Good books re: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?

[MarcO]

I'm looking for some light Summer reading (heh heh) and was wondering if anyone can recommend a good book on this subject. It's one that I have never been able to wrap my head totally around because it is hard to find anything that is just the cold, hard facts, without the rhetoric.

I'd like to educate myself a little on this subject a bit more. I'm not clueless about it but I can't speak of it with any authority.

Please let me clear: I want to start by reading as impartial an account of this dilemma as I can find.

thanks!

[afro poppa]

Its gonna be tough finding something completely impartial, especially while its still going on. Maybe 100 years from now (if its over by then, I wouldn't bet on it) there will impartial history books on it but I think as is the case with most recent history, everyone has an opinion on it.

I would say stay up to date with the news and read a variety of different (albiet probably biased) sources and then make an opinion based on other people's opinions...or is that precisely what you don't want to do?

[MarcO]

oh no, I can do that, and try to.

I'm going camping for several days soon and wanted to bring something new to read with me. Seemed like a good opportunity to investigate this.

[bradm]

While it's definitely biased, The Case For Israel by Alan Dershowitz might be a good read.

Aloha,

Brad

[Booche]

Please let me clear: I want to start by reading as impartial an account of this dilemma as I can find.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I tend to enjoy anything by Edward Said on this, in large measure because he tends to view all sides in the conflict with a cynical eye.

While it's a bit dated, Geoffrey Wheatcroft's The Controversy of Zion (Addison Wesley, 1996) makes for a good historical overview.

And while it involves much broader discussions than just I/P, Karen Armstrong's The Battle for God (Ballantine 2001) puts it in good context.

[Birdy]

MarcO i went through the exact same want of learning about a year or so ago.. and if you want my advice, i'd start with books that don't necessarily tackle the issues between israelis and palestians, but rather with books that tackle the history of each group of people on an individual level.. getting a solid understanding of who a group of people are first, makes more sense to me than trying to grasp why groups of people fail in relations with other groups of people. if i was a hammerite, i'd hit up the MAC library and talk to a librarian.

Edited June 28, 2006 by Guest

[afro poppa]

Birdy's got the right idea

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

getting a solid understanding of who a group of people are first

Yes, absolutely, with the caveat that the "a" is plural - there are always divisions within every group from the very beginning, and these divisions affect the way things subsequently play out.

[AdamH]

"israelites and palestians"

Desmond Dekker (RIP) is the only one who can call them israelites. You mean Israelis

Interestingly some of my hardcore relatives like to call Palestinians "arabs" which I think is derogatory but can't prove.

[Birdy]

sorry. :blush:

yet in my defence, after a brief google search, the entire world wide web uses the term. like, literally. most online dictionaries too.

Edited June 28, 2006 by Guest

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Interestingly some of my hardcore relatives like to call Palestinians "arabs" which I think is derogatory but can't prove.

This is always imprecise; you could say that the Arab population is spread out through the Middle East across the Maghreb to Morocco and on up into Spain, etc.

Is it based on language? I always found that angle funny; given that Arabic is a semitic language, calling any Arab anti-Semitic is always silly.

[Big Wooly Mammoth]

I thought that One Palestine Complete by Tom Segev was a good book. It covers the time period when Palestine was under British Occupation, 1918-1947 IIRC. i.e. the end of WWI until the establishment of the State of Israel.

Segev is a writer for Haaretz, which is a leftish leaning Israeli newspaper. It really gives you a good understanding of how Israel came, what the Palestinians expected, and how this conflict got initiated.

[MarcO]

any thoughts on Thomas Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem"?

It was recommended to me elsewhere.

[Groove Fetish]

this guys work is top notch as maybe as light as this topic can be and still not avoiding the heavy aspects.

Joe Sacco- Who Wrote Palestine

[Stoolshed]

My bottom line: F@ck Tibet...Free Palestine.

It is beyond my understanding why the world hasn't done something about this yet. 75% unemployment, up to 20 hours a day curfew (so how could anyone work anyways), no infrastructure left, and 1 in four palestinian kids are physically afflicted in their upbringing due to starvation. Not to mention constantly assaulted by missile attacks and threatened by a biased nation that has nuclear weapons, against world policy.

I'm not saying it's one sided, because Israel has to maintain a heavy presence because they're surrounded by 7 aggressive nations.

Other important reading is the connection between USA and Israel, and why the USA continuouly vetos UN motions involved with funding or probing palestinian deaths.

Unfortunately, being someone who hates all religions equally, I'll never understand what gives the western nations (england included) the right to assign a huge chunk of land (thereby transplanting others) to a group based upon a religious fable believed by a small minority of the world (being the bible people- mainly the christians and the jews).

Stephen

[Tenenbaum]

Free Tibet

Free Chechneya

Long Live Jerusalem

Quebec Sovereignty Now

[MarcO]

My bottom line: F@ck Tibet...Free Palestine.

It is beyond my understanding why the world hasn't done something about this yet. 75% unemployment, up to 20 hours a day curfew (so how could anyone work anyways), no infrastructure left, and 1 in four palestinian kids are physically afflicted in their upbringing due to starvation. Not to mention constantly assaulted by missile attacks and threatened by a biased nation that has nuclear weapons, against world policy.

I'm not saying it's one sided, because Israel has to maintain a heavy presence because they're surrounded by 7 aggressive nations.

Other important reading is the connection between USA and Israel, and why the USA continuouly vetos UN motions involved with funding or probing palestinian deaths.

Unfortunately, being someone who hates all religions equally, I'll never understand what gives the western nations (england included) the right to assign a huge chunk of land (thereby transplanting others) to a group based upon a religious fable believed by a small minority of the world (being the bible people- mainly the christians and the jews).

Stephen

Fair enough my man, but you understand this is exactly the kind of polemic I'm hoping to avoid. I'm looking for something a little more clinical and dispassionate.

It is hard to speak of this issue because fireworks tend to go off upon its' mere mention.

[scottieking]

Marco, I teach this in a one week mini unit and I would suggest approaching the matter by researching the following topics in this order;

Pre 20th Century

The history of the Jewish People pre Diaspora

The Diaspora

The History of the Palestinian People

The History of Jerusalem (key piece of the puzzle)

The History of Europeon Anti-Semitism

British Imperialism focusing on the Middle East

20th Century

The Balfour Declaration

Effects of WWI on the Middle East

Jewish Immigration pre 1945

After Effects of Jewish Emigration World Wide post WWII

The Zionist Movement

1947-1948 War

UN's original proposal for partition

The Suez Crisis

The Seven Day War

1972 Olympics (terrorist attacks)

The Formation of the PLO

Camp David Talks

Isreal invasion of Lebannon

The 1st infitada

and so on

You know what. I just realized you probably need a book which covers all of this. I wish I could lend you my Grade 11 world history text. Maybe your local library has it Twentieth Century Viewpoints

or try here for a good consise (albeit a little outdated) explanation. Middle East Conflict

Far from being an expert, I'll try to answer any questions if you have them.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I want to go back in time and have gone to Scottieking's classes!

The only thing I would want to add to that, re. the longer history, is the Crusades, in large measure because it's one piece of history that's constantly evoked in the rhetoric.

[Boochawan]

While it's definitely biased, The Case For Israel by Alan Dershowitz might be a good read.

Aloha,

Brad

I'd recommend Dershowitz's follow-up, "A Case for Peace" - it is not as entirely as biased as its predecessor, yet the flavour is definetly a lot more politically moderate.