Book Description
In this long-awaited sequel to his international bestseller The Holocaust Industry, Norman G. Finkelstein moves from an iconoclastic interrogation of the new anti-Semitism to a meticulously researched exposé of the corruption of scholarship on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Bringing to bear the latest findings on the conflict and recasting the scholarly debate, Finkelstein points to a consensus among historians and human rights organizations on the factual record. Why, then, does so much controversy swirl around the conflict? Finkelstein's answer, copiously documented, is that apologists for Israel contrive controversy. Whenever Israel comes under international pressure, another media campaign alleging a global outbreak of anti-Semitism is mounted.
Finkelstein also scrutinizes the proliferation of distortion masquerading as history. Recalling Joan Peters' book From Time Immemorial, published to great fanfare in 1984 but subsequently exposed as an academic hoax, he asks deeply troubling questions here about the periodic reappearance of spurious scholarship and the uncritical acclaim it receives. The most recent addition to this genre, Finkelstein argues, is Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz's bestseller, The Case for Israel.
The core analysis of Beyond Chutzpah sets Dershowitz's assertions on Israel's human rights record against the findings of the mainstream human rights community. Sifting through thousands of pages of reports from organizations such as Amnesty International, B'Tselem, and Human Rights Watch, Finkelstein argues that Dershowitz has misrepresented the facts.
Thoroughly researched and tightly argued, Beyond Chutzpah lifts the veil of controversy shrouding the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Download Description
In this long-awaited sequel to his international bestseller The Holocaust Industry, Norman G. Finkelstein moves from an iconoclastic interrogation of the new anti-Semitism to a meticulously researched exposé of the corruption of scholarship on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Bringing to bear the latest findings on the conflict and recasting the scholarly debate, Finkelstein points to a consensus among historians and human rights organizations on the factual record. Why, then, does so much controversy swirl around the conflict? Finkelstein's answer, copiously documented, is that apologists for Israel contrive controversy. Whenever Israel comes under international pressure, another media campaign alleging a global outbreak of anti-Semitism is mounted. Finkelstein also scrutinizes the proliferation of distortion masquerading as history. Recalling Joan Peters' book From Time Immemorial, published to great fanfare in 1984 but subsequently exposed as an academic hoax, he asks deeply troubling questions here about the periodic reappearance of spurious scholarship and the uncritical acclaim it receives. The most recent addition to this genre, Finkelstein argues, is Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz's bestseller, The Case for Israel. The core analysis of Beyond Chutzpah sets Dershowitz's assertions on Israel's human rights record against the findings of the mainstream human rights community. Sifting through thousands of pages of reports from organizations such as Amnesty International, B'Tselem, and Human Rights Watch, Finkelstein argues that Dershowitz has misrepresented the facts. Thoroughly researched and tightly argued, Beyond Chutzpah lifts the veil of controversy shrouding the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Customer Reviews:
Jewish soul-searching and anti-Semitism........2007-10-11
As one can see from the enthusiastic celebrations around this book, it is indeed a long waited for delicacy for all those who are uneasy with the idea that the Jewish People are also entitled to their national sovereignty in their ancient-new homeland. These celebrating people do not like to consider themselves anti-Semites (today it is not considered bon-ton), and are deeply offended when somebody dares to suggest that they are, but nevertheless they are convinced that the rebuilding of the Jewish State in our times is an intolerable outrage. They are passionately trying to prove that the Jewish State is illegitimate, or at least its struggle to defend itself from its sworn deadly enemies is.
And now here comes this Jewish Guru who in his new book "scholarly and methodically" analyses and proves how right they are and gives them his stamp of approval, his certificate of Kosherness. They couldn't have asked for more, "the right thing at the right time" and hence this enthusiastic welcome.
Nevertheless, I would like to remind everybody a well known idiosyncrasy of the Jewish people, which may help to bring this whole issue in the right perspective. The Jews have a singular tendency to soul-searching which characterizes them since ancient times (remember the Prophets?). We have a strong tendency to demanding from ourselves uncompromising high standards of conduct which we are not always succeeding to live up to, and this leads to very harsh and very frequently unfair self-criticism. You can find it in articles written by Jewish reporters in Israeli newspapers as well as abroad. You can find it also in books like the subject one. Sometimes this self-criticism becomes unreasonably harsh and unfair, bordering with insanity, and sometimes it is outright insane. Even though the motives are diametrically opposite, this insanity is very similar to another soul pathology called anti-Semitism.
In a way, this insane level of the characteristic Jewish soul-searching and the anti-Semitic pathology are related, and feeding each other. On one side the anti-Semite is more than happy to concur with the Jewish self criticism, especially when it is sufficiently insane. On the other side, the insane Jewish leftist is convinced that as soon as we become angels, the anti-Semites will suddenly realize how nice people we are, and will instantly fall in love with the Jews.
This is in a nutshell my explanation to this biased, tendentious, one-sided and unfair anti-Semitic hate-pamphlet written by a deranged self-hating Jewish intellectual, and the enthusiastic way it is welcome by anti-Semites worldwide, Jewish and non-Jewish.
an attempt at analysis.......2007-09-19
this is an attempt at honest analysis of this issue.
however,the various author are so angry at each other that often are more
attent at respond to each other and the objectivity suffers.
this does not mean to imply that this particular book is misleading. it tries very hard to be impartial and it almost often succeeds
a must read.......2007-09-10
This is a must read, specially for those who support Israel and Zionism. Norman Finkelstein raises questions that we should all contemplate. Regardless of your political views, you can only gain from this book. Sadly, Prof. Finkelstein has already paid the price for his views.
Finkelstein vs. Chomsky.......2007-07-16
This reads like a thesis. Almost every paragraph starts with why Chomsky, another professor at a prestigious university, is wrong.
I couldn't stand it.
Some authors write books on history. Others re-write history in books. .......2007-06-21
Falsities, distortions, omissions, insults and biasness are things you'll find in this book. Objectivity, balance and honesty are things you won't find in Beyond Chutzpah, a book on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
For example, in regards to the Palestinian refugee problem, the author states that "The scholarly consensus is that Palestinians were ethnically cleansed in 1948." Yet there is no truth to this statement since various historians have reached various conclusions. The author also attempts to prove that there was no such thing as Arab radio broadcasts urging Palestinians to leave their homes prior to or during the 1948 war, summarizing it as a Zionist lie. However, there is other evidence, which shows that Arab authorities - through means other than radio broadcasts - urged Palestinians to leave their homes, which the author neglects to mention.
Another example of dishonesty is when the author refers to the Palestinian people as "indigenous", when in fact they originated from the Arabian Peninsula and other parts outside of Israel/Palestine. That's like claiming that Spaniards are the indigenous people of Mexico! Equally absurd is the author's fanciful and historically inaccurate comparison of Palestinians to American Indians, whose territories were conquered and colonized by Europeans, and the European conquerors, he compares to Zionists. This comparison is completely nonsensical, considering the fact that Jews have lived in Israel/Palestine for some 2,000 years before Arabs even settled there! In fact, the name "Palestine" was given by the Romans who ruled the region during the second century (five centuries before Arabs begin settling there) in order to wipe off the region's Jewish identity. Thus, the author has it all wrong: The Jews are the indigenous people of Israel/Palestine, not the Arabs. Sure enough, the author mentions the Arab population in Palestine before 1948, but entirely dismisses the Jewish population, as though Jews simply did not exist there, or as he puts it; "two millennia of non-Jewish settlement in Palestine." Now how could one publish such explicit lies and get away with it? These are not facts, but mere fabrications.
History shows us that the Jews have lived in Palestine longer than any other people, for some 3,500 consecutive years. Granted, the Jewish population greatly diminished to the point where Arabs outnumbered them, but at no time during the Zionist movement was Palestine ever an Arab nation. When the Zionist movement began in late 19th century, the Turkish Ottoman Empire ruled the region. After WW1, it was the British. Moreover, during those periods, Jerusalem's population was predominantly Jewish. But the author does not provide the reader with such information. His approach, instead, is to blame everything - literally everything - on Zionists and the State of Israel, even for "Sadam (Hussein) to embark on a nuclear weapons program"!
But these are not the only important facts the author omits. There are many others. Like the fact that in 1922, the British government gave some three quarters of Palestine to the Hashemite Kingdom to create an exclusively Arab state, or the fact that the 1948 war was initiated by six Arab nations. Nope. Instead, the author writes about how in 1948, under the 1947 UN Partition Plan, the Arabs were offered "only" half of Palestine, as though they should have been entitled to all of it and makes it sounds like Israel is the one who started the war.
Other examples of biasness, include the author's mentions of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians, such as the Deir Yassin massacre in 1948, yet completely ignoring Palestinians atrocities against Jews, like the 1929 massacre in Hebron, or the 1938 massacre in Tiberias, or the killings between 1936-1939, or the 1970 school bus massacre in Avivim, or the 1974 massacre in Maalot, etc, etc. In addition to all of this, you will find insults and ridicule, like when the author ponders rhetorically, "Shouldn't Chesler (author of The New Anti-Semitism...) first have consulted the idiot's guide to the Middle-East?" Very funny. And of course, none of this would be complete without a few anti-Semitic clichés like; "Zionist fabrication," "Zionist propaganda," and "Zionist fairy tale."
Speaking of anti-Semitism, the author persistently asserts that Jews are and have been misusing anti-Semitism as a political tool to gain advantages, and therefore, somehow instigating anti-Semitism themselves. Yet at the same time, the author manages to downplay the reality of the new anti-Semitism. Granted, it is true that Jews have used anti-Semitism as a political tool, there's no question about that. But if you understand the history anti-Semitism and put things in proper context, it only makes sense for Jews to use anti-Semitism as a political tool. Being a tiny minority in every country outside Israel and having suffered so much throughout history, it is, to a certain extant, a tool for self defense; to ensure that they are treated properly without prejudice or hostility so that history does not repeat itself. Just as it is proper for African Americans to use the "race card", as whites call it, as a political tool to ensure equality and fair treatment in society, it's proper for Jews to do the same, as long as they don't go overboard. And sure, some individual Jews and Jewish Organizations have gone overboard, but the author takes this whole idea entirely out of context and blows it completely out of proportion making one feel like they are reading excerpts from The Protocols of The Elders of Zion.
Another issue I have with this book is that the author's attempt to compel the reader into believing that anyone who criticizes Israel is automatically labeled an anti-Semite. That is not true. In fact, if that were the case, then the majority of Israelis would be anti-Semites, according to the author's own logic (or lack of). However, there is a visible difference between criticism and attacks, which the author fails to see. When someone slanders and insults Jewish people, why can't it be called by its real name; anti-Semitism? The author is simply trying to play a game of reverse psychology in hopes to silence Jews from defending themselves.
Other subjects in this book include Israel's human rights abuses, which he greatly emphasizes. But when it comes down to Palestinian human rights abuses, he ignores it. He also ignores Lebanon's, Syria's and Jordan's human rights abuses towards Palestinians, which shows you how biased this book is. The author believes that the first Intifada was "largely non-violent" (sure, perhaps when compared to the second Intifada, where suicide bombing was a weapon of choice) but Israel's response he calls a "brutal repression." Yet the author refuses to mention Palestinians' own brutal repression towards their own people, like when hundreds of Palestinian civilians suspected of "collaborating" with Israel were tortured and executed by Palestinian militants during the first Intifada.
But providing such detail would ruin the author's squeaky-clean image of Palestinians, which brings us to another fine virtue the author exemplifies; Hypocrisy. He accuses Joan Peters' book Time Immortal of being a "colossal hoax" where "sources were mangled, key numbers in demographic study falsified, and large swaths plagiarized from Zionist propaganda." Sounds to me like he learned a lot from Peters' alleged tactics, since Finkelstein himself mangles sources. For example, he quotes from Benny Morris (also a controversial author who calls himself a "new scholar" and who has been accused of twisting facts and even fabricating them) who Finkelstein calls a racist psychopath! Yet Finkelstein has no problems quoting "facts" from a racist psychopath. Ironically enough, this racist psychopath later complained that Finkelstein misused his sources through selective quoting!
The second half of the book deals specifically with Alan Dershowitz (not exactly an acclaimed scholar either) and his book "The Case for Israel." Here, the author's role here is to expose Dershowitz as a complete fraud. I admit that when one looks at the content of his analysis at face value, it looks very impressive. Yet when you read very closely, you will notice that the author uses a very simple method of boldly dismissing everything and anything Dershowitz wrote and replacing it all with his own personally revised "corrections" - through selective sources and quoting, of course. The author's superbly confident, often arrogant, and bully-like tone is sure to convince anyone of anything he writes. His attempt to prove that Dershowitz plagiarized is not all that fantastic either; whenever Dershowitz quotes from Peters, he uses quotation marks or citations, or at least makes some sort of attributions in one way or another.
So there you have it: A spectacular one-sided book on the Israel-Palestine conflict. If you are looking for an all-out attack on the State of Israel to serve for your hungry appetite, Mr. Finkelstein will provide you with the most satisfying meal.
Book Description
Second Edition, Revised and Expanded
Customer Reviews:
The best of the best in Israel's history books.......2007-10-10
Anybody who wants to know about the history of the State of Israel,you should read this book.
A Comprehensive Work.......2007-06-27
It is very difficult to accurately and comprehensively analyse this work.
The fact is that Sachar go's out of his way to be even-handed, which leads to a dilemma in itself.
The truth is that one cannot be objective in a conflict where it is clear to any fair-minded and honest observer who the agressors are and always have been: The Jews peacefully returned to their ancient land, and for nearly a century the Arabs have been trying to drive them into the sea.
There are times when I am uncomfortable with the author's particularly unfair treatment of the Jewish freedom fighters- the Irgun and Lechi- whom he labels as 'terrorists'.
At the same time, he honestly appraises the history of the situation as he see's it, and does not like the malevolent 'new historians' and revisionists, like Chomsky, Finkelstein, Said, Lenni Brenner and Israel Shahak, go back and rewrite history to suit their own destructive and malicious agenda against Israel.
This is an honest appraisal, in which the author strives to be fair.
Though his commentary is not always to my liking, he sticks to the facts, except in cases like the so-called massacre of Deir Yassin, where he has accepted the 'official' version' of events, despite clear evidence that there had been no deliberate killing of Arab civillians by the Jews.
The author begins by outlining the beginnings of the Zionist movement, the work of pioneers such as Moshe Hess, Leo Pinsker, Moses Montefiore, Achad Ha'am, Theodore Herzl, Chaim Weizmann and Vladimir Jabotinsky. He describes their strugles to adapt to harsh terrain, in the land which had flourished two thousand years before, when their ancestors lived there.
He describes how sucessive waves of Jews returning to the Land of Israel, struggled to adapt, often, to the homeland that was being restored.
He writes of the purchase by the Jews from Arab absentee landlords. The book describes the revival of the Hebrew language, thanks to the efforts of Eliezer Ben Yehuda, and of the the long tradition of discrimination and dhimmni status of the Jews, in the Holy Land, and Arab countries under Islamic domination.
We learn of the origins of Communist hostility to Zionism and the Israeli people, of the originally warm attitude to Zionism by forward thinking Arab leaders such as King Feisal of Syria, and the bloody pogroms by Arabs on Jewish communities in the Land of Israel in 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1936-1939.
The truth is that a very large part of the Arab hostility to Zionism, and the returning Jews originated in the fear among the Arab aristocracy in the Holy Land, and elsewhere in neighbouring lands, that the egalitarian spirit of the Jews, the democracy and emphasis, on social justice and democracy would influence the Arab masses, and therefore threaten the powerbases of the Arab elites.
We read of Hitler's ally and Jew-hater Mufti Haj Amin el Husseini, one of the original founders of Islamic jihad against the Jewish people, and his impassioned preaching of venom and genocide against the Jews.
Much of the Arab hostility and agression towards the Jews of the then named 'Palestine' was encouraged by intense propaganda directed at the Arabs by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, this at a time when hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees where fleeing from Nazi Germany to the Holy Land.
The book also highlights the Balfour Declaration and how the British later reneged, under Arab pressure, on the promises to the Jewish people of restoration to their ancient land.
Many of the British actively assited the Arabs against the Jews, and the British blocked the netry of hundreds of thousands of Jews, attempting to enter 'Palestine' as an escape from Hitler's infernos.
The book discusses the persecution of Jews in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt, and their mass expulsion from these countries after they fled from the Arab states, with nothing more than the clothes on their backs from the countries they had lived in for centuries.
The book describes the miraculous survival of the Jews of Israel, during the Second World War, and their victories against overwhelming odds in the War of Independence, the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War.
The book describes how before the Six Day War, the Arabs had surrounded Israel ,and openly issued hideous threats of genocide against all the Jews of Israel, forcing Israel to fire the first shots in order to survive(after Nasser had closed the Straights of Tiran) , and of the decades of infiltrations into Israel of marauding Arab terror bands killing Israeli men, women and children, including the massacres of Jewish children at Kiryat Shmona and Ma'alot, by the terrorists of the 'Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine'. And we also read of the cowardly attack by Arab states on Israel, that started the Yom Kippur War, and the unpreparedness of Israel's leadership that was scared to strike first for fear of upsetting world opinion.
This was a tragic mistake that imperilled the Israeli nation, and led to many unnecesary deaths of Israelis.
The book also describes the other triumphs of Israel: the absorbtion of millions of Jews, the struggles of the Oriental Jews (Jews from North Africa and the Middle East)for equality, the admirable building up of Israel's welfare state, and the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann in the early 1960's.
He also reflect on the conflicts within Israeli society and, contrary to the allegations by an earlier reviewer, focuses much on the issues of Israeli Arabs.
The trial of Eichmann brought home the horrors of the holocaust, and the lessons derived by the holocaust, by emphasizing the dangers inherent towards a Jewish minority living among a non-Jewish majority, and the need for an ingathering of Jews from all parts of the world in a homeland of their own.
During a break in the court sessions of Israel's thirteenth Independence day, David Ben-Gurion referred to the Eichmnn trial in a speech:
"Here for the first time in Jewish history, historical justice is being done by the sovereign Jewish people. For many generations it was we who suffered, who were tortured, who were killed-and were judged...for the first time, Israel is judging the killers of the Jewish people...and let us bear in mind that only the independence of Israel could create the necesary conditions for the historic act of justice".
Never again can catastrophy allowed to overtake the Jewish people, and the Jewish people subjected to genocide, especially not in their own homeland.
In a hostile world, much of which wants Israel destroyed, Israel must and will survive...with the help of the Allmighty.
Long live the State of Israel!
An excellent reference.......2005-02-14
This book does a fine job of supplying a detailed history of Israel. It is over 1000 pages, not even counting the index or the huge bibliography.
Sachar's idea is to tell us what happened and why. That does not mean taking sides. It does not mean saying if the people involved were reasonable or moral in choosing the sides they did.
I can understand this approach. We all wish that we could always view relatively current events from the perspective of those who could see which side was being greedy, which side was simply immoral, or which side was being impractical. But we can't, so Sachar simply reports what happened as best he can. And I don't see how I can ask for more than this.
In addition, the simple retelling of what happened and why tells us plenty about how wise or moral decision-makers were. Let me give one example. Sachar has a hefty section on the response to the UN Partition Resolution of November, 1947. Britain refused to gradually transfer authority to a United Nations commission, explaining that this would result in "confusion and disorder." Britain did everything possible to avoid cooperating with those in the UN or the Jewish Agency. The six UN commission members were made unwelcome. They "were soon reduced to foraging for food and drink. They accomplished nothing."
Meanwhile, the British Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, simply regarded the Jews as enemies. As Sachar writes, Bevin claimed "that the whole Jewish 'pressure' was a gigantic racket run from America," that the Jews had stolen "half the place" (that is, half of the Mandate territory), and that "he would not be surprised if the Germans had learned their worst atrocities from the Jews." I think this ought to tell any perceptive reader plenty about Bevin.
On top of this, Sachar explains that Bevin and some important British officers were predicting an Arab military victory, and that the Arabs would have no difficulty taking over the whole country. Nowadays, some people appear to have forgotten all this and are pretending that everyone knew that the Arabs would be no match for the Jews, which is yet one more reason why we ought to read this book!
Sachar also tells us about the British swiping the entire contents of the Mandate treasury, to make sure the Jews got none of the money. At the same time, the British gave 300,000 pounds to the Supreme Moslem Council, an indirect subsidy of the Arab war effort. The British strictly enforced an embargo on Jewish immigration and Jewish weapons acquisition. Meanwhile, the British happily sold weapons to Iraq and Transjordan.
It is true that on April 1, 1948, the Jews decided to stop responding to Arab attacks in a purely defensive manner. With Jerusalem threatened, they did decide to take action to relieve the siege. But Sachar has already shown us that one reason the Jews were unable to try such a plan before then was that the British would have stopped them by force.
There is an enormous amount of information in this book. I recommend it to everyone who is interested in the topic, no matter what political views they may have.
Thorough and thought provoking.......2004-09-04
Very well-written, very informative, balanced view of the evolution and struggles that Israel has undergone.
I only wish it had an extra chapter to give similar perspective to the tumult of the past few years.
Great big book for a great little country.......2004-03-22
Besides being the heaviest book I've read in a very long time, A History of Israel, by Howard Sachar, is probably among the most useful anyone will find on that subject. Let's face it, in today's world the subject of Israel still comes up a lot, far more than one might expect for such a small country. And in an atmosphere in which fifty seven percent of people polled list Israel as the greatest threat to world peace, an educated person cannot afford to be ignorant on the matter.
Israel is a great country. And like all great countries (like most countries, actually) it has a right to exist. Its history extends back quite some time before its founding. If you doubt this, or know someone who does, than the early chapters on Zionism and Jewish migration into Palestine will be invaluable. Want to know just how the Jews came to inhabit the land? Was it a land grab? Theft? Acquisition by conquest? The answer is no, and you can get the details here.
What is Israel like? What is its culture? Economics? Daily Life? How about religion? They're Jews, but how devout are they? What power does the rabbinate have? What arts and sciences flourish, or fail to, in Israel? These are also covered, often, and in detail.
Israel has fought five major wars in its short life. Why? Who started them? How did Israel respond? Did these wars exist in a vacuum, or are they part of an ongoing antagonism against Israel from its Arab neighbors? What actually happened in the Six Day War? Just how did the occupation come to be? All of these issues are examined in detail.
Who runs Israel? What is the party structure? What do they believe? How does Israel relate to other countries, and how has this changed over the years? What about the United States? Is Israel really the fifty-first state? Again, these are all issues dealt with in detail.
The operative word here is detail. With over a thousand pages of small font text, Sachar can cover everything he wishes and go as deep as he desires. This is a history text, not a polemic essay. The point is to show Israel for what it is, avoiding the pitfalls that await anyone writing about the most controversial country every to exist. To the extant that Sachar has taken any sides, it would probably be with the Labor party and against the Likud party. As far as Israel's relations with the Arab countries go, he has stated things as they happen. It may be a surprise to many, but Israel has a really good record vis-à-vis the treatment of Arabs and they owe no excuses to anyone over their presence in the world.
So although the book is formidable and very, very long, it is clear and relevant to today's world. If you'd like to get past the shouting and name-calling and really find out about the country, this is the place to look.
Book Description
The Case Against Israelargues that Zionism was responsible for the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and that Israel is responsible for its perpetuation. The argument rests on widely accepted factual claims and impeccable sources. It avoids rhetoric and gratuitous moralizing. There is no attempt to blacken Israel through association with colonialism, imperialism, or racism. Instead, Neumann's argument emphasizes the fateful Zionist quest for Jewish sovereignty in Palestine. This quest-not the massacres or plans for transfer or other blots on Zionist history-made violence inevitable and compromise impossible. The prospect of Zionists gaining the power of life and death over all inhabitants of Palestine had to be seen by the Palestinians as a mortal threat. They responded accordingly.
The tragic consequences of the quest for sovereignty did not follow all at once, but in two stages. The Zionists established a sovereign Jewish state in 1948. Had they been content with that, peace might have followed the 1967 war, when Israel could have backed the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories. Instead, Zionists pushed to extend Jewish sovereignty, this time through the settler movement. The settlements were a renewed mortal threat to the Palestinians and once again necessitated a violent response. The only solution is for Israel to withdraw, unilaterally, to its 1948 borders.
Michael Neumann was born in 1946, the son of German Jewish refugees. He graduated from Columbia University with degrees in European history and English literature, followed by a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Toronto. He teaches moral and political philosophy at a Canadian university. He has written What's Left?, a critique of 1960s radicalism, and numerous articles relating to the Israel/Palestine conflict. His academic work includes The Rule of Law: Politicizing Ethics as well as articles on utilitarianism, rationality, and rights.
Customer Reviews:
COMPELLING INDICTMENT OF ISRAEL'S POLICIES AGAINST PALESTINIANS.......2007-10-06
Well documented analysis of Israel's apartheid and sadistic policies against entire Palestinian populations under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
This book by a principled and brave writer like Michael Neumann is another compelling and revealing indictment of the daily human rights abuses suffered by the Jewish state's palestinian victims (christians and moslems alike) on a daily basis and which regretfully are systematically ignored or underreported by the zionist or neocon controlled so called mainstream media.
NEUMANN HITS a NERVE, AS THE "TRUTH" USUALLY DOES .......2007-10-03
The overreactions of some of these reviews told me I just had to read this book for myself. It is no surprise that Neumann has hit the bullseye with his book. It feels like FREEDOM of SPEECH, is actually coming back to America - slowly but SURELY! Neumann has written a great book and a heroic book. If you want to go full circle on this topic after reading Neumann's book, then read "The Israel Lobby," by Mearsheimer and Walt. You won't put it down, as it is an eye opener just like Neumann's courageous work. Scholarly and Highly Recommended! WHERE HAS ALL THIS INFORMATION BEEN FOR THE LAST FIFTY YEARS?!
Now seriously, folks...........2007-08-22
If fairy tales were real, I'd enjoy this book. It is common knowledge that the author is not Jewish, had his name legally changed from Muhammad in 1992, and has never had a positive thing to say about Israel or anyone of Jewish faith. This book is serious humor - and to those who follow the nonsense of the author's "sources' as being reliable, then as the old adage goes..."I have some swampland in Florida I have for sale - wanna buy it"?
If the facts don't fit the theory, then the facts must be wrong(?).......2007-07-01
This book, written by a philosopher, misses the key points that would be obvious to any historian - or for that matter anyone who lives in the real world. The author writes: "The Zionist project, as conceived and executed in the 19th and early 20th century, was entirely unjustified. ... " That's an interesting view in retrospect but one that conflicts with the views of world community as reflected by the League of Nations and the UN in their respective times. In any case, how will the application of a certain 21st century moral viewpoint to the 19th century help us resolve the conflict? Regardless of the rightness or wrongness of Zionists of 100 years ago (note that actual historians sensibly avoid making such retrospective judgments), both Israelis and Palestinians find themselves in a difficult situation today (to say the least). In fact, as a philosopher, Neumann is smart enough to understand the irrelevance of the historical background. Therefore in order to judge the Israelis, he simply stipulate premises, which, if they were true, would in fact validate his argument. Thus he claims: "Israel can withdraw at will and close its border, Israel can put an end to virtually all the violence....Since that occupation has no defensive or strategic rationale, Israel has no good reason to prolong it." Indeed in the hypothetical alternate universe that Neumann inhabits, this would be a valid point. However, in the real world, even the most naive observer understands that simply withdrawing from the occupied territories will not conceivably end the violence. The violence began long before the territories were occupied (rockets were routinely launched into Israel prior to 1967) and currently Hamas, with the support of maybe half the Palestinian population, refuses to recognize the right of Israel to exist (and routinely launches rockets into Israel). The fact that the real-world situation is not amenable to a simplistic philosophy-based analysis, does not give us permission to ignore the real world.
Excellent study of the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.......2007-06-07
Michael Neumann is a professor of philosophy at Trent University in Ontario. He writes, "I am a moral and political philosopher: if I have an expertise, it is in moral and political argument." In this brilliant book he clearly outlines the essentials of the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. He concludes, "Israel is, generally speaking, in the wrong in its conflict with Palestinians. The Palestinians, I will claim, are generally speaking in the right."
In Part One he looks at the Zionist project and its consequences. In Part Two he examines the current situation - the occupation, the settlements, alternatives, possible Palestinian strategies, and terrorism.
He summarises Part One, "The Zionist project, as conceived and executed in the 19th and early 20th century, was entirely unjustified and could reasonably be regarded by the inhabitants of Palestine as a very serious threat, the total domination by one ethnic group of all others in the region. ... The illegitimacy of the Zionist project was the major cause of all the terror and warfare that it aroused." Zionism's "leaders literally conspired to dispossess or dominate the Palestinians. ... It was the implementation of this idea that made bloodshed in Palestine, if not inevitable, as close to it as we can expect to get. That blood is on the Zionists' hands."
The Palestinians were faced, "not with a long-standing conflict between two established populations, but with an invasion conceived and executed by a political movement. No one is morally required to compromise with an invasion. ... Any population may defend itself against the threat of an externally imposed sovereignty."
In Part Two, he argues, "Sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s, there was a fundamental change in the situation .... Israel's existence became as secure as any state has a right to expect. Its settlement policy was not defensive but a form of ethnic warfare, and, therefore, outrageously wrong. The Palestinians were justified in claiming that once again some sort of violent response was not only permissible, but necessary. Moreover, all this holds regardless of whether the previous arguments hold: regardless of whether the Zionist project was justified."
The Palestinians have no alternative to fighting for survival, but Israel has an alternative - unilateral withdrawal from the Occupied Territories. Neumann points out, "Its willful and pointless rejection of that alternative places Israel decisively in the wrong. ... since Israel can withdraw at will and close its border, Israel can put an end to virtually all the violence. That violence is occasioned by the settlement policy, which is Israel's sole reason for the occupation. Since that occupation has no defensive or strategic rationale, Israel has no good reason to prolong it. Since Israel is willfully pursuing an unjustifiable strategy that it can end at no cost, it is responsible for all the consequences of that strategy. It follows that all the violence, and all horrors of the occupation, are to be laid at Israel's doorstep."
Book Description
First published to international acclaim in 1984, The Transfer Agreement stunned readers worldwide with its revelations of a pact between Zionist leaders and Hitler's Third Reich. Concluded in 1933, this controversial pact transferred 55,000 Jews and $100 million to Palestine on the condition that Zionist organizations call a halt to their economic boycott of Nazi Germany -- a potent tactic that was threatening to topple Hitler's government, then only in its first year in power. The debate over this controversial deal virtually tore apart the Jewish world in the pre-World War II era, and it remains unresolved today. Whereas the transfer agreement indeed ultimately saved lives, rescued assets, and helped lay the foundation for what would become the Jewish state in 1948, it also -- arguably -- allowed the Nazi regime to survive its first year and, over the next twelve, to plumb the depths of ethnic intolerance and implement massive genocide. With the world today confronting such morally complex issues as the compensation for slave labor during the Holocaust and the refusal of Swiss banks to return Jewish assets to their rightful heirs, the transfer agreement and the boycott that preceded it stand out even more startlingly as early examples of Jewish initiatives against Nazi terror. However ambiguous the choices made by the Jewish leaders in the turbulent prewar 1930s, they stand in a new and different light today. The Transfer Agreement is a remarkable and revelatory book that has now found its time.
Customer Reviews:
Astonishing and powerful read about the realities of Zionism during the Third Reich.......2007-10-09
This was an area of World History that I had no clue about prior to reading this book. This is indeed a tragic story of the plight of Jews in Europe during Hitler's regime. This book was so suspenseful I simply could not put it down. Black does an excellent job of engaging the reader and does not reveal the details of unfolding events until the last moment. Simply WOW!
As person who is not Jewish I think it is important for everybody to learn the lessons of the Third Reich and the Holocaust. However, equally important is that there were greedy and ideology zealots that contributed to the growth of the Third Reich via the Transfer Agreement, i.e., Sam Cohen and even Hoffien and Landauer. The Transfer Agreement was just that a business arrangement to transfer German Jews to Palestine in return German exports would be bought through Zionist entities to ensure the economic growth and wealth of Palestine. Moreover, what was incredibly stunning was the ability of the 18th Zionist Congress to go against the international boycott movement by suppressing the Revisionists- strong arming them into abandoning their ideology.
This makes me wonder what would have happened if the boycott prevailed and the Third Reich "cracked"? Would there still be a Germany today? Would we even have had the Holocaust? I know it may sound harsh and I am sure I will be labeled an anti-Semite because of this, but the reality is according to Black, the Zionists contributed significantly to the rise of the economic and military might of the Third Reich.
This book is simply a phenomenon in and of itself. It completely forces one to reshape how they view events during that time period. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn about a different dimension of relationships between the Third Reich, German Jews, and Zionists. This will definitely throw you off and have you thinking for days. Definitely one of my top 10 books of all time.
.....tragic history revisited...........2006-10-25
Researchers have recently unearthed `directives' sent from Heinrich Himmler to Dachau, and Mauthausen concentration camps to the effect that all inmates were to be bathed in showers providing insecticides, their heads cleared of hair, their heavy garments that bore Wool Collars were to be burned outright. The reason for such directives was to prevent lice, and leprosy from spreading among all other inmate prisoners.
Gypsies, Polish, Slavs, Soviets (Christians and Jews) who had been incarcerated during the war and routed into the five main Concentration Camps, {which had been established throughout the years 1933 to 1939}, were in their majority suffering lice parasite, notably on youngsters. Himmler ruled "they should be showered in insecticides twice per week in order to remove the nits attached to their hair - difficult to remove without specialized products."
Many inmates were homosexuals' prisoners of war, suffering from venereal diseases - transmissible. This parasite was widely spreading at the time Germany was lacking enough doctors to take care of the prevention process or even to guard against casual means of transmission.
Most doctors were preoccupied with war related engagements; on their priority list was first and foremost to take care of injuries from battles, research, and the last was to worry about concentration camps per se, unless in absolute emergencies like `fear that certain virus might not be contained and would be causing widespread damage'.
In very few pages of this book did the author speak of Concentration Camps - dispersed on ten pages? Even there he did it casually in the context that ""workers were rushed to construct a mysterious political concentration camp at a pastoral village called Dachau...."" """Every train entering Denmark was crowded with German Jewish refugees..""" indicative that the `Transfer' from Germany to Palestine (in transit through neutral Europe - France had fallen by then) gives credence to this book.
Perhaps written books on the `Pogrom' will soon be revisited and be traced back with more up to date material on these most fateful human tragedies of WWII.
Simply one of the most incredible history books I've read!.......2004-07-19
I cannot praise the author, his research, his explanations and his writing enough for this singular tome. Like other reviewers have said, the reader goes into this book, whether Jewish or not, with their mouth open at the incredibility of this occurence. It's easy enough in hindsight to make judgement calls about what the the leaders of the Jewish community world-wide should have done about Hitler's rise to power. However, given the economic situation of the time and the Reich's strategems to place all blame for Germany's economic hardships on the Jews throughout Europe, it's hard to determine that even had the massive boycotts been organized and on schedule, would they have work? And even more important, if Hitler was ousted due to the economic stranglehold on Germany,who or what would have taken his place? And would that have been any less devastating for the Jews in Europe.
There are few obvious heros and anti-heros in this book, except for the Nazis as being the ultimate in villains. One man paid dearly for his attempts to save European Jewry...with his life. It was not conclusive as to whome the assassins were and who put out the price on his head. It's all too easy to blame the reactionary groups, but there are obvious questions about whether his death was one of convenience so that blame could be placed by the leading group of Mapai at the door of the reactionary Jewish groups.
Sam Cohen was a businessman through and through. His reasoning to press The Transfer agreement was purely motivated by money, and not the need to either save European Jewry or to establish Israel as a separate state. It is this 'selling' of the agreement by so many that is so mind-boggling. So many were willing to take the wealth of German Jewry (and later the funds that were supposed to be used to save the lives of Jews who had no homes or businesses to return to) and use it to set up a home in Palestine...it's beyond my ability to pass judgement on these men as to their motivation, yet I am not certain I could possibly decide to shake the hands of these men. The fact that there was a need to set up a Jewish state, and that there was all this money to fund its establishment is beside the fact. At no other time, was any other method even considered to rescue the millions of Jews trapped, even the children...this is so reprehensible as to curdle anyone's blood.
And though this happened, our countries, including the U.S. and Britain were equally at fault for closing immigration quotas, even though they knew what was going on in Germany. It was easier to merely close their eyes and ignore The Holocaust, until it became obvious that no one was safe from Hilter and his cronies.
This story is just so incredible that I wish there was some way to make it into a movie that does the story justice. I don't suppose that is a possibility. But it is a tremendous story that needs to be included in European history, as it's impact was great. Edwin Black did a fantastic job. (...)
Devasting; THE most jaw-dropping book I've ever read.......2003-01-01
Readers of this book must be going out of their way to avoid its nightmarish implications; even the author sidesteps them. Indeed, the book is mis-titled. It should properly have been called 'The Great Boycott and its Tragic Abandonment.' The transfer agreement was simply the rationale for the staggering historic blunder whereby Jewish organizations in the diaspora allowed themselves to be persuaded by Zionist forces to puncture the spontaneous and swelling worldwide Jewish boycott of German goods taking place in 1933, a movement with enormous and growing non-Jewish support as well, which, had it been supported rather than undercut by major Jewish organizations, could very well have toppled Hitler from power by the spring of 1934. Not only would this have spared 5-6 million Jewish lives, it would have spared another 45 million or so non-Jewish lives lost in the Nazi holocaust. I once believed like many that the Holocaust led to the fulfillment of Zionism; this book shows rather that it was the fulfillment of Zionism which led to the Holocaust. And it was all for nought. Israel would still have come into being and moreover would have had several million extra potential immigrants to draw from. This book is all about a simply horrific wordwide catastrophe that resulted from an incredibly BAD choice based on ethnic nationalism, and it is made instead to appear as merely a somewhat sordid chapter re. a road to nationhood that featured a few nasty bumps along the way. Mind-boggling!
Devasting; THE most jaw-dropping book I've ever read.......2003-01-01
Readers of this book must be going out of their way to avoid its nightmarish implications; even the author sidesteps them. Indeed, the book is mis-titled. It should properly have been called 'The Great Boycott and its Tragic Abandonment.' The transfer agreement was simply the rationale for the staggering historic blunder whereby Jewish organizations in the diaspora allowed themselves to be persuaded by Zionist forces to puncture the spontaneous and swelling worldwide Jewish boycott of German goods taking place in 1933, a movement with enormous and growing non-Jewish support as well, which, had it been supported rather than undercut by major Jewish organizations, could very well have toppled Hitler from power by the spring of 1934. Not only would this have spared 5-6 million Jewish lives, it would have spared another 45 million or so non-Jewish lives lost in the Nazi holocaust. I once believed like many that the Holocaust led to the fulfillment of Zionism; this book shows rather that it was the fulfillment of Zionism which led to the Holocaust. And it was all for nought. Israel would still have come into being and moreover would have had several million extra potential immigrants to draw from. This book is all about a simply horrific wordwide catastrophe that resulted from an incredibly BAD choice based on ethnic nationalism, and it is made instead to appear as merely a somewhat sordid chapter re. a road to nationhood that featured a few nasty bumps along the way. Mind-boggling!
Book Description
The term "Zionism" was first coined in the late nineteenth century, and referred to the movement for the return of the Jewish people to an assured and secure homeland in Palestine. Ironically, this vision was largely nurtured and shaped by Christians long before it received widespread Jewish support. The origins of "Christian Zionism" lie within nineteenth-century British premillennial sectarianism, but by the early twentieth century it had become a predominantly American dispensational movement, and pervasive within all main evangelical denominations. The contemporary Christian Zionism movement emerged after the "Six Day War" in Israel in 1967, and it has had a significant influence on attitudes towards the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East.Evangelicals are increasingly polarized over whether Christian Zionism is biblical and orthodox or unbiblical and cultic. In this book Stephen Sizer provides a thorough examination of the historical development, variant forms, theological emphases and political implications of Christian Zionism. His excellent and informative survey is interwoven with critical assessment that repudiates both nationalistic Zionism and anti-Semitism.
Customer Reviews:
Revealing look at a dangerous influence on our foreign policy.......2007-08-09
Stephen is brilliant. He goes deep into the philosophy and the influence of some very mislead, dark, cultlike forces that are affecting our foreign policy. This is an important book that all should read and get up to date on. I am looking forward to his next book- "Christian Zionist Soldiers".
Whacked author provides his whacky views but good survey of a whacky cult.......2007-03-12
What happens when you sever the link of interpretation (hermeneutics) from authority?
The answer is; a lot of whacky interpretations that can each claim to be as legitimate as any other interpretation asserted by no other authority than...uhhhhh....errrrrr...let me get back to you on that.
This is why we have a theological and international lobbying group known as Christian Zionism. But "Christian Zionism" probably is more accurately called Calvinist Zionism, since such an ideological construct could not be confected in Orthodoxy or Catholicism, or in the case of Sizer, Anglicanism.
Sizer provides an excellent summary and survey of the historical roots and current status of the Christian Zionism movement, although with a bit too much emphasis on the British dimensions which, frankly, are infinitesimal and overwhelmed by USA mega-Churches. He waffles a little too freely on its origins in the "Six Day War" in Israel in 1967, when Israel was attacked and repelled six armies (and conquered territory as a result). But Sizer does provide a useful examination of the historical development, variant schools, theological whacked out interpretations (only in King James English could you get these ideas) and some of the political implications of Christian Zionism. However, throughout the work is a repellent repudiation of Zionism itself.
Perhaps unintentionally, Sizer provides fire for the anti-Israel crowd, and like Pagan reviewer Malter, I too would probably fall into the "Christian Zionist" camp for my views under his critical framework, even though I'm an Indult Latin Mass Catholic and certainly no apologist for lots of the inhuman thuggary of some of Israel's policies. But Sizer falls into the familiar and intellectually indefensible camp of "everybody except the Jews can have [X]."
Aliyah of Jews to Israel? Sizer says this is bad. Wonder what he says about all the folks descended from Eastern European immigrants who are now westernized and have returned to rebuild the infrastructure of their grandparent's nations devastated by Russian occupation. Or should we kick the Zulus out of South Africa, since they came after the Dutch (who came after the Khoisan) or is it okay for the diaspora Zulus to go back to SA now that there is black majority rule? Jews live in the West Bank? Sorry, Jordan invaded Israel and then lost that front in the six day war: you take a risk, you may loose some territory and Jordon lost the West Bank. Jerusalem to be recognized internationally as Israel's capital? Why not? It effectively really is. Jews rebuild their Temple? From Buddhists to Hindus to animists all over the globe, folks who live in places build or rebuild their houses of worship (except CoE types like Sizer, they like all the ruins Henry the VIII left....so picturesque). State religion of Judaism? Bad in Sizer's world. But Sizer should check the mirror, he is a Church of England priest, a *state* religion. I'm sure he'd never write a book saying Thailand and her King had to disavow being Theravada Buddhist and retreat from the southern Thai territory of the Malaysian peninsula because there were Muslims there (who came after the Buddhists, BTW). Yep, any nation or peoples in the world can do all these things except all the special rules racists like Sizer set up for Jews.
So if you can get past Sizer's clear anti-Israel rhetoric and Chairmanship of the-special-rules-for-Jews committee, you've actually got a pretty good survey of the whacked Christian Zionist movement.
superb!!.......2006-11-10
Timely, the best information I have read about the topic, and an excellent presentation of content!
A fantastic, well researched book........2006-06-26
Sizer has written a thorough and very readable overview of the Christian Zionist movement. After an introduction which defines both Zionism and Christian Zionism, the book is broken into three sections:
The first explores the historical roots of Christian Zionism beginning with the "proto-Zionism" of the 1700's. I was particularly fascinated to learn about the role that the Napoleonic Wars played in the seeds of Christian Zionism. Sizer goes on to delineate the birth and development of Dispensationalism; which was initially viewed as a novel and peculiar form of eschatology but has become widespread in the U.S. over the last 200 years and has served as the springboard for the Christian Zionist movement. Sizer methodically traces the trajectory of Dispensationalism from Irving to Darby to Scofield to Lindsay (and points in-between) and does an excellent job of explaining the relationships between the various forms of Dispensationalism and Zionism.
The second section of the book explores the theology behind Christian Zionism. Sizer begins by explaining the "literal futurist hermeneutic" (in other words, method of study) which is the fountainhead from which Dispensationalism/Zionism springs. I thoroughly enjoyed this section of the book as Sizer examined Zionist theological views about the relationship between the Jewish people and the Christian church, the return of Jews to Israel, the status of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the temple, etc.
The third section looks at the political implications of Christian Zionism. This was the most sobering and chilling part of the book.
The book ends by setting forth a series of conclusions based on the material covered in the preceding sections.
Sizer's writing style is no-nonsense and free of hype. Although he is obviously a scholar and provides copious footnotes, the book is very accessable and at under 300 pages is a quick read.
I am a Christian who is actively involved in ministry and have gradually come to reject the "Left Behind" Dispensational theology that trickled down to me through the 700 Club, TBN, Calvary Chapel, etc. There are so many people that I wish I could get this book into the hands of and convince them to read it with an open mind and heart.
I have a fairly extensive library of Christian/theological books and this one will be located in a place where I can easily access it because I expect to be referencing it over and over again.
Excellent Book!.......2006-05-03
It was very refreshing to see that others are finally picking up on something that I have been trying to explain to people about for years.
Sizer puts it in easy to understand terms and presents it very well. I will refer friends to Sizer's book now rather than try to explain these ideas to people from now on.
It is so hard to get people to open their minds to these truths after they have been bombarded for so many years by the sadly unscriptural beliefs of authors like Tim Lahaye and Hal Lindsey.
I thank you Stephen Sizer!
Average customer rating:
- Dirty Harry a man of deep moral conviction?
- Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel
- An Intriguing Look at the Influence of Religion on Politics
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Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel
Michael T. Benson
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
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Book Description
Harry S. Truman sensed something profound and meaningful in the Jewish restoration to Palestine, something which transcended other considerations. As the president recorded in his Memoirs, the Palestine question was "a basic human problem." In the end, Truman was willing to go against the current of his most trusted foreign policy advisers, who were absolutely opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East. These advisers argued that however humanitarian a Jewish homeland might seem, such a proposition posed a real risk to American interests in the Near East and to United States national security in the late 1940s. Despite their continued opposition, Truman stood his ground and maintained that he would decide the entire issue based on what he thought was right. Of interest to historians, and students of Israel and of the U.S. presidency.
Customer Reviews:
Dirty Harry a man of deep moral conviction?.......2002-04-20
While the author heaps truckloads of eulogies about "honor, integrity and deep moral convictions" on a man whom Gen. Douglas MacArthur should have hanged as a traitor, the fact is, it was Truman's flagrant disregard for the U.S. Constitution that gave him the "fortitude" to support the invasion of a foreign nation. The 1st Amendment, as we all know, clearly states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." While everyone is at liberty to endorse and support whatever religious cause or organization they choose, our government is supposed to remain neutral on such matters. As was the case with Harry "atomic bomb" Truman, left wingers always refer to the first amendment when it serves their purpose to subvert our institutions but always flagrantly violate it when it is convenient for them to do so. To refer to Harry Truman, who was directly responsible for the systematic slaughter of American soldiers during the Korean War, the Massacre at Hiroshima, the betrayal of China to his Communist friends, the communising of Europe, as a man motivated by deep moral conviction, humanitarianism, etc, is enough to make anyone puke.
Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel.......2001-07-29
Everyone knows that Harry Truman provided help to the Zionists because he could count votes, and there were few Arab votes in 1948. That, anyway, is the thesis developed by John Snetsinger in 1974 and since repeated ad nauseum. Well, it turns out not to be true. In a masterful and exciting presentation, Benson proves that Trumanýs policies resulted not from nose-counting but from deeply-held beliefs. His pro-Israel outlook ýwas based primarily on humanitarian, moral, and sentimental grounds, many of which were an outgrowth of the presidentýs religious upbringing and his familiarity with the Bible.ý Extensive research into Trumanýs biography and earlier career shows his impressive consistency. Benson, of the University of Utah, establishes Truman as a studious child and deeply religious young man who, when he unexpectedly found himself in the Oval Office, lived faithfully by his precepts. In the case at hand, he expressed sympathy for Zionism as early as 1939 and reiterated his views many times subsequently. Trumanýs determination had great importance; of the many momentous issues in his presidency, he personally involved himself most directly with what he called the ýpuzzle of Palestine.ý In Bensonýs words, these personal interventions against the entirety of the American foreign policy establishment ýconstantly rescuedý the Jews from defeat. The author concludes that the standard account of Truman risking U.S. security interests for cheap political advantage is deeply unfair to this most moral and honorable of American presidents.
Middle East Quarterly, September 1998
An Intriguing Look at the Influence of Religion on Politics.......1998-07-20
Most of us in America presume that religious convictions are checked at the doors of our governmental offices. Benson's book articulates exactly how Truman's deep religious convictions guided--even determined--the U.S. policy toward Isral, leading to the official recognition of its independence. Without that recognition, the Nation of Israel might not have lasted a week--let alone 50 years.
This book is a slightly modified version of Benson's Oxford University Ph.D. dissertation. There he studied Modern Middle Eastern History.
As an academic work, the research is absolutely unmatched, with dozens of references and footnotes for each chapter. The author interviewed several prominent people who knew Truman and participated in the development of the policy toward Isreal.
More importantly, however, the book is accessible to any well-read student of American History. Anyone who is a fan of Truman will love the book; those not already enthusiastic supporters of the! late President, will likely become such after reading Benson's account.
In a country where well over 90% of the population awows a faith in God, it should be reassuring to know that a leader's faith influences his politics and policy-making.
Amazon.com
Benjamin Netanyahu's primer on pro-Israel politics is an updated version of an earlier book, A Place Among the Nations. There's a good reason for the revision, of course: in the years since the first book was published, Netanyahu has served as the prime minister of Israel. Yet A Durable Peace is not a stale politician's memoir. It's a resounding plea for Israel's acceptance as a full member of the world community, as well as a call for understanding its unique security needs.
Netanyahu displays his knack--perfect for the television era but also helpful on these pages--for channeling complex ideas into pithy statements. Here's Netanyahu on the importance of Israel to the Jewish people: "If there had been a Jewish state in the first half of the [20th] century, there would have been no Holocaust. And if there had not been a Jewish state after the Holocaust, there would have been no Jewish future." On the need for Arab concessions in the peace process: "For the sake of peace, [the Arab states] must renounce their claims to part of the four ten-thousandths--.0004--of the lands they desire, which constitute the very heart of the Jewish homeland and the protective wall of the Jewish state." These are the statements of a skilled debater, and they represent a one-sided view of Middle Eastern politics. Yet Netanyahu also provides an excellent introduction to Zionism and the need to protect a small country against neighbors who have waged war against it. --John J. Miller
Book Description
Benjamin Netanyahu's primer on pro-Israel politics is an updated version of an earlier book, A Place Among the Nations. There's a good reason for the revision, of course: in the years since the first book was published, Netanyahu has served as the prime minister of Israel. Yet A Durable Peace is not a stale politician's memoir. It's a resounding plea for Israel's acceptance as a full member of the world community, as well as a call for understanding its unique security needs. Netanyahu displays his knack--perfect for the television era but also helpful on these pages--for channeling complex ideas into pithy statements. Here's Netanyahu on the importance of Israel to the Jewish people: "If there had been a Jewish state in the first half of the [20th] century, there would have been no Holocaust. And if there had not been a Jewish state after the Holocaust, there would have been no Jewish future." On the need for Arab concessions in the peace process: "For the sake of peace, [the Arab states] must renounce their claims to part of the four ten-thousandths--.0004--of the lands they desire, which constitute the very heart of the Jewish homeland and the protective wall of the Jewish state." These are the statements of a skilled debater, and they represent a one-sided view of Middle Eastern politics. Yet Netanyahu also provides an excellent introduction to Zionism and the need to protect a small country against neighbors who have waged war against it. --John J. Miller
Customer Reviews:
"But if peace is to endure, it must be built on foundations of..."-Netanyahu.......2007-05-14
"...security, justice, and above all, truth."
There are no pictures in this book, only maps of slowly shrinking territory for the jews to claim and live on. I had a hard time reading this book in that I was so angry at what I was reading. The appendices in the back are documents that were signed and witnessed by world powers at various times of the twentieth century promising land and homes to the jews. These promises have hardly been kept. So, it took me a long time to read this book because I would fume and fret through every chapter. Finally, about two thirds through, Netanyahu writes that having read so far you would think that there were no chance for peace in the middle east, which was precisely what I was thinking. Of course, Netanyahu does believe it is possible, but the above conditions, stated in the title of the review, must be met.
This book is definitely a keeper, I have so many pages bookmarked. This book should be read by all those interested in a lasting peace in the middle east.
Rebirth of Jewish Nation in Israel a Miracle! Let Zion Be!.......2006-07-07
Our Lord chose the Jews. God revealed Himself to them. It cannot be explained in pure logic. After not only reading in the Old Testament many attempts to destroy the Jewish nation, but not only recent recent histories of attempts to destroy the Jews, it ought to be clear:
Only the hard-hearted, hate-filled and cowardly will now stand silently by and not allow Israel the right to defend herself.
Israel is geographically and politically surrounded by bloodthirstily envious mobs who will never give up trying to destroy the Jews. Neither can that evil be explained with unaided human reason.
Biblical and secular history not only point to outsiders' hatred of the Jews but (very importantly) the struggle of Jews within the Jewish nations to keep the faith and keeping the covenant our Lord made with them.
With this latest wave of Islamo-nazism, Benjamin Netanyahu's great historical work will help arm you against the slick arguments of the evildoers.
Israel's right wing and peace.......2006-02-04
This book reiterates the principles of Zionism without taking into consideration the consequent revision that this ideology has been exposed to ever since it saw light.
Benjamin Netayahu, a sworn right wing Israeli who believes power rather than peace is the guarantee for Israel's safety, writes that if there were an Israeli state during the first half of the 20th century, there would not have been a holocaust. But Netanyahu fails to explain why a Jewish community oppressed in Europe would force the creation of its state thousands of miles away in Palestine and literally "over the dead bodies" of its native Arab residents.
However, all such talk has become history and has become irrelevant after the Israelis and the Palestinians decided to live side-by-side in peace after a US-sponsored breakthrough compromise was announced in the early 1990s. Since then, negotiations over how to divide the land, water, passageway and sovereignty between the two peoples have proved to be very complicated.
In his capacity as a prime minister between 1996 and 1998, Netayahu had the chance to live these ever failing negotiations first hand. For this failure, he completely blames the Palestinians accusing them of hiding their true intentions for the destruction of the whole of Israel, of perceiving peace as merely a long-term truce and of propagating anti-Israeli hatred in their Arabic media.
Again, Netayahu - even if he announces his willingness to live in peace with the Palestinians - still sounds very one sided as he highlights the rhetoric of radical Palestinians while never talking about their Israeli counterparts. As a matter of fact, anti-peace Israeli terror reached a peak in 1994 when a fanatic killed peace-advocate Prime Minister and Netanyahu's predecessor Yitzhak Rabin.
Netayahu knows better that inasmuch as there are peace-loving Palestinians as well as anti-peace radicals on the Palestinian side, there are similar groupings on the Israeli side. Israeli force, in this case, would marginalize the moderate Palestinians and strengthen the radicals and peace will seem more impossible than ever. Force, from both sides, could never be the solution since as Ghandi said, "An eye for an eye would make the whole world go blind."
A terrific book.......2004-12-26
This is a brilliant book about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Had people heeded the simple facts it reminds us all of, perhaps the disastrous "Oslo" agreements (and even more disastrous insistence on enforcing only the demands upon Israel, not upon the Arabs) might have been avoided.
The author of this book became the Prime Minister of Israel, and thus the book shows that no one can stand up to the counterproductive pressure that is being applied to Israel. That's bad news for all sides in this dispute unless those of us who wish to resolve the conflict decide to value truth.
Netanyahu starts by reminding us of Israel's size. That's a major point. Given the number of Jews, it is sobering to realize just how little sovereign land they have, and just how little value that land has. It tells us quickly that if one side is being greedy in this conflict, it sure isn't Israel. Netanyhau also reminds us that the land promised to the Jews as a national homeland (not necessarily a state, just land on which Jews would have permanent rights, including rights of immigration) was five times as parge as present-day Israel. Again, exactly which side is being greedy?
The author then traces the history of Zionism, refuting a well-known lie by Arafat that the Zionists stole a verdant land from its age-old native Arab inhabitants. And he then gives a history of the British Mandate, which ended with the British openly supporting Arab opponents of Jewish rights.
Now we get to the meat of the book, namely a refutation of some truly absurd and arbitrary lies that many readers will find tough to believe were ever seriously proposed. The first is "the theory of Palestinian centrality." This is a claim that if one solves the problem of the Levantine Arabs, one can achieve peace in the Middle East! Netanyahu establishes that many people really say this, and he refutes them.
The next Big Lie is a "reversal of causality." It states that the problems of Levantine Arabs are a cause of the Arab attacks on Israel, not a result of them. The author disposes of this lie as well. Once again, the hard part is showing just how seriously some folks repeat this lie.
Next, Netanyahu discusses the problem of the PLO, a terrorist group that claims to be the sole representative of Levantine Arabs. He quite properly calls it a "Trojan horse." And he shows that establishing it as a state in the region is a counterproductive and immoral idea.
The author then addresses the question of how peace can be achieved. He says that for there to be peace, the Arab side must become convinced that aggression will have negative consequences. If most Arabs become convinced of that, they may decide that Israel has a right to exist after all, and that human rights for Jews are not an affront and a casus belli. From here, he argues that Israel needs some strategic depth, otherwise the temptation for Arabs to try to overwhelm it will be irresistable.
Netanyahu then discusses "the demographic demon." He makes some good points here. I think many people use demographics as a preposterous argument that runs something like this: Israel has a vast Empire of nearly 10,000 square miles. Obviously, that is way too big for a mere 11 million Jews, only 5 million of whom live in Israel. Yes, if nature takes its course, the tiny group of Jews will be overwhelmed in numbers by real people, who will outvote them. The tiny group of Jewish oppressors will get what they deserve. They will lose their vast Empire. They ought to quit now, and give away all but a truly tiny amount of land, an amount they can afford!
Of course, both 5 million and 11 million are large numbers, especially when compared to the number of Arabs per square mile of Arab land. It is worth reading what Netanyahu has to say about the argument that Jews aren't numerous enough to have as big a nation as Israel!
Netanyahu concludes that "peace must be built on foundations of security, justice, and above all, truth." He's right. Truth has indeed, as he says, been the first casualty of the Arab war on Israel. He points out that the problem is not territorial but existential. And that the story is of a people seeking to establish its rightful place among the nations. I agree. If our society can't accept the existence of this nation, no nation is safe, and any of them could be the next target.
Netanyahu at his best!.......2004-12-01
One cannot be near Benjamin Netanyahu without the feeling of being in the presence of greatness. There can be little doubt, that in the annals of history, the former Israeli Prime Minister will be remembered as one of the great leaders of our time.
In typical fashion, Netanyahu takes the reader to the point, quickly and decisively. The truth is meticulously outlined and even ardent detractors would be challenged to find one word of this fine work to be disputable and not based on fact. Is the book biased? Of course it is, but that doesn't mean it's not accurate to the letter.
Whether you are an avid follower of the problems in the Middle East, or if you can't even locate Israel on a map, but want to find out the truth about what is going on in Israel, this book is a must read. This may well be Mr. Netanyahu's best book yet.
Book Description
An Oxford-trained historian who became Israeli Foreign Minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami was a key figure in the Camp David negotiations and many other rounds of peace talks, public and secret, with Palestinian and Arab officials. He offers here an unflinching account of the Arab-Israeli conflict, informed by his firsthand knowledge of the major characters and events. Clear-eyed and unsparing, Ben-Ami traces the twists and turns of the Middle East conflict and the many missteps of the Israelis and Palestinians. The author paints particularly trenchant portraits of key figures from Ben-Gurion to Bill Clinton, and gives us behind-the-scenes accounts of the meetings in Oslo, Madrid, and Camp David. He is highly critical of Ariel Sharon and the late Yasser Arafat ("the sad embodiment of an archaic political orthodoxy devoid of a vision for the future"). He sees Arafat's rejection of Clinton's peace plan as a crime against the Palestinian people. The author is also critical of President Bush's Middle East policy ("a presumptuous grand strategy"). And along the way, Ben-Ami highlights the many blunders on both sides, describing for instance how the great victory of the Six Day War launched many Israelis on a misbegotten "messianic" dream of controlling all the Biblical Jewish lands, actually making the Palestinian problem much worse. In contrast, it has only been when Israel has suffered setbacks that it has made moves towards peace. The best hope for the region, he concludes, is to create an international mandate in the Palestinian territories that would lead to the implementation of Clinton's two-state peace parameters. Scars of War, Wounds of Peace is a major work of history--with by far the most fair and balanced critique of Israel ever to come from one of its key officials. It is an absolute must-read for everyone who wants to understand the dynamics of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Customer Reviews:
A SUPERB ASSESSMENT.......2007-03-23
THIS IS AN EXTREMELY WELL-DONE BOOK, VERY WELL GROUNDED IN THE HISTORY OF ZIONISM AND ISRAEL. BEN-AMI COMES TO GRIPS WITH THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF BOTH THE JEWISH AND ARAB COMMUNITIES, THEIR MYOPIA AND FATAL FLAWS. IT IS VERY REALISTIC ON THE NATURE OF ISRAEL--ITS MESSIANISM, HYSTERIA, AND MILITARISM--AND THE VENAL CHARACTER OF ARAFAT AND THE P L O. THIS IS THE BEST BOOK ON THIS ISSUE I HAVE READ, AND I HAVE SEEN ISRAEL THOROUGHLY. IT IS VERY OBJECTIVE...AND VERY PESSIMISTIC.
Excerpt from the London Review of Books, By Tony Judt.......2006-09-22
Since its inception the state of Israel has fought a number of wars of choice (the only exception was the Yom Kippur War of 1973). To be sure, these have been presented to the world as wars of necessity or self-defence; but Israel's statesmen and generals have never been under any such illusion. Whether this approach has done Israel much good is debatable (for a clear-headed recent account that describes as a resounding failure his country's strategy of using wars of choice to `redraw' the map of its neighbourhood, see Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy by Shlomo Ben-Ami, a historian and former Israeli foreign minister).
Ramblings By A Pseudo-Intellectual Naive Fool.......2006-07-20
Ehud Barak, who was willing to compromise, cater and appease the Arabs so much that he not only offered 96% of Judea-Samaria to Arafat at Camp David, but also chose to deliberately betray Israel's only true Arab Ally and Friend, the South Lebanese Army, knowingly chose Shlomo Ben-Ami to be his Foreign Minister in the talks with Arafat. He did so after David Levy balked at Barak's plans to return to the 1967 pre-Six Day War borders. Ben-Ami would be extremely willing, and like Barak willing to give up the Israeli store.
Enter Ben-Ami. Ben-Ami had always been on record advocating peace, to his credit, but the peace he always advocated reflected Barak's own thinking of one-sided concessions without nothing in return from an Arafat and his cronies who wanted nothing more than the destruction of Israel. The blinders fell off Ben-Ami at Camp David when after signing off to practically everything Arafat demanded and Barak offered, the Palestinians refused Barak's offer of joint sovereignty over Jerusalem as well as all of the territories both Barak and Ben-Ami were willing to turn over to them. They wanted COMPLETE CONTROL of the Old City. Even Ben-Ami, who hadn't heard this, was horrified, and ended up in a shouting match with one of Arafat's stooges. Arafat returned home, and promptly ordered the New Intifada to target Israeli women and children rather than seeking peace.
Despite this, or in spite of this, Ben-Ami still doesn't get it. He will blame his own leaders, Golda Meir and Menachem Begin for standing firm in the face of Arab terror and aggression. He openly admires James Baker, who with Madeleine Albright were the two most hostile Secretaries of State in American Diplomatic History (along with John Foster Dulles) when it came to Israel's security interests. He thinks peace is still possible, and that Arafat is an anomaly - to his credit he singles out the PLO head for the failure of peace negotiations.
Despite witnessing Palestinian duplicity and lies, Ben-Ami suggests that a primarily hostile world, America excluded, should impose a settlement on Israel.(It would be interesting to see how this appeaser sees who is behind the current carnage initiated by his negotiation partners today) But Ben-Ami remains clueless on what was behind the election of Hamas, or why the majority of Palestinians would be happy if Israel ceased to exist. An inept foreign minister, and a clueless ex-foreign minister in a peace camp that has been all but destroyed by missiles descending on Israeli cities, and the kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldiers.
Ben-Ami is praised by other reviewers, and the consensus is that he is a peace-loving intellectual. He might be peace-loving, but this is not a very-well written book, and he comes across naive and stupid, surprising for an someone who claims to be an Israeli realist. Don't bother.
Read Yossef Bodansky's "The High Cost of Peace" for a truer account of what happened at Camp David instead, and how inept and foolish the Israeli negotiators including this pseudo-intellectual "piece (of Israelis) now" minister Ben-Ami really were in the face of Arafat's true desire to destroy their country.
Complex Insights.......2006-05-21
I'd been wanting to find an informed, intelligent, even-handed history of the Israeli-Arab conflict, and I have.
This book is brilliant. Ben-Ami approaches the complexities and contradictions of the Middle East relationships with a fair, open mind and the insight that comes from both his educational background and his unique perspective as a peace negotiator. We find a history of a region that is, in a word, exasperating, and yet hope does not fall to despair. It is telling that while Ben-Ami shows great empathy for both the Jewish and Arab populace, he keeps a savvy eye on the sometimes self-serving motivations of their leaders.
Sadly, those who have already chosen sides and shut their minds will probably be able to cherrypick segments to bolster their own views, but they'll learn nothing. But for those readers who wish to attempt to grasp the area's passions and fears, on all sides, this is the book to read.
Shlomo's masterpiece.......2006-03-29
This book is the product of Shlomo Ben-Ami's life time of studying the Arab-Israeli conflict both as an historian and a diplomat. The result is truly a masterpiece, perhaps the best single volume on a conflict that has produced a library full of books. This volume holds nothing back and is rigorous in its analysis of all the players in the tragedy of the conflict. No side is spared a critical review. Perhaps the best chapter is on the Camp David summit in 2000 and why it failed. Here the reader benefits from the insights of one of the key negotiators as Shlomo Ben-Ami served as Israel's Foreign Minister during the talks. His analysis of the Israeli, Palestinian and American players at the summit and in the talks that followed until the election of Prime Minister Sharon in 2001 is probably the best available to date.
The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, New Edition 2nd Edition
Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, New and Revised Edition
The Case Against Israel (Counterpunch)
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
