of the issues, you need this book.I liked it and gave it five stars.

Great Summary of 20th Century Israel/Palestinian Conflict
Abba Eban, Israel's erstwhile UN ambassador, once said, "The Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity." David Meir-Levi's book, History Upside Down, details why this has been the case. Palestinian misery has been primarily the result of theirs and other Arab states' duplicity. Instead of helping their Palestinian brothers, other Arab nations have used them as "cannon fodder" against Israel. While Israel has attempted to reinstate displaced Palestinians, surrounding Arab states have rejected Israel's motions in favor of propaganda. And, of course, the ever-duplicitous UN continues to blame Israel for everything. Read this book to see what the history of the conflict has really been--from Haj Amin al-Husseini's tet-a-tet w/ Hitler to destroy all Jews, to the "Three Nos" formulated by the Arab states at Khartoum--but only if you wish to disabuse yourself of the self-serving Palestinian and Arab propaganda infusing the usual suspects of the mainstream media and of left-wing Israel haters.

Here we go again with the spin
So what do you expect from a Zionist author other than this book that is filled with blatant lies and transformations of truth? The Israeli spin machine and its masters from Alan Dershowitz to Daniel Pipes to the whole gang are busy justifying the immoral and abject Israeli occupation and terrorizing of the Palestinians. However, they will never succeed no matter how hard they tried. This book is just another rubbish that gets created that is not even worth skimming.

For all the spin masters, remember that just causes and people behind them defending their land will ALWAYS be victorious and all occupations will end in humiliation for the occupier. The Israeli occupation of Palestine and the methodical torture and cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland will never be forgotten and it will be a stark reminder for how low can humans become. Congratulations to the Israelis for all the hatred and anti-semitism they provoke around the world with their ugly occupation.


Not even worthy of a start but that's the lowest that can be assigned.
What a waste! ... Read more

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For outside observers, current events in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank are seldom related to the collective memory of ordinary Palestinians. But for Palestinians themselves, the iniquities of the present are experienced as a continuous replay of the injustice of the past.

By focusing on memories of the Nakba or "catastrophe" of 1948, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were dispossessed to create the state of Israel, the contributors to this volume illuminate the contemporary Palestinian experience and clarify the moral claims they make for justice and redress.

The book's essays consider the ways in which Palestinians have remembered and organized themselves around the Nakba, a central trauma that continues to be refracted through Palestinian personal and collective memory. Analyzing oral histories and written narratives, poetry and cinema, personal testimony and courtroom evidence, the authors show how the continuing experience of violence, displacement, and occupation have transformed the pre-Nakba past and the land of Palestine into symbols of what has been and continues to be lost.

Nakba brings to light the different ways in which Palestinians experienced and retain in memory the events of 1948. It is the first book to examine in detail how memories of Palestine's cataclysmic past are shaped by differences of class, gender, generation, and geographical location. In exploring the power of the past, the authors show the urgency of the question of memory for understanding the contested history of the present.

Contributors: Lila Abu Lughod, Columbia University; Diana Keown Allan, Harvard University; Haim Bresheeth, University of East London; Rochelle Davis, Georgetown University; Samera Esmeir, University of California, Berkeley; Isabelle Humphries, University of Surrey; Lena Jayyusi, Zayed University; Laleh Khalili, SOAS, University of London; Omar Al-Qattan, filmmaker; Ahmad H. Sa'di, Ben-Gurion University; Rosemary Sayigh, Lebanon-based anthropologist; Susan Slyomovics, University of California, Los Angeles

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Customer Reviews (2)

A great intro
I was having a hard time putting this book down. It is a really good intro; I came in not knowing anything about the subject really.

My main complaint is that the maps are severely lacking.

A good start
Those readers who dare not venture into the thicket of controversial rhetoric blanketing the Arab-Israeli Conflict had best start with this slim pamphlet, which serves as thumbnail history of post-Ottoman/post-colonial Middle East, Zionism, and four generations of strife and state creation.

Meanwhile, the authors pause occasionally to note disagreement among their sources, highlighting forks in the socially constructed path of Arab-Israeli history.

This book is best used to help you decide what book you should read next on this difficult but important topic. But if you don't know much about the Arab-Israeli Conflict and have questions about current crises, reading this book alone will provide a quick and valuable lesson, up to but not including the 2006 Summer Lebanon War. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Factual but slanted, and therefore disappointing
I had been expecting something of a more scholarly and dispassionate nature. The author, Karl Sabbagh, demonstrates having done quite a bit of research, but is clearly not a historian and is highly biased. An example of this bias occurs as early in the book as the title: Palestine, History of a Lost Nation. Within the first several chapters, Sabbagh states outright that Palestine was never a nation, and that even the name Palestine is historically a vague geographic designation. He acknowledges sources that cite the Moslems as having a long-standing hatred of the Jews, but he fails to make the connection that that could be a major motivation for the past 60-plus years of violence. He spends chapters making a case that the land belongs to the region's Arabs because of their majority presence in the 18th and 19th centuries, but he makes no similar case concerning the Jews since the 1920's and 1930's. He recognizes that indigenous Jews lived in the now-Arab strongholds of Nablus and Ramallah, but he does not address their displacement. All in all, a one-sided diatribe based on biased versions of historical facts.

Learn how Palestine was seized
This publication is such a great read. Simply because it is very factual and well-referenced. It represents the truth of what had happened to Palestine up till the Nakba of 1948. And as much as it is serious and non-fiction, it can move the reader into an emotional status of connection with the events. This is a good book if you want to learn about the Zionist consipracy and their collaborators' weaved against the Palestinians and how Palestine was seized.

Give it a shot.

There was once a country called Palestine
This is a very good account.It is also a good reflection of the Zionist movement.This is a movement that is even opposed by some well-meaning jews.In essence, it is nothing but a terrorist movement that managed to find itself a state (Israel) on the ruins and misery of another; through cunning deceipt of the world, and complicity from some western nations.This state that prides itself on being the only democracy in the region allows itself to starve and bombard women and children under the guise of protecting its citizens; and not only that, it even wants them to stop defending themselves against the transgressor and to also stop digging tunnels to fetch essentials from a neighbouring country.The fascinating thing is that the world is watching in denial and when pressed they just passively agree with the war mongers.

Not The Whole Truth
This is a very well written book by a very good author.The discussion of his own family history is especially well done.However, as is almost always the case when a Palestinian writes of the events leading to the 1948 partition of Palestine (and the founding of the State of Israel), Sabbagh is very selective in his presentation of the facts and what transpired.He always presents the Arab Palestinians as committing acts of violence against the Jews of Palestine in response to Jewish actions, and never accepts responsibility for the actions initiated by Arabs against the Jews.

The most glaring omission is a total lack of reference to the 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries, people who were forced from their homes to a much greater degree than were the Palestinian Arabs.Jews were massacred in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and other Arab countries during the period of Sabbaghs narrative and most were forced to leave by abandoning all of their property.Virtually the entire Jewish population of the Middle East fled (between 1947 and 1968), with the majority taken in as citizens of the new State of Israel.Few Arab authors ever mention this, as it raises the question of why the Arab countries have kept the Palestinian Arabs in refugee camps to this very day in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.A more truthful account would raise questions like: Why is it to this day that a Palestinian Muslim (unlike any other Muslim) is not allowed to become a citizen of Saudi Arabia?

Puts a Personal Face on Ordinary Palestinians
Too often, images of Palestinians in the West are dominated by suicide bombings and terrorist groups, and their cause is not presented in a way that could lead any person to sympathize with it. This book tells the story of the Palestinians you don't see on TV-the ordinary men, women, and children who were robbed of their land by an alien group whose ancestors had been gone from that land for 2000 years. Sabbagh refutes some commonly held-but very inacurate-beliefs, such as the idea that the name "Palestine" is a 20th century invention, and the idea that Palestine was uninhabited before the Israelis came-indeed, he tells the stories of the Arabs-including his own ancestors-who lived on the land for hundreds of years before Zionism was thought up. The history moves into the 20th century, relating the stories of Sabbagh's ancestors along with a history of British control of Palestine that reveals the injustice of the Zionist idea, and its proponents to be fanatical ideologues willing to use any means-even terrorism-to advance their ideas at the expense of the Palestinian population. The book culminates with the creation of Israel and the deportations conducted by the new state to rid its territory of Arabs, a tragedy described in mornfull detail by Sabbagh. Read this book-your view of the Arab-Israeli conflict will never be the same.
... Read more

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PREFACE THE compression of the last two thousand years of Pales tinean history within the limits of a single volume, presented numerous difficulties. Though in the introduction the remoter backgrounds have been lightly sketched, the writer avoided the pre-biblical and biblical periods. The archeological discoveries made in recent years and the prospective results of the ex cavations now in process, will have to be evaluated before a new and useful content of political, social and economic facts can be poured into the fixed outline established by the Bible and Josephus, Because no more than current comment may be applied to history while in the making, the temptation has been withstood to analyze and summarize the wealth of material accumulated since Palestine came under the British mandate. The literature on Palestine in all languages, is extremely numerous. In some respects the detailed information available is almost overwhelming in its minutiae. For some interesting periods, however, a small nugget of fact is the only reward for the patient sifting of tons of verbal ore Much that has been written about Palestine has been inspired by the reverent desire to establish the literal accuracy of biblical passages, whether they describe past conditions or presage the future. Many authors have speculated in the interest of some pet theory, and as many have yielded to the enticement of archeological dis putation. Hopeful of its future the author in 1900 sought for a useful, balanced history of Palestine. Kittos four hundred and twenty-six interesting pages contained less than, three pages devoted to all that happened in Palestine since 1291, Other periods were treated even more scantily. Munk, though a little kinder to the sixteenth century, was wholly fugitive in his vii viii PREFACE treatment of other periods. Episodic histories there were aplenty, but they began and ended abruptly Even painstaking archeologists cultivated this disjunctive and intermittent atti tude In all books treating of the country, the great blanks were between the third century and the Crusades, and from the fall of the Latin Kingdom to present times This treatment created a well-defined state of mind towards everything Pales tinean. A single illustration will serve In the nineteenth cen tury, a period of intense investigation, Palestine was largely treeless, its rocks exposed, and the land poorly cultivated To the pious this was evidence of the fulfillment of a curse. To the sceptic it was proof that the biblical writers exaggerated the land was infertile, and the country hopeless A third group accepted the Bible as accurate but speculated on climatic changes, and the drying up of water courses to explain the difference between the past and the present. The author had no preconceived theories To fill a blank in his own knowledge he devoted the leisure of thirty years to patient research and a careful study of the topography and his toric sites. The Palestine thus discovered differs materially from the accepted picture That the dry southland of Palestine once blossomed and sustained a considerable population, that Trans-Jordan is a ruin wrought by the Tartar horde, that just one hundred years ago Palestine had a period of prosperity will surprise the majority of readers... ... Read more

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This is a brief history of ancient Israel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Review of Matthews' 'Ancient Israel'
This is a short, concise and readable introduction to the history of Jews, from Genesis to Alexander. I want to emphasize that the organization directly considers Israelite history in relation to the content of the Bible. However, Matthews also makes extensive use of recent archaeology data and scholarly papers. This is meant to be an 'up-to-date' history, and in this aspect it succeeds. Reading is aided by several tables to simplify information. I dare say this is the perfect textbook for an impatient student. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (13)

Palestine Betrayed
Palestine Betrayed gives a good account of the continuing conflict in the mideast between the Jews and the Palestinians. It is a must read if you want to understand a situation that goes on and on with little hope of being resolved.

Superb book, but where are the photo plates?
This book is a definitive history of Jewish (later Israeli)-Palestinian relations from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to Israel's War of Independence. Efraim Karsh also gives a brief but useful summary of these relations up to roughly the present day in an Epilogue. His conclusion is unequivocal: The Arab leadership, from the Arab League right up to, yes, Yasser Arafat himself, couldn't have cared less about about the Palestinan people, but were perfectly willing to use them as pawns in their own power games. The dispossesion or even death of hundreds of thousands of Palestinans just didn't register on their consciences, if they ever had such a thing as a conscience. Palestine Betrayed is a vital source for anyone who wants to get past the mountain of lies that even now dominate mainstream media and academic discourse on Israel. A big problem with the Kindle edition, though, which I now have along with the print edition, is that it is missing the photo plates that come with the print edition, even though the List of Illustations appears in the Kindle edition's table of contents. Since the Kindle technology is fully capable of reproducing these plates, there is no reason why they aren't in the Kindle edition. That's why I can't give the Kindle edition five stars.

An important book
The conventional story about 1948 often tells us about heartless Zionists expelling defenseless Palestinians in a brutal fashion. It is said that when one repeat a lie often enough, people will start to believe it, hence why this book is so important to counteract such unfounded and demonizing claims.

This book has several strong points, but one thing i would like to highlight is that while Karsh is highly critical of the behaviour of Palestinian and Arab leaders for their intransigence, hypocricy, immorality and extremism, he doesnt fall in the trap of painting with to broad of a brush. We hear about scores of Arab villages who were not interested in their leaders foolish adventures and who simply desired to live a normal life in peace, even going as far as rejecting Arab forces entry to their villages and alerting Jewish kibbutzes of impending attacks.

And while critics may no doubt claim that figures such as Weiszmann and Ben-Gurion might have made improper comments at times, can they point to a single Arab leader at the times who showed even a minimum of moderation or willingness to compromise? Overall, the differences between the ideology and mindset of the two parties are startling and mindboggling.

I think its needless to say that this book should be required reading for any serious student of the Middle East

Proof that History Can be Written Any Way you Choose
What this book proves is that those who wish to write history to match their prejudices can do so and fool enough people into thinking it is a valid historical study.In the case of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians the first and last victim is the truth.This book is just one of many pro-Zionist screes that prove this adage.

Mind-blowing
Never have I seen such a detailed analysis of the political situation of the British Mandate of Palestine, which shows the true record of how the Jews attempted every effort to avoid conflict, and the Arabs sought to further the conflict. Also, the inter-Arab politics are shocking, as this book gave the true picture of how the situation deteriorated to the point of other Arab countries intervening not to "save 'Palestine'," but to stop King Abdullah of Jordan. This book also doesn't sugarcoat the war-atrocities and mishaps of both sides, but rather, puts them into context. Another Karsh masterpiece, a must read! ... Read more

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"A brilliant achievement. By far the most comprehensive analysis of the political economy of Palestine and Palestinians in the twentieth century." (Times Literary Supplement)

Palestine and the Palestinians is a sweeping social, economic, ideological, and political history of the Palestinian people, from antiquity to the Road Map to Peace. This second edition is thoroughly revised and updated, including entirely new chapters on the most current issues confronting Palestine today, including: Palestinians in Israel; the Oslo Accords and the Second Intifada; Palestinian refugees and the right to return; Jerusalem; the diplomatic "peace process" and two-state/single-state solutions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

confusing, does not contribute to a better understanding of the issues
A hard to read polemic

Very Good Book, But From One Point of View
Palestine and the Palestinians is a unique source of valuable information about the people of Palestine.The authors told a compelling story with a tremendous amount of information.In addition to the usual political and military litany, the book also places special emphasis on the social and economic aspects of the poignant Palestinian existence.It is hard not to develop sympathy for the Palestinian people after reading this exposition of what they have gone through, and how much they have suffered in the 20th century.

I will also point out that this book presents a decidedly one-sided view.Although the authors pointed out, and documented in considerable detail, the inherent problems within the Palestinian cause: deeply fractured leadership lacking consensus in regard to goals and means, embrace of violence, conflicts with the nationalist Arabic regimes, the incompetent and self-serving acts of their leader Yasser Arafat, etc., they (the authors) nonetheless put the lion's share of the blame on Israel.They insisted on holding Israel to high standards of well-established Western democracies while Palestinian transgressions were given a gentle touch and often with historic and contemporaneous excuses.

I don't know if it is the Arab people, the Muslim culture, ideology, or just the desert wind, but even as the book's authors are high educated, cool-headed and analytical, they, and most vocal Palestinian supporters, seem to lack a few commonsense elements in their framework of thought and analysis:a) When you are in a position of weakness, you don't hold on to a wish list and demand 100% satisfaction immediately. b) In this time and age, violence, especially terror visited on civilians will arouse anger and contempt rather than sympathy. c) Jews also suffered greatly historically, in fact much more than Palestinians.Israeli leadership will not let stand any development that could jeopardize their security or diminish their ability to defend their country and their people.Consider this:

In a conversation in between Benjamin Netayahu and Chinese premier Jiang Zemin, they noted that the Chinese, the Indians and the Jews are the three oldest peoples in the world.Netayahu pointed out that there are 1.2 billions Chinese today, 1 billion Indians and only 12 million Jews, and asked the Chinese premier why.The latter had no answer.Netayahu then said, "...but they all boil down to one big thing.You, the Chinese kept China; the Indians kept India. But the Jews lost our land and were dispersed into the four corners of the earth... culminating in our greatest catastrophe in the twentieth century..."

The similar tragedies of the two peoples (one historic and the other contemporary) suggest that rather than regarding Jews as their mortal enemy, the Palestinians may do well to emulate Jews instead: to educate their young, to build human capital in marketable skills (rather than martyrdom,) to be respectful of other people and cultures, and to work realistically with what you have.Will the Palestinians ever see this kind of leadership vision?The unfortunate fact is that most Middle East Muslims are still not done fighting the Crusaders.

Back to the book:it is exceedingly informative, but you must also get the other point of view (and their selection of data) to understand the whole picture. I might add that many books on this controversial and emotional subject tend to be unavoidably one-sided or otherwise incomplete. The book is well written with a lucid style, and one of the best in presenting the Palestinian view, and deserves to be read by those who want to go beyond sound-bite politics.

History with an attitude
I found this book to be an excellent resource for historical, cultural, and economic issues relating to the Palestinians.However, the authors have written with a discernable, pro-Palestinian bias.The bias is definitely anti-Britian, anti-American, and anti-Israeli.The authors' attempt at fairness by criticizing Arafat does not make the book balanced overall.If you can read past the biases, there is some excellent information in this book on the plight of the Palestinian people.The authors could have achieved five stars with me by just presenting the facts about the Palestinians and omitting the frequent condescensions.

Gained insight.
This book is excellent. Through the reading I gained insight from the perspective of the Palestinians who were displaced from their homeland. I have personal friends in Jordan and this book helped me to understand whattheir families suffered through. Very comprehensive, covering many areas ofthis subject.

Best work on Palestine and the Palestinians!!
Really superb! I couldn't put it down! ... Read more

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Product Description
Second Edition, Revised and Expanded ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Difficult to read
Chock full of information and details. Every sentence is packed with information. Each sentence is like a chaptermaking slow and difficult reading.

Very biased
Although the book is packed with detailed information about all stages of development of Jewish State in Palestine and is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive sources of information, i gave it only 3 stars because the author is obviously biased in most of his judgments and analysis.

I realize that there is no history completely divorced from subjective judgment of the author but this book borders on leftist propaganda literature.

Wonderful book!
This is a great book for those interested in the country of Israel and its people.

A sweeping panorama of the birth of a nation
This review comments on the 2007 edition of this history and follows almost a year of intermittent reading to get through it all.I had previously used the shorter first edition almost 30 years ago in a college course and was very pleased to revisit much of the information in this third, very comprehensive and much expanded edition.As it stands today, this volume could form the primary textbook for an undergraduate two-semester course in Israeli history, as I'm sure it already does in any number of campuses. Like any thorough historian, Dr. Sachar lays the foundation for the story of modern Israel where it rightfully belongs--in the burgeoning Zionist movements that sprang up in Russia, Germany and Austria, to name just the principal countries whose historical subordination (for want of a better term) of their Jewish citizens propelled such an exodus.He then documents the fledgling movements in then Palestine that provided the agricultural, security and political framework of today's modern Israeli society.

At this point, I'll leave it to prior reviewers who describe the book in far more detail than I care to.I would like to highlight, however, the excellent coverage he provides for the wars of Israel with their Arab neighbors.As a retired military officer, with extensive peacekeeping experience in the Sinai peninsula, I found his excellent narratives of the 1967 Six Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War to be historically accurate and consistent with other scholarly accounts of those conflicts.

Overall, to facilitate the journey through such a long treatise on the subject matter, I would suggest the following: for someone new to the topic, I think a Hebrew-English glossary of terms would be helpful--for example, the differences between "yishuv", "yeshiva" and "moshav" could well be confusing to the neophyte.Additionally,a chart or annexed description of the multitude of Israeli political parties that burst unto the scene and changed their names several times as well as their own evolving emphases on the issues of the day, would tend to alleviate some amount of confusion. I would also advise the casual reader to buttress his/her readings with external sources from the internet and other media, as Dr. Sachar will sometime open a topic and then leave it in mid development, relying on the reader to pick up the thread 100 pages hence.

From a personal standpoint, other topics, such as the development of the Hebrew language and literature and their effects on modern Israeli society, receive far too few pages, but in a work of this scope, I understand that some aspects will receive less coverage than others.In summary, as someone who has worked, studied and lived the Middle East experience for several decades, I found this to be a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive, yet politically impartial (see, in particular, Chapter 28), account of Israel's birth, growth and maturity in a tumultuous region of the world. I have searched in vain for a companion work delineating the parallel Arab experience either in a specific country or the Arab world in general.Perhaps someone can suggest one?

Very thorough, a bit slow.
I have owned this book for quite some while. I finally took the time to make my way through all 1000+ pages. No doubt it is very well researched. It is very comprehensive with solid citations. It covers the history of Zionism from around the mid to late 1800's through the creation of the state of Israel into the mid 1990's. It is written, for the most part, in chronological order, but it does tend to be a bit redundant in spots. And, no matter how great a writer you may be, it is just downright impossible to make the history behind the formation of the various coalition governments exciting for the reader. ... Read more

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Exactly how did the Israelites cross the desert? How did Moses cross the Red Sea? How did Joshua take Jericho, and how did the sun appear to stand still at the Ayjllon Valley? No one has ever analyzed the Bible as a military history Gabriel provides the first attempt at a continuous historical narrative of the military history of ancient Israel. He begins with a military analysis of Exodus, an unprecedented and hugely significant contribution to Exodus Studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Richly interesting scholarship
This is richly interesting scholarship conveyed by a writer, Richard A. Gabriel, in full command of reader-friendly expository techniques.Those who tacitly see history as a cultural weapon, archaeological and otherwise, to promote politically correct or pacifist ideas will find little succor in Gabriel's smash-through-to-the-truth style.Not that Gabriel doesn't speculate to help us sort through possible interpretive hypotheses.

Gabriel's approach argues for a more comprehensive reading of the Old Testament than is often allowed.As if invoking the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, Gabriel argues that our interpretive filter either allows us to see or not see a particular focus: "To regard the Bible as a religious text makes it difficult to regard it as a military text, for if one accepts the text as describing miraculous events, one will likely be blinded to the text as military history."Is light a wave or a particle?Both, we answer, but not necessarily at the same time.

While Gabriel respects the Bible as primarily a religious text, he lets the reader know that his purpose is to reveal the military background, including "logistics, tactics, manpower, fortifications, command and control, weapons and weapons manufacture, troop leadership, and military strategy." Readers will never feel that Gabriel is doing anything more than illuminating what the writers of the Old Testament have already put there.To respect their intentions, the sacred and divine should best be read in the context of war and military defense.

It "has been customary to regard Israelite military history as beginning with Joshua and the conquest of Canaan," Gabriel argues, but "when the text is read only as military history, it turns out that Exodus contains a wealth of information heretofore not addressed by military historians that sheds considerable light on the military capabilities of the Israelites before the assault on Canaan."

The reader never feels that Gabriel's research is in the service of any strings-attached ideological master.Only the gullible few will accept government-sponsored "scholarship" in any field as being the vanguard, tenure-seeking academics excused for obvious reasons.

Yes, I respect Gabriel's battlefield savvy obtained from persevering biblical research--and his combat experience during the war in Vietnam. The value of this book can also be glimpsed while watching his well-done "Bible Battles" program on the History Channel, available through Amazon.

Ignores the last 35 years of archaeological study
The author unquestionably accepts the Biblical Exodus or Conquest theory about the development of ancient Isreal that has been rejected by almost every scholar since the 1920's.He then adds his own speculation on top of this mythical foundation.The result is a string of rather silly assumptions that add absolutely nothing to the study of this comlex subject.In fairness it would make a great script for a movie if only Steve Reeves were around to appear in it. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

Passionate and informative
Watching from half a world away as recent events unfolded in Israel on the evening news, I was struck by the plight of the Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Territories and wondered if it would be possible to find a balanced discussion of their situation when so much hatred exists on both sides of the conflict. The fact that this book succeeds in doing so is made even more remarkable by the fact that it is written by an Israeli citizen and academic who by his own admission was previously oblivious to the true nature of the Palestinian experience. Jeff Halper is obviously a man of courage and conviction, who writes with the passion of someone enlightened by a transforming insight. In his case, the insight was catalyzed by the destruction of a Palestinian colleague's home. Trying to understand this event led him to a new understanding of the dynamics of the Palestinian-Israeli situation that he found astonishing, as did I.

Unfortunately, as he points out, his rush to disseminate his message at times required him to write his manuscript in airports between meetings, and it shows. There are grammatical and syntax errors on almost every page. This is not enough to distract from his message, however, and could almost be considered charming in the way it reflects his zeal for substance over style.

One drawback to having the situation explained by an insider is that he sometimes takes local knowledge for granted: I'm sure every Israeli knows about the Green Line and the details of the First and Second Intifadah, but nowhere are these terms explained for the rest of us. Then there are the favorite terms of the author, such as bantustan and Matrix of Control, that are used so repeatedly throughout the book as to become almost irritating. For some reason, these terms are not defined until well after their first use, probably another artifact of rushed editing.

The author's courage and compelling revelations outweigh any literary deficiencies. It deserves five stars for presenting a constructive and informative analysis of such a fraught subject.

A Challenging Truth
Jeff Halper is a prophetic Israeli Jew who dares to speak truth to power, in Israel, to Jews all over the world, and to all those seek peace and justice among the Israelis and Palestinians based on truth. and actual "facts on the ground".

Well-written, riveting; personal yet wide-ranging
I just finished this book tonight. I couldn't put it down, and read it in three evenings. Jeff Halper does a great job. He is on the scene when his Palestinian friend's house is demolished by Israeli troops (he calls it his "conversion experience"), and throws himself on the ground in front of the bulldozer.His journey to understand this event takes him (and us) through politics, history, Israeli society.It is complex, as all real history and politics is.An important book.

Essential reading for Americans
This book is packed full of information that rarely sees the light of day in the United States. It has credibility because it is written by a patriotic Jewish Israeli citizen, and thus difficult to dismiss by Zionists and their American "lobby".It offers a clear-headed honest assessment of an injustice that is seldom if ever grasped by poorly informed Americans who get their information from the mainstream media.

The author, Jeff Halper, was born to Jewish parents in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1946 where he absorbed the progressive values of a liberal Jewish-American upbringing.He became involved with the civil rights movement and the anti-Viet Nam War protests of the 1960s, and carried these values with him when he emigrated to Israel in 1973 and earned his doctorate degree in anthropology.

In his early academic career Dr. Halper fully identified with a Zionist view of Jewish history, but his contact with educated intelligent Palestinian students soon brought him to question the traditional narrative and a gradual realization that this tiny state has cloistered itself from an honest confrontation with the realities of a brutal occupation of another people.But it was not until he witnessed first-hand the gratuitous demolition of the home of Palestinian friends that he was transformed from a well-meaning but passive observer to a committed activist against Israel state brutality and spearheaded the formation of the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD).

Halper divides his book into 4 sections.In the first he discusses Comprehending Oppression, triggered by the message of the bulldozers, which had destroyed over 18,000 Palestinian homes by 2007.He analyzes the disinterest ("living in a bubble") of most Israelis to the evils of Palestinian oppression occurring right under their noses and ascribes this to a careful official framing of historical facts to fit the Zionist narrative, combined with a desire to just get along with their own lives.For example, the term "occupation" of Palestinian territory has been erased from Israeli history books and substituted by euphemisms like "disputed territories", town and city names have been "Judaised", the Green Line as the basis for a just solution has disappeared from popular discourse, and the notion that this Middle Eastern territory was a "land without people for a people without land" at the time of early Jewish colonization conflicts with the reality that over 600,000 Arabs populated this land at the beginning of the British Mandate after WWI.

According to Halper the underlying Israeli cultural orientation arises out a "tribal nationalism" acquired in the ghettoes of Eastern Europe, deeply reinforced by the memory of the Holocaust. This has led to a construct he labels"ethnocracy", which is in clear contrast to the claim of Israel as the only "democracy" in the Middle East, because this "democracy" applies only to its Jewish inhabitants .He convincingly argues that this is a recipe for continued turmoil and Israeli insecurity.

In a section labeled Sources of Oppression, Halper elaborates on Zionist ideology and how the leadership has carefully framed a narrative of Jews as virtuous victims, that the "Arabs" are an uncivilized group with whom there can be no political solution, and thus priority is placed on personal security in a volatile region.This Manichean mindset ("we win- they lose") prevents any possibility of a just two-state solution because it denies any vision of a viable and fully sovereign Palestinian state, when all the vehicles of power are wielded by Israel with the support of its American patron.The core frames of this ideology are that Israel is fighting for its very existence, that it is the weak party in this struggle, that the central issue is Palestinian terrorism, that there is no occupation, and therefore that no political solution is possible.He describes in relentless detail the systematic dispossession (nishul) of the Palestinian population into enclaves, a Palestinian "Bantustan", under the guise of a "two-state solution".

In the third section Halper describes in detail a Matrix of Control, whereby Israel pursues its longstanding goal of total annexation and control of a land inhabited by nearly 5 million Palestinians.The Israelis have imposed tools such as zoning laws, obscure bureaucratic regulations preventing new Palestinian home construction, and permits for the uprooting of olive orchards and the creation of "nature preserves" preventing Palestinians from cultivating their traditional farmlands.Orwellian rules prevent Palestinian legal redress for these arbitrary dispossessions.Economic restrictions have reduced Palestinian manufacturing to 10% of its former total resulting in unemployment rates of 49% in the West Bank and over 70% in Gaza.Israel has appropriated most of the water from aquifers beneath Palestinian enclaves.Free movement of the Palestinian population is circumscribed by expanding Jewish settlements, military checkpoints, a separation wall encroaching well beyond the 1967 boundaries into the occupied territories, and arbitrary home demolitions, all woven into the reality of "facts on the ground" rendering any viable Palestinian entity a chimera.The gradual squeezing of the Palestinians into ever shrinking enclaves (Bantustans) is likened by Halper to an open air prison, an Apartheid reality, in total disregard of the Geneva conventions to protect human rights.

This section of the book takes the reader on a historical journey through several stages of Jewish occupation beginning with the early Zionist visions of the late 19th century in Europe through WWI and the Balfour Declaration.This is followed by the British Mandate, the active immigration movements of the 1930s which corresponded to German oppressions in Europe, the partition of Palestine by the UN in 1947, the 1948 War of Independence which caused massive Palestinian ethnic cleansing and resulted in the occupation of 78% of the original British Mandate, the Six Day war of 1967 which expanded Jewish occupation to the entire territory of Palestine, the Lebanon war leading to the first Intifada, various peace negotiations, Oslo, the Camp David talks and the vacuity of the so-called "generous offer" declined by Arafat in 2000 leading to the second Intifada, and to 9/11 and the ascension to power of the neo-conservatives in the United States and paltry failed efforts to broker a viable two state solution.A critical but little discussed element is the Bush Administration's 2004 tacit approval of Israel's annexation of West Bank settlements, locking the two-state "Road Map" concept into a permanent "transitional" Phase II with "provisional borders".

In the fourth section entitled Overcoming Oppression, Halper discusses possible solutions, and here he is not sanguine.He directly addresses the obstacle of terrorism by pointing out the hypocrisy of Israel's false distinction between individual terrorist acts such as suicide bombings employed by Palestinians while dismissing state sponsored terrorist acts utilized by Israeli armed forces, since the latter lack the element of "intention", but which have resulted in far more innocent deaths.

In the short term the "two-state" solution might provide a stepping stone but is filled with obstacles.Essentials include: 1) the right of return of Palestinian refugees, or just compensation as a substitute.2) removal of all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.3) self-determination for a viable and sovereign Palestinian people.4) an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders, or a negotiation approximating these borders.

Ultimately demographics will force Israel to come to terms with the reality that it must either be a Jewish state or a democratic state, but it cannot be both.Thus an ultimate solution will be either a bi-national single state (such as Canada) or some form of inclusive confederation leading ultimately to incorporation into the larger Middle East.Ethno-nationalism must be abandoned as it already has been in the West, and the double-standard of a religio-ethnocracy acceptable for Israel while denied for the Palestinians is untenable.Thus far world governments have been unwilling to address this problem honestly and therefore Halper believes the burden must fall on NGOs such as various peace groups to bring pressure to bear for change.In the long run the outcome will define whether Israel joins the world community of democratic nations or will end in tragedy for the Jewish people.

An Israeli in Palestine is a powerful book.It should be mandatory reading for American citizens who share much responsibility for what has happened and who remain largely oblivious to the facts.Not mentioned as such but a looming threat is a true conflict of civilizations between Islam and the West if this festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not resolved soon.

THE book to read if you want to understand this issue!
Jeff Halper, a Jewish Israeli peace activist, lays out in devastating detail the horrors of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. This book is so well documented, it seems impossible to refute. It's really difficult to read. Not that it's difficult to UNDERSTAND... not at all. But what Israel has done -- and continues to do -- to the Palestinians is so atrocious, it actually hurts me to read it.

This book is CHOCK-FULL of unbelievable facts and statistics that demonstrate the utter complexity, completeness and cruelty of the "Matrix of Control" that Israel maintains over the Palestinians. I would like to quote just one section. It will give you an idea of how devastating the occupation is for the Palestinians:

"The [Jewish-only] settlement blocs are consciously built atop the [occupied] West Bank aquifers from which Israel draws about 30 percent of its water in violation of international law, which prohibits an Occupying Power from utilizing the resources of an occupied territory. Indeed, 80 percent of the water resources of the West Bank and Gaza are under Israeli control, and a full 80 percent of the water coming from the West Bank goes to Israel and its settlements. Only 20 percent is allocated to its 2.5 million Palestinian inhabitants, and they receive none of the water pumped from the Jordan River. As for consumption, the settlers use six times more water per capita than Palestinians. Per capita water consumption in the West Bank for domestic and urban use (drinking, washing, consumption by public institutions, watering parks, and so on) is only 60 liters per person per day, far below the minimum water consumption of 100 liters per person per day recommended by the World Health Organization; Israelis consume 350 liters per person per day. Mekorot, the Israeli water carrier, which controls all the water of the country, allocates 1,450 cubic meters of water per year to each settler, while a Palestinian receives only 83. Around 215,000 Palestinians living in 270 West Bank villages have no running water at all. The destruction of Palestinian wells and water mains, which has intensified with the construction of the ["separation"] wall over the main aquifers, creates months of water shortages, while the need to purchase water from Israeli tank trucks, costing $3 during the rainy season and up to $8 in the dry months, is beyond the financial resources of the impoverished population. As a final blow, Palestinians are forbidden to collect rainwater in open reservoirs."

The Israeli state is absolutely brutal in its treatment of the Palestinians... of this there can be no doubt. Another thing Halper makes painfully clear is that Israel has no intentions of negotiating a contiguous, viable and truly sovereign Palestinian state. It has already established "facts on the ground" that preclude such an entity.

I haven't quite finished the book yet, but it seems obvious to me that what Israel wants to do, vis-a-vis the Palestinians, is to make life so intolerable for them in the Occupied Territories that they will give up their dreams (and their rights!) and leave their homeland.

If you really want to understand what is going on in the Middle East, PLEASE read this book. Halper is a genius at explaining what Israel is doing... and why. ... Read more

Product Description
The 1948 war led to the creation of the state of Israel, the fragmentation of Palestine, and to a conflict which has raged across the intervening sixty years. The historical debate likewise continues and these debates are encapsulated in the second edition of The War for Palestine, updated to include chapters on Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. In a preface to the new edition, the editors survey the state of scholarship in this contested field. The impact of these debates goes well beyond academia. There is an important link between the state of Arab-Israeli relations and popular attitudes towards the past. A more complex and fair-minded understanding of that past is essential for preserving at least the prospect of reconciliation between Arabs and Israel in the future. The rewriting of the history of 1948 thus remains a practical as well as an academic imperative. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Terrible
These essayists (Benny Morris, Avi Shlaim, Rashid Khalidi and Edward Said and others), consider all previous historical accounts "Zionist propaganda," as Yehoshua Porath observes in his important summer, 2002 review in Azure. Actually, this book is propaganda, not the reverse. These essays weakly attempt to recast Israel's 1947 and 1948 fight for survival --- and fail.

There is nothing new to the idea that Israel instigated the flight of Arabs from Israel in 1947 and 1948, but the falsity of these accusations has been proved time and again by extensive historical research since 1948. Israel did not deliberately expel Arabs.

Taken on together, or case by case, such claims are easily disproved. Inhabitants of Saffuriya, for example, accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing. But in the 1930s, the village hosted anti-Jewish radicals and in 1948 it was headquarters for Arab Liberation Army leader Fawzi al-Qawuqji, who ignored the June 11, 1948 U.N. truce. Thus inhabitants fled en masse, expecting "revenge for their numerous onslaughts upon Jews," --- before the IDF captured the village, according to historical documents, military orders, oral testimonies and diaries cited in Yoav Gelber's Palestine 1948 (p. 165).

These authors also accuse Israel by selectively citing certain items but neglecting critical contextual factors that disprove their allegations.

Contrary to this book's contention, "civil war in Palestine" did not "break out" on Nov. 30, 1947. The "outbreak" wasn't spontaneous, but a well organized series of Arab riots and attacks targeting Jewish communities and people after Arab commanders, leaders and neighboring nations rejected the U. N. Partition Plan--which Israel had just accepted.

These authors, like many other anti-Israel dogmatists, harp on 100 Arabs killed at Deir Yassin. They neglect to mention that the village was a militant stronghold, and was central to Arab attacks on the roads to Jerusalem, intended to cut off the city's access to Jews. Iraqi combatants had settled in Deir Yassin, and joined local aggressors. Arab men dressed in women's clothes and opened fire. They weren't innocent civilians. Likewise, Arabs at a Haifa refinery murdered 50 Jewish civilian co-workers on Dec. 30, 1947 and Arabs slaughtered 80 civilian Jewish medical workers and professors on Apr. 13, 1948. The sole motivation were the victims' Jewish faith.

For his part, Rashid Khalidi focuses on 1948 Palestinian Arab failures --- criticizing Jerusalem Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini. Yet he ignores Haj Amin's alliance with Hitler, his wartime refuge in Berlin, his anti-Jewish Berlin radio broadcasts, and his personal request that Hitler refuse to spare 400,000 Hungarian Jews in exchange for military supplies. Haj Amin also elicited a Nazi promise to exterminate Israel's Jews. Nor does Khalidi mention Palestinian Arab murders of 129 of the 131 prisoners who surrendered at Etzion Bloc.

Avi Shlaim claims that Jewish soldiers vastly outnumbered 25,000 Arab soldiers. But as Porath notes, Israel's Jewish people totaled no more than 750,000, could find no more fighters, and exhausted their resources mounting their self-defense, while seven Arab nations opposing them could easily have drafted far more soldiers from their combined populations of more than 50 million.

Finally, comes the late Edward Said, writing on his family's "flight" from Jerusalem's Talbieh neighborhood. The details confirm --- like many 1948, 1949 and 1950 Arab newspaper articles, radio broadcasts, U.N. and Arab League statements and personal Arab accounts --- that Arab leaders' urgent calls for Palestinian flight, resulted in massive, voluntary urban Palestinian departures. Said claims to have been forced to leave. His own details contradict him.

Despite these essayists claims, 1947 and 1948 Arab attacks on Jews were very significant, and existential threats, just like frequent publicly announced plans to destroy Israel at its birth.

--Alyssa A. Lappen ... Read more

Product Description
The war of 1948 in Palestine is a conflict whose history has been written primarily from the national point of view. This book asks what happens to these narratives when they arise out of the personal stories of those who were involved, stories that are still unfolding. Efrat Ben-Ze'ev, an Israeli anthropologist, examines the memories of those who participated and were affected by the events of 1948, and how these events have been mythologized over time. This is a three-way conversation between Palestinian villagers, Jewish-Israeli veterans, and British policemen who were stationed in Palestine on the eve of the war. Each has his or her story to tell. Across the years, these witnesses relived their past in private within family circles and tightly knit groups, through gatherings and pilgrimages to sites of villages and battles, or through naming and storytelling. Rarely have their stories been revealed to an outsider. As Dr. Ben-Ze'ev discovers, these small-scale truths, which were collected from people at the dusk of their lives and previously overshadowed by nationalized histories, shed new light on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as it was then and as it has become. ... Read more

Product Description
With coverage of all the recent events, the new edition of this best-selling book gives a thorough and accessible account of the history behind the Palestine-Israeli conflict, its roots, and the possibilities for the future. The book is divided into two parts - the first by an American rabbi and Professor of Judaism, and the second by a Palestinian lecturer on Islam. The result is a real insight into the situation, with each author giving full vent to the emotions behind the two sides of the debate. Two new chapters outline recent developments, while an updated conclusion consists of a direct debate between the two authors, which raises many issues, yet offers real solutions to which future peace talks may aspire. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Beginner's Guide To Continue Poor Scholarship
The title is erroneous.
Israel is a part of Palestine and refuses to be in conflict with itself. As a matter of fact it made a durable peace with the Eastern Palestinian Kingdom behind the Biblical river of Jordan.
The conflict is between the Arab-speaking people and the Israelized Jews who speak many tongues.
The book contains a wrong map which shows Gaza seeing the withdrawal of Israeli troops in 1957 and 1982.
It also shows Lebanon south of Beirut to be occupied by Israel for 3 years.
It is so sloppy that it even does not mention in its chronology the creation of the Emirate of Transjordan carved by the British from Palestine.
It also contains errors like
"Moshe Dayan drives all Palestinian civilians from Lydda and Ramle by force"
First, at that time Jews and Arabs alike were Palestinian civilians.
Second, Arabs and Jews still live together in Lod and Ramle!

A Luminous Introduction to the History and Conflict
With so many books written on the state of Israel artlessly swaying one way or another, it is helpful to finally discover a book that is equally bias. The history of the conflict accounted for by both side`s own point of view; Dan Cohn Sherbok, a professor of Judaism and renown author on Jewish history and Dawoud el-Alami, a Palestinian professor of Islamic Studies. In the end of the book, each author is given a opportunity to debate followed by a response.

Both accounts of the history of the Palestinians and the of the Israelis are easy to read and intrinsically descriptive which underscore the fundamentals of the strife of the two different but similar peoples. Although certain sections do lack consistency and veer off course a bit, the bulk of the book is easy to ingest due to the rather precise chronology and relevancy of the each topic. Seemingly both perspectives seem to be blaming each other in one way or another.

The debate section is perhaps the most thought-provoking part of the book. An interesting observation that you could make is how Mr. Cohn-Sherbok lays out five ingredients for hopes of peace in the region and justifies the State's national security aimsin the final chapter while the response from Mr. el-Alami largely focused on questioning Israel's right to exist at all -almost a microcosm of the present situation today.

The purpose of the book is not a persuasion to take one side over another but rather to hear from both sides of the conflict and leave you the reader to draw your own conclusions. This objective is almost obsolete with most publications that discuss the state of Israel and the plight of the Palestinian people today. A very worthy read, which despite being a bit on the bulky side, is a truly unique and noble idea that establishes a balanced perspective from two highly knowledgeable and passionate authors.

The Palestine-Israeli conflict
The Palestine-Israeli Conflict
By: Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Dawoud el-Alami

The Palestine-Israeli Conflict is an insightful, original, and well-researchedwork.
Although it is labeled a "beginner's guide" one must already have at least a basic knowledge of Middle East modern history to fully understand it.From the roots of Zionism in the 1800's to the Intifada of the early 2000's, both writers do a masterful job of tying every cause and effect into an understandable history of the troubled region.

A refreshing characteristic of the book is it's dual point of view format.In an age where nearly every history book is distorted by the writer's viewpoint, it is hard to find a clear perspective.Although Cohn-Sherbok (Professor of Judaism) and el-Alami (a Palestinian native) are no different in their own individual writings.However, since both points of view are presented in the same work, the reader can read both, mix and match different points, and form his or her opinions.

The only aspect of the book is that it tends to become repetitive and never repeats information.The reader must stay attentive to every event in order to understand the next.

This book is a great tool for forming your own opinions about the conflict and learning the details from both points of view.I would recommend it to just about anybody looking to learn more.

VERY Disappointed Beginner
As a beginner in Middle Eastern studies, I bought this book for a balanced overview of the conflict.I was disappointed that the book seemed to "start in the middle" with only a passing mention of the diaspora, etc.Certain facts, figures and dates were glossed over w/out further explanation. I didn't even make it through the first section...

Excellent!
This is a fantastic book and is laid out giving a balanced account from both sides of the conflict.I detest hearing one-sided arguments as I always wonder what "the other sides" response would be.
In this book I don't have to wonder.One chapter is devoted to the Israeli cause and the following chapter is devoted to the Palestinian cause.One writer makes a point and the other makes a counter-point.More books should be written in this format. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (10)

One State Two State
This book presents a very detailed assessment of the development and variety of concepts proposed since the late 19th Century regarding a resolution for the Israeli-Arab conflict between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.The Author is very meticulous in presenting all possible versions of both sides and it is somewhat demanding on the part of the reader to pursue this book.

An important perspective on a complex issue
I offer a recommendation of this volume in "fear and trembling", certain that there are those who will detest this book and anyone who chooses to commend it on the Amazon website, or anyplace else for that matter.Nevertheless, I think it appropriate to highlight the virtues of Benny Morris' "One State, Two States", representing, as it does, a significant contribution to ongoing dialogue around the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Such a commendation need not presume that Morris' book represents the "last word" on the subject, nor need it pretend that the book is "bias-free".It is clear, almost from the first sentence, that Benny Morris writes as an Israeli; his perspective is shaped both by his essential sympathy with the Israeli "narrative" and by his affirmation of Israel's right not only to exist but to exist as a Jewish state.In this reader's judgment, however, those sympathies and loyalties do not prevent Morris from offering critical assessments of Israeli government actions in those instances in which he sees those actions as wrong-headed, nor does it prevent Morris from recognizing some of the particular challenges (and they are sobering challenges, indeed) that would face the Palestinian people were they to attempt to build a functioning state on the two small parcels of land currently available to them: the West Bank and Gaza.

And so one commends this small volume as one particularly well-written "testimony": a well-researched historian's testimony concerning the genesis of the Israel/Palestine conflict, at the same time a thoughtful citizen's not entirely despairing testimony concerning possible roads into the future: roads that just might initiate a process by which this tragic conflict may one day be resolved.

Disappointing and, frankly, racist
I've always been a fan of Morris's historical work, but this book was a big disappointment. First of all, only the last 2-3 pages is dedicated to "solving the Israel/Palestine conflict," which is the book's subtitle. He is ultimately for a two-state solution, with Israel in it's pre-1967 borders and Jordan controlling the West Bank and Gaza. He doesn't look at this "solution" in any depth or even talk to any Jordanians or Palestinians who support it, likely because there aren't any.

Otherwise, much of the rest of the book is a racist screed about how Arabs cannot ever be part of a binational state, mostly because Arabs (and especially Arab Muslims) aren't to be trusted and are incapable of democracy or sharing. He speaks a lot of the "Arab mentality" and the "Arab mindset" just to tell us that "the notion of sharing power or being a minority in a non-Muslim Arab polity is alien to the Muslim Arab mentality" (p. 189).

Other parts mirror French colonial rhetoric about the backwardness and violent nature of North Africans: "The value placed on human life and the rule of (secular) law is completely different-as exhibited, in Israel itself, in the vast hiatus between Jewish and Arab perpetration of crimes and lethal road traffic violations. Arabs, to put it simply, proportionally commit far more crimes (and not only ones connected to property) and commit far more lethal traffic violations than do Jews. In large measure, this is a function of different value systems (such as the respect accorded to human life and the rule of law)" (p. 187).

This is a racist screed that is sure to please anyone who thinks that Arabs are inferior, savage and not to be trusted.

Well Argued But Not Entirely Coherent
This is an interesting polemic on the always controversial topic of the relative status of the state of Israel and a Palestinian state.The author is the talented Israeli historian and former journalist Benny Morris, the author of a number of fine books on the state of Israel.The subtitle, "Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict," is misleading as Morris has little to say about escaping from the present morass.Most of this book is a well argued polemic against the "One State" concept of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.This is the idea, developed by some American and European intellectuals, and some Palestinian advocates, that the present impasse could be resolved by the formation of a secular, democratic state incorporating the present state of Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.The model is clearly the type of pluralistic state seen in some of the more diverse states of the US, provinces of Canada, or some parts of Europe.

Morris opens with a brief exposition of the One State idea and history of its recent support in America, Europe, and among some Palestinians.The meat of the book follows with a history of how both Jews-Zionists-Israelis and Palestinians thought about statehood from the 1930s to the present.Like much of Morris work, this is a well written piece of exposition.The gist of Morris' conclusions is that from the late 30s to the present, the Jews-Israelis were/are willing to accept some form of partition and a two state solution and that the Palestinian's, despite multiple defeats and social catastrophe, were/are not.Morris argues that the Palestinians are not only unwilling to accept a two state solution but essentially unwilling to tolerate substantial numbers of Jews in Palestine.Morris sees Palestinian claims for a plural, democractic state as largely window dressing and that window dressing is being abetted by a group of credulous westerners.Morris points to prior Palestinian behavior from the rejection of the proposed (1937) Peel commission partition and rejection of the proposed (1948) UN partition to Arafat's rejection of the Barak-Clinton overtures to the behavior of contemporary Palestinian leaders.Morris bases his conclusion on the relative historical immaturity of Palestinian society (a theme in some of his prior work), the catastrophic effects of the Nakba, and the inimical effects of Islam, which he sees as fundamentally anti-semitic and undemocratic.One needn't share his feelings about Islam to recognize that the popularity of a highly nationalistic and politicized form of Islam, among both Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, and the rise of Hamas specifically, undermines the possibility of a plural, secular, and democratic single state. Morris acknowledges frankly that Israeli society would not accept a single state.

Morris' argument is developed well but he is not entirely consistent.He acknowledges but tends to slide over the recent behavior of the settlement movements, rightist dominated Israeli governments, and their desire to dominate all of Palestine west of the Jordan.He points correctly to Palestinian intransigence on the topic of the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees and their descendents but never discusses the analogous "right of return" in Israeli law for Jews.Morris is very concerned about the demographic effects of high Palestinian (and Israeli Arab) birth rates but never mentions that the biggest demographic change of the last generation was the immigration of approximately 1 million Jews from the former Soviet Union.He provides a close analysis of official Palestinian statements but makes much of the unofficial opinions of Israeli politicians.

Having quite successfully attacked the One State concept, Morris turns briefly to the Two State concept.Morris is no more enthusiastic about this idea.He states briefly that Gaza and the West Bank are probably too small to be economically viable and expresses concern that such a mini-state will be irredentist and a chronic threat to Israel.The background here, which he discusses only briefly, is that the unsuccessful withdrawal from Gaza discredited both the ideas that relinquishing autonomy to the Palestinians would lead to poltical progress towards a Two State solution and that the Israelis could retreat behind a security barrier with impunity.Morris' preferred solution, which he admits is not practical, would a larger Jordan incorporating Gaza and the West Bank.Essentially, he wishes to transfer the burden of policing the Palestinians to the Jordanian Army.Even if the Palestinians and the Jordanians were willing to accept this solution, there would be a good chance that it would lead to the type of Palestinian dominated irredentist state that he fears.

The only choice left in Morris' analysis is a continuation of the present morass.And this is precisely where Morris fails to address the arguments of the most intelligent One State advocates.In the present stalemate, Israel exercises some degree of authority over Gaza and the West Bank.Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank already form a de facto single state but one in which the rights of inhabitants vary greatly. This is a very difficult position for a democracy like Israel.

Grim reading, strategically designed to inform the Obama Administration
Israeli and Palestinian angst is deep.Morris's take is that the Palestinians deserve theirs.He argues it softly and therefore well, but the reader is well-advised to read another book a little more sympathetic to the Palestinians, or better still find a few local email buddies, before concluding, as Morris does, that a 1-state solution is impossible and a 2-state one -- of both doubtful Palestinian viability and unlikely Zionist security is the best that can be hoped for.

People can and do grow, and when the house is burning, leadership -- such as Obama is insisting on from both sides -- has its best opportunity to make a practical world-changing difference.

As a small z zionist in a Big Z Zionist polity, Benny Morris is a courageous but a sad author."One State, Two State" is a great reference book in fascinating narrative form.But as the work of a contemporary historian it falls short of making the criticism of tribal myopia and gamesmanship on both sides that would be needed to justify itself as compelling advice for contemporary decision-makers. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

A little bias never hurt anyone
There is a strong bias in the book and it is evident in the author's treatment of Palestinians as savages and Israelis as compassionate peace-seeking peoples. Although there is an important aspect of Palestinian politics that is brought to light, the author oversimplifies many events and in turn appears to make Palestinian politics radical and promoting violence. If you want to get a better idea about Palestinian politics read Nathan Brown's book that even-handedly demonstrates the shortcomings of the PNA and in turn how this affected the Palestinian people. Palestinian politics is less democratic than the book suggests and hardly represents the entire Palestinian population.

As a beginning to a complex history this book does a decent job at describing the events that spawned violence between Hamas and Fatah but overall the tone is very anti-Palestinian and as a result I feel that any information provided is not entirely scholarly.

Hamas vs. US backed Fatah
Based on public sources the author explains in certain detail how and why there was a Hamas - Fatah clash.One of the more important aspects that said is thatcontrary to what it's argued in other writings such as Ross and Makovsky book, theirs was not a Hamas coup in Gaza.The author doesn't argue that otherwise he outline the process an escalation first with US backed Fatah policy under Clinton (and Ross in charge) of kidnappings and torture at the hands of Fatah against the Hamas members including the incarceration of its founder at the hands of Fatah in the nineties.Hamas then won and urged by the Bush administration Fatah refuse to handle control to the party that won.Until the vengeance cycle ended by those Hamas forces that has been arrested revolted against the Fatah security forces that they chase by name that has torture them in Gaza.

Excellent coverage of the topic
I enjoyed reading this book, learned a fair bit, and left myself tags for reference back to it at later dates.

Well written, scary topic, but an important read.

The truth of the Palestinian political reality
Barack Obama should read this book. Also , Hillary Clinton. I would also recommend that Daniel Kurtzer, Dennis Ross, Richard Haas, Martin Indyk read it. In fact I would recommend that all those who have anything to do with the 'peace- process' between Israel and Palestinians read it. And this because it exposes the lie of a moderate Palestinian Fatah, truly ready for peace. And it makes clear just how filled with deceit and hatred Palestinian politics are.
In tracing the historical development of the rivalry and occasionally open physical conflict between the Fatah of Arafat and the Hamas of Sheik Yassin and Haniyeh Jonathan Schanzer gives a close- up look of where the mind and hearts of Palestianian leaders truly have been and are. He shows the process by which 'Hamas' has gradually gained power, replacing Fatah not only in Gazabut in the minds and hearts of the intellectuals of Palestinian society.
He too traces the connections of the Palestinians with other actors in both the Arabic and Islamic worlds. And he indicates the increasing role Iran is playing in the Palestinian story.
This is first- rate research, clearly written.
It also brings us pretty much up to date, and gives a strong sense of the internal Palestinian struggles at this moment.
A must read for anyone who would understand the Middle East today.

Opens a new field of research
Schanzer's new book signals a new field of research namely the internicine fighting between Palestinians. It also sheds fresh light on the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

The book is written in a style that reflects scholarly research and ample end notes although it is easily read by those with a basic interest in the violence in the region.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that is concerned about attacks on Israel, the prospects of peace between Palestinians and Israelis or those who want to learn more about recent history of this region. ... Read more