This isn’t my best review, but please keep in mind I’m also quite tired (which always seems to be the case when I’m writing reviews, lol).
My second boThis isn’t my best review, but please keep in mind I’m also quite tired (which always seems to be the case when I’m writing reviews, lol).
My second book by the brilliant academician Ilan Pappe, Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic, stops telling us what the majority of people already educated on the Israeli-Palestinian struggle are aware of: the inevitable, incredulous truth behind the creation of the state of Israel - how it was founded not on some random patch of deserted Middle Eastern land as a “homeland for oppressed Jews” - but rather, the extremist ideological movement of Zionism, fundamentally nationalist in character and always with the end goal being to eliminate or best segregate “the other”(Arabs, once the indigenous peoples, now called the Palestinians).
As we have seen time and time again, the Israeli military and government has become more radical, more brutal in its repression and violence against the remaining Palestinian civilian population - blatantly ignoring the findings, publishings, evidence, and calls from human rights watch organizations to end the occupation and economic stranglehold over Palestine - instead opting to destroy as much of the Palestinian people and culture as it can, while the rest of the world continues to turn a blind eye.
But this is nothing new. It’s been happening ever since the Zionists first started officially building settlements on land that didn’t belong to them, thanks to the ill-conceived Balfour Declaration, culminating in the departure of the British in 1947, leading to Partition and war, and the day of Israel’s independence in 1948. A day of celebration for the Israelis, the darkest day for the region’s Arab population - or the Nakba as it is most commonly called (Arabic for “catastrophe”).
The Six Day War of 1967 would further entrench the Palestinians into a nightmarish occupation, a state of apartheid, with many global outcries and attempts by world leaders to restore the country to its pre-1967 borders for decades to come.
The significance in this book isn’t in telling us what we already know about these atrocities and the later “operations” carried out by the Israeli government to continue their goals of eradication and segregation, but rather, why they continue to occur, despite the incontrovertible truths which have been revealed and the seeming agreement by the global community that Israel is not engaging in any practical measure of self-defense, but rather, in ethic cleansing and other clear acts of crimes against humanity.
Not only is it explained just how important Israel’s technology and “battled-tested” security weapons and tactics (on the occupied Palestinian territories) have become to repressive regimes the world over - including, of course, its main ally and big brother sponsor state, the U.S. - in Antony Loewenstein’s The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World, this book furthers our understanding of how Israel has continued, with complete impunity, to act outside the realms of international law.
By aggressively becoming the most powerful and well-financed lobbying groups in the UK and the U.S. throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, especially capitalizing on “Holocaust propaganda” - the pro-Zionist groups often made strange bedfellows: wealthy anti-Semitic businessmen and powerful politicians, for example - rallying in concert with pro-Zionist Jews.
Let us not be mistaken: while MOST extreme Zionists are Jews, not ALL (or even most) Jews are Zionists who support Israel and its goals. The Zionist cause only goes so far in their support of Jews worldwide: they’re willing to look the other way when other states abuse their Jewish populations - just so long as these states keep funding and supporting the Jews in the state of Israel.
The only true goal they have is an extremist nationalist one, one that won’t permit for the death of even one Jew inside the borders of Israel without massive retaliation; yet as mentioned in the paragraph above, has little concern for any abuses of Jews not living in “the holy land.”
As the back of the book states, ”Over 150 years, Zionist lobbying groups transformed Israel into an untouchable state. This is a magisterial history of the most successful advertising campaign the world has ever seen.”
Over the years, these lobbying groups have effectively grown, become more powerful, and gained more influence and allies inside Congress and Parliament. Lies and propaganda perpetrated by the Zionist groups stopped being challenged and instead became established policy, even if these policymakers weren’t entirely sure as to why they were being forced to take a certain position in which they knew little about.
The few that have challenged the incredibly powerful Zionist lobbying groups have seen their careers ruined, as even the most innocuous statement of support for equality between Israelis and Palestinians became tantamount to anti-Semitism. As Pappe has observed, the death of 1200 civilian Jews is certainly a tragedy, but to continue to compare all events such as these with the Holocaust risks downplaying the significance of that singular world tragedy.
Even Pappe himself, an Israeli historian, has been chased out of Israel and now resides in the UK (“shockingly”, he moved there in 2008, while his breakthrough book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine was published in 2006. Coincidence? Certainly not). He even mentions in the book’s prologue how, in 2015, during a conference at the U.K.’s University of Exeter (where he currently teaches Palestinian Studies) he and a small group of his graduate students and younger colleagues had organized an academic conference to share their papers on “Settler Colonialism in Palestine.”
He further explains that this is not some widespread, well-known event, but an invite-only conference in which a handful of individuals would present their papers. Yet, a small mention on the university’s website managed to attract the attention of the pro-Israel lobby, which immediately called for the event’s cancellation, branding it, as usual, as “anti-Semitic.” While the university allowed the conference to continue, they did give in to negotiations with the lobbyists, who insisted on having “two pro-Israel lobbyists allowed to take part in the conference.”
What was so bizarre about this request was the fact that these were just random lobbyists. They weren’t academic scholars, looking to debate the pro-Palestinian argument in any meaningful way. They simply wanted to shut any criticism down, and when that failed, they were forced to awkwardly sit and monitor it, with no actual academic points to contribute.
I bring this part up so extensively because it goes to show just how wide-reaching these lobbying groups are, and how much of an overreaction they have to a small, scholarly conference. That begs the question of just how much have they meddled in events/votes/policies which actually affect the state of Israel, and how far they’ve gone to silence any dissent against Israeli government policies.
The book does a phenomenal job of detailing just to what extent the pro-Israel lobby has involved itself in US and UK affairs over the beginning of the 1900s, all of the way through Joe Biden’s current White House tenure. Alas, I had taken quotes and notes while reading this book, but failed to keep them together and organized.
I’d check out my GR pal Randall’s four-star review for a more thorough and informative read. For me, it’s essential reading as all pro-Palestinian history should be, and because of this importance, I’m rounding up from 4 1/2 stars. (Also, I see pro-Zionist bots who clearly haven’t read the book have rated it one-star, so it’s also important to offset that)....more
While I already feel pretty well-versed in the one hundred (and counting) years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the Balfour Declaration of 1While I already feel pretty well-versed in the one hundred (and counting) years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the Balfour Declaration of 1917, giving accordance to the first mention in international law - and thus the first recognition of the fringe Zionist movement and settlements since the 1880s - of ”the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors [the British government’s] to facilitate the achievement of this object…” I feel as though Ian Black’s detailed account of both sides of the story throughout so many years really gave a more nuanced view of the conflict, helping readers to better understand the real victims of oppression.
Instead, so many throughout the world - especially in America and Britain, in which without their constant interference and support, the increasing demolition and occupation of Palestinian territory by ardent Zionists never would have come about - just believe the Israeli government hasbara (the literal Hebrew word for propaganda) about Israel being “under the constant threat of Hamas terrorists.” All of this despite the well-established facts of incomparable destruction and death tolls on the Palestinian side as opposed the very few harmed on the Israeli side.
When not thinking about propaganda and unbiased NGOs and any other independent investigative bodies who dare to challenge Israel’s official (and obviously blatantly biased version of events) - who unfortunately end up caving in to Israel’s constant accusations of “antisemitism” toward any of these groups which dares to challenge the status quo, it is quite obvious that even if a group of Muslim extremists were terrorizing Israeli civilians, they’d be no match for the Israeli government’s far superior military.
Unless you mean to tell me you truly think several artillery rocket launches into Israel that may, at most, kill a handful of Israeli civilians, is somehow grounds for Israel’s constant “self defense” proclamation - using advanced artillery fire, targeted drone and air strikes, high powered rifles and tanks to wipe out thousands of Palestinian civilians - and somehow still meeting international law’s requirement that any acts in a state’s self-defense must be proportional to the ones inflicted on it.
Does anyone truly believe that 18,000 Palestinian homes destroyed in Operation Protective Edge is “proportional” to ONE Israeli home destroyed by rocket attacks?
I really wanted to read a book that might at least challenge my view that perhaps the Israeli government did have some reasonable argument for their actions in all of these military operations carried out against civilian populations.
I knew I wasn’t going to get that in any of the pro-Palestinian literature (which I personally side with 100%), and especially not from any fanatical Zionist literature who refused to back down from using the awful suffering of the Holocaust Jews to justify their very similar actions to Nazis by a group they have increasingly marginalized and forced into near extinction with the aid, initially, of the British and UN who simply looked the other way, and later, bipartisan support from America and our constant inflow of military assistance.
Israel’s constant refusal to support peace treaties or to recognize Palestinian right of return, as well as a Palestine right to exist and self-govern, free from their occupiers, is why this continues to repeat itself. Israel has everything to lose and nothing to gain, at this point, by any two-state solution with the Palestinians. They will continue to try to destroy the Palestinian people until there are not even enough left to demand a separate state (which has clearly been the government’s stated goal behind closed doors, especially with the more radical governments like Netanyahu’s, who forge on with building Jewish settlements on land reserved for Palestinians despite outcry from the majority of the global community and human rights organizations.
The only way the American government can stop this charade is by allowing its people to become informed of what has truly happened in this region of the world. It is only when American public opinion and Israeli civilian opinion is against them that I can imagine their government backing down.
Unfortunately, as the years pass, and less and less Palestinian voices who experienced the 1948 Nakba (along with devastating losses of land in the 1967 war) are heard - because they’re either drowned out or that generation is has now been supplanted by three, four generations, as well as Israeli citizens having history whitewashed growing up and with each younger generation understanding less and less of the true story - any hope of a Palestinian state will never come to fruition. Unless something is done, and fast.
This book is a very important and comprehensive guide to understanding the conflict from the words of Jews and Arabs alike, and I recommend it for those interested in knowing what’s really going on - as well as those who already have a pretty clear understanding of what led to these present-day conditions. Unfortunately, as it usually happens, the people who most urgently need to read this story will never take the time out to do so. I wish these stories would be mandatory reading, especially for Americans who enjoy choosing sides despite knowing any real factual information as to why they’re doing so.
4.5 stars. I read this and then read Norman Finkelstein’s Gaza: An Inquest Into its Martyrdom, so if I can get to that review soon, I’ll better be able to reflect some of the quotes that should really resonate well with readers, than I was able to with this particular history. For more detailed information about the book itself, I’d recommending checking out the longer, top-rated reviews which more explicitly sum up the myriad aspects of life throughout this conflict than I have done here. ...more
As I have limited time to post this review before 2023 and the book challenge officially ends, I’m keeping it brief for now but hoping to add on to itAs I have limited time to post this review before 2023 and the book challenge officially ends, I’m keeping it brief for now but hoping to add on to it tomorrow (this will likely cover it all, though). I’ve noticed that it is on many of my friends’ “to-read” list, so I’d like to give them a good idea of what to expect.
I’ve seen the bulk of the negative reviews not fond of this novel for containing no real storyline. That may be true, but bear in mind that the real story lies in the community itself, and how a group of mismatched immigrant outcasts of the time (1930s) managed to come together, Jews and blacks, in an America that was supposed to be free (but clearly those definitions of freedom varied very differently depending on your skin color, nationality, religion, etc.).
This is also one of those books that personally, I feel as though you need to be in the right mood for reading. For me, during which the holidays and my birthday is often a very lonely and stressful time, this book was a lovely companion to inspire hope and faith in humanity. Any other time, it may not have resonated as much.
One thing is clear though, and that’s that James McBride is a phenomenal writer. The only mild complaint I have with the book is that with so many characters, it made it difficult at times to keep track of individual backgrounds, storylines, and relations to one another.
All in all though, I immensely enjoyed the book and will definitely read his next book. Recommend for anyone unless you can’t get behind a book lacking a cohesive storyline. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure you’ll love it, or at the very least, appreciate it!...more
I deliberately took some time to review this one – although it is probably a bit too long at this point to recall certain quotations I had in mind forI deliberately took some time to review this one – although it is probably a bit too long at this point to recall certain quotations I had in mind for when I put this together, unfortunately.
What kind of a star rating do you even assign to a supposedly neutral piece of “investigative work” that is blatantly and irrefutably pro-Israel? No reader who truly understands the separate Israeli defense branches – and the level of secrecy in which they shroud themselves – even from one another, with the Mossad, the AMAN and Unit 8200, the Shin Bet, as well as the IDF – would believe so many of these former and current service officers would speak to just any journalist.
However, there have been times when it has been in Israel’s best interest to occasionally “let information slip” to trusted journalists: journalists they know will portray them in a favorable light. One of a highly evolved militaristic nation that always remains many steps ahead of their enemies (real and perceived). After looking into Ronen Bergman’s bona fides, he certainly fits the bill of dedicated to the “Jewish state”:
”Ronen Bergman is the senior correspondent for military and intelligence affairs for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s largest daily paid newspaper, and a contributing writer for the New York Times magazine, where he reports on intelligence, national security, terrorism, and nuclear issues…Bergman is the receipt of the Sokolow Prize, Israel’s most esteemed award for journalism, and the B’nai B’rith International Press Award, among other honors. A member of the Israeli bar, he graduated with honors from the University of Haifa Faculty of Law and clerked in the attorney general’s office.”
In other words? The perfect guy to explain the “necessary” means of Israeli defense, even when intelligence reports show that by seeking to kill one “supposed” terrorist (not confirmed, just alleged) – that civilians will die, including young children. They also have no problem with carrying out their “targeted assassination programs” outside of Israel, murdering members of the PLO in Western European countries such as France, Switzerland, and Belgium, to name a few (and yes, any extrajudicial killing is extremely illegal, and despite being widely condemned by the global community, Israel seems to regularly get away with these wantonly callous acts of violence with no more than a slap on the wrist).
Zionism is not a religious practice, but rather, the opposite and stands in stark contrast to the view of Orthodox Jews and the readings (when taken literally) from the Torah. Instead, it is a political aim, which has claimed and sought since its inception to “reclaim” Palestine as a “homeland for Jews worldwide,” a country they could feel safe from anti-Semitic attacks.
Unlike the Orthodox Jews, however, they believe they must act by any means necessary to secure this land for themselves, while the Orthodox Jews have always maintained the land was not theirs for the taking until a literal appearance from God had given them the permission to act on this “destiny.” The settlements were only a minor annoyance to the predominantly Arab population in the early twentieth century.
However, after the proclamation of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 (one in which Britain’s Lord Balfour was not permitted the ability to grant these rights, at that) – the declaration set into motion the first time in history that an idea of a “Jewish homeland” was being promoted and supported by other global world leaders.
Zionism has always been incompatible with living harmoniously alongside Arabs. The peace talks no longer fail (as they may have in 1947-1948) due to Palestinians, but because the Israeli government now has everything to lose and nothing to gain by making concessions. Naturally, the Arabs – with a higher population figure – did not want to give 57% of their land to the Jews and only maintain 43% for themselves back in 1947, when Partition was still being discussed as a viable solution. Just as now, the Israelis do not want to part with even the smallest piece of land settlements they have stolen from the Palestinians over the past hundred or so years.
I have only given Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations three stars because anything less would diminish the extensive amount of research and loopholes Bergman must have had to work around to get this relatively linear narrative so well-organized, factual, and with so many sources to back up important claims. More importantly, I think it’s important for people - people open to thinking and adjusting their views! - to read these accounts of horrific human rights violations, coming to the obvious conclusion that the Israeli defense establishment (especially under ultranationalists like Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu) sees all Arabs as “an undesirable population” that they wish they could just eliminate entirely.
It is truly shocking just how candidly many former soldiers, reserve soldiers, and current soldiers – as well as government officials in those same capacities – speak about the killing operations. The way they see it, no Arab is “innocent.” Adults not terrorists either have connections to terrorists or will eventually side with the terrorists, and children will grow up to be terrorists.
Take, for instance, an incredibly humiliating operation conducted by the Mossad in 1973, following the Munich Olympics and the deaths of the Israeli athletes by what was presumed to be the Black September terrorist cell. Mossad’s goals following the Olympics was to track down every PLO and/or Black September member responsible (or at least ones they deemed responsible) and to show the world “what happens when you mess with Israel.”
At the time of the assassination, which was to occur in Lillehammer, Norway, Mossad operatives had confidently declared their target to be that of Ali Hassan Salameh, who was said not to be present when the attacks in Munich occurred, however, they insisted they had information which proved he was involved in the “deepest manner possible in the planning, recruitment of personnel, and perpetration of the shocking murders.” With only one recent and grainy photograph of him, the operatives assembled a task force to begin trailing “Salameh” around the quaint city, observing his patterns and routines in order to determine the best possible time to carry out his murder.
Apparently because the man took to breakfast in a café with Arabs affiliated with Fatah (again, any collective of Arabs or Palestinians fighting for their rights are deemed “terrorists” by the Israeli state) it was confirmed that this was the man they had been looking for, despite initial hesitation. After the positive ID, here is the “shady behavior” Mossad operatives observed from the man:
”They soon discovered that the man they thought was Salameh lived a quiet life in Lillehammer. He had a blond Norwegian girlfriend who was heavily pregnant. He went to the movies and to an indoor pool in town. He did not betray any of the skittishness of caution of a man concerned that the Mossad might be looking for him. A female operative purchased a swimsuit and went to the pool to watch and observe him. What she saw only made her question whether this man was really the most wanted Palestinian terrorist after all.
She was not the only one who felt this way. But when others expressed their doubts to Harari – who in turned discussed them with Zamir, already in Oslo – they were dismissed. After telling them they thought this was not their man, Harari and Zamir told them it made no difference, stating, “Even if it isn’t Salameh, it’s clear that he’s some other Arab with connections to terrorists. So even if we don’t hit Salameh, the worst we do is kill a less important terrorist, but still a terrorist.”
What happens is devastating and my heart breaks in empathy with the poor man’s pregnant girlfriend:
”That night, the man and his girlfriend left their apartment and took a bus to a movie theater. The assassination team, on vehicles and on foot, did not let them out of their sight. At about 10:30, the couple left the theater and took the bus home. When they got off the bus, a gray Volvo stopped nearby, and two operatives got out. The two drew silenced Beretta pistols and shot the man eight times before running back to the car and making off. They left the woman, who was not hit, kneeling over their victim, screaming as she cradled his bloody head…
The job was reported as a success, but one assassin added that they had seen a woman who had witnessed the killing write down the Volvo’s license plate number as they drove away. Only once they reached Amsterdam, while watching the news on TV, did they finally understand that a catastrophe had just occurred. The man the Israelis killed in Lillehammer was not Ali Hassan Salameh, but Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan working as a waiter and a cleaning man at the swimming pool. He was married to a woman named Torill, who was seven months pregnant. She described what had happened and her utter shock and devastation at losing the love of her life and the father of her unborn child.
Initially, it was a PR nightmare and appeared that the Israelis involved in the murder would be sentenced to several years in prison, too. Of course, once international fury began to cool down, the incident was forgotten and the Mossad team who had just killed an innocent man in cold blood went back to business as usual. After all, as they liked to say, “Wrong identification of a target is not a failure, it’s a mistake.”
The amount of bragging about the mass murder of Arabs and the collateral damage often accompanying these hits is truly sickening. It doesn’t make the Israeli defense establishment look “tough” in my view, rather, it makes them look weak – anyone who targets innocent individuals too often by mistake, civilians, children – they are fundamentally insecure about losing any ground/power they’ve gained over the years, and are simply proving they have no qualms about carrying out acts designated by international law as war crimes to maintain this power.
I couldn’t give the book anything higher because I absolutely stand with Palestine, and I do not see how an occupied people are a “threat” to their occupiers. Isn’t it their right to fight back? Apparently everywhere in the world except for occupied Palestine. I take no issue of course with Orthodox and liberal Jews, it’s just the far-right Zionists who cannot seem to understand that they’ve been running an apartheid state (even Nelson Mandela mentioned this in a 1993 speech) for decades now. Or surely, they do understand, they just don’t care, and expect the world to remain oblivious forever (which may not be that difficult to hope for).
I do plan to add to this review tomorrow, but the bias is clear in Bergman’s writings when he barely blinks an eye at the atrocities committed – only on occasion remarking that they might be illegal or inhumane. Also, it’s always important to pay attention to the language in these kinds of books to determine whether the reporter is actually attempting to be neutral. Those always siding with the Zionist/pro-Israel faction refer to anyone who commits murder of their enemy as an “agent/operative/recruit”, while Palestinians who merely do the same – often in self-defense – are only known as “terrorists.”
If I don’t add to the review though: the only reason I suggest reading it, is so that you can get a true picture of just how discriminatory the Israeli defense establishment and overall government is, and has been, toward the Occupied Territories and the defenseless Arab populations living inside these ruins. It’s eye-opening to hear just how little their methods of violence bother them. Also, for a minority group oppressed by the Nazis, they sure seem to get plenty of inspiration for their form of governance from Hitler and Co.: the idea of “undesirable populations,” the thought in which the Israeli Jew is the “highest being of the human race, thanks to Biblical pronouncements”, and the desire to get rid of the Arab population by any means necessary, to achieve their racially-motivated utopia. ...more
I’m completely baffled by this book’s fanfare, to be honest. I couldn’t believe that not a single review exists on Goodreads that even alludes to the I’m completely baffled by this book’s fanfare, to be honest. I couldn’t believe that not a single review exists on Goodreads that even alludes to the fact that Reeve’s book is so heavily prejudiced against the Palestinian struggle. Clearly this book was not read by people very familiar with this horrific abuse of human rights whatsoever, let alone proposals such as the 1947 U.N. Israeli-Palestinian Partition Plan (which the Palestinians rejected and the Israelis violated).
Let me explain. While I do not in any way, shape, or form condone the terror attacks and the murders of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, I also did not expect to read a book that referred to the Israeli side as “operatives, directors” and so forth, while depicting their counterparts on the Arab side all as “terrorists” (Not the terrorists that killed the athletes, but the diplomats and leaders seeking redress on behalf of the displaced Palestinian peoples). It seemed the author was perfectly fine with the perverse “revenge” operation conducted by Mossad (Israel’s “CIA”, if you will) on random Arab League and PLO members, who had no proven affiliation to the Black September terrorists responsible for the hostage crisis in Munich. However, when the vicious cycle of retribution was repeated, the Palestinians were always portrayed as “terrorists” - killing innocent civilians (when the Israelis did the exact same).
No one deserved to die that day, and the Israeli athletes were undoubtedly the victims. It is disturbing, however, that Reeve only minorly brushes over why this incident took place – and also how he only focuses on the grief of the Israeli families. Didn’t Arab families lose young sons that day too? Yes, they may have done something horrific, but they have been humiliated then ignored by the entire world for decades – and no matter what, parents who lose a child deserve sympathy for their loss.
I can say that the reporting on that fateful September day was fantastically detailed and riveting. But the context provided for why these events occurred was simply too distorted and biased, throughout the book’s entirety, for me to read it as a true historical event rather than what I saw it as: near-Zionist propaganda. Sure, Reeve mentions that “the Palestinians now began suffering in their homeland. Zionists forced tens of thousands of Arabs – families who had been living in the region for centuries – to flee their homes.” But immediately following that sentence? “Both sides were responsible for terrible atrocities.
He does mention the Zionist plan to exterminate Palestinians from their homeland - a group that had no rightful claim to this land – along with mentioning the Palestinian suffering, but as I mentioned earlier, quickly skirts over just how inhumane the entire invasion was, with the oppressed becoming the oppressors. The Holocaust was used endlessly to garner worldwide sympathy for an independent Israeli state – when in fact, most Zionists were not Holocaust survivors or displaced citizens fleeing from the war whatsoever. In fact, the concentration camp survivors who had resettled in the Palestinian state largely kept to themselves and had little, if anything, to do with this horrific ethnic cleansing. I’m unsure as to how it can be perceived as a “war”, when the Israelis had years of planning for the creation of the state, and months upon months to plan their military assaults. Not to mention, the Israelis were largely helped by Western countries – thus, they were provided with the best munitions as well as with large, organized armies.
This was a case where literally entire families of Palestinians were bringing rocks to a gun fight. Those were generally the “atrocities” Reeve refers to – Palestinians throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers who were looting their homes and executing their people, or calling the Arab League for help in setting off bombs and deploying very small units of guerilla fighters (their best weapons simply old Soviet Kalashnikov rifles) in a feeble attempt to defend their land. The fact that Reeve states: “it’s true that while many Palestinians were forcibly evicted from their homes, many also made the voluntary choice to leave” is either ignorant at best, and at worst, deceitful, manipulative and hateful. Since when is it a “voluntary choice” to leave your home due to mass killings and extreme violence? The Palestinians who “voluntarily” left did so early on in the Israeli’s operation, after seeing their neighbors’ homes raided, occupied, or torched to the ground. Most that “voluntarily left” packed a single suitcase, expecting to be back home within a week. They expected most of their homes to be left intact, and were also promised by the occupying British troops as well as the U.N., that any property illegally seized by the Zionist Jews would be returned to them, or if destroyed, they would be compensated for. Neither of those things happened. Instead, they were all forced into squalid refugee camps and the worst parts of the country (prisoners in their own homes) while the Zionists enjoyed the lush, green landscapes with the running water as well as helping themselves to the Palestinians’ best export industries.
Tell me, how do you create a new state within a state of people where a large population already exists (the Palestinians)? Well, mass displacement and mass executions, that's how. The Zionists planned this "war" for quite some time; before the Holocaust even occurred. The Holocaust just gave them the perfect propaganda to use - because after all, who could blame Jews fleeing from death camps for wanting to settle in a new state where they would no longer be oppressed? But that's the Western version and the biased version that Reeve resorts to; not the full story whatsoever - not even close, to the Palestinian cause. At first (for a few brief days, I believe) the US actually condemned the Israelis continued settlement on the West Bank and their continued breach of the 1947 U.N. Israeli-Palestinian Partition Plan by settling on land areas that were reserved for Palestinians. The U.N. denounced the actions as well, and even up to as recently as 2016 I believe, President Obama and U.S. presidents before him have been urging Israelis to STOP settling on Palestinian land.
Yet one follows through with removing them from the land they're stealing, so now the history becomes more and more obscured as more time goes on. Reeve’s book certainly doesn’t help the matter. The peace talks are a joke; there will never be peace because the Zionist Jews brutally murdered innocent Palestinian civilians, the ones remaining and not yet forced into refugee camps (oops, I mean, “those who hadn’t voluntarily left for squalid refugee camps!”). As I said, I don’t know if Reeve is just plain ignorant on the subject or intentionally continuing to perpetrate lies by the original Zionist settlers – but one thing is for certain – he either lacked the knowledge or the objectivity to write this book properly.
If you want to know the actual story of the invasion and not the “war”, read “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”, a brilliant book written by Jewish scholar Ilan Pappe. There are many Jewish scholars out there who are trying to get the truth out to the world – the ones who tell of the mass murder campaign orchestrated by the likes of David Ben-Gurion. Once you’ve read an actual properly researched book by an actual scholar of the area, go back and read One Day in September so you can understand why it’s so infuriating. Just to make things clear, I’d appreciate not hearing any accusations of anti-Semitism when my beloved grandfather (who passed when I was 23) as well as my great-aunt and cousins are Jewish. So even if I am not Jewish by culture, I do have Jewish blood. I just prefer to read both sides of a story and come to the natural conclusion. Only hearing one side of the story, like Reeve tells it, helps no one, and certainly not history’s victims.
One final thing I’d like to add is that I think it’s quite telling that Golda Meir, Israel’s prime minister at the time of the incident, chose not to involve Israel in negotiations. They essentially told their delegations and the Germans: “It’s your problem. We are not going to lose face by negotiating with Palestinians, because it would make us look weak politically and we refuse to allow any possible delegitimization of our statehood.” I’m surprised more Israeli families weren’t furious with the government (although some anger was expressed, it was certainly far more concentrated on the outrage of Germans actions of “once again allowing Jewish blood on their soil”). Was NO ONE who read this book at all suspicious of the fact that the Israeli state did absolutely nothing to commemorate the dead athletes?! This book was absolutely insulting to the Palestinian cause at best, and disgusting at worst.
This was certainly a refreshing take on Middle Eastern politics from a western journalist. I can excuse the blatant preferential treatment Blanford gi This was certainly a refreshing take on Middle Eastern politics from a western journalist. I can excuse the blatant preferential treatment Blanford gives Hezbollah (for the most part, but more on that in just a second) - simply because it's so rare to find any information in the U.S. which actually attempts to explain the true origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Unless we are students of International Relations, Middle Eastern politics, or have simply chosen to educate ourselves further on the story, we are left with a completely one-sided pro-Israel stance - and sadly enough, that's probably one of the few issues both the GOP and Democrats fully support.
With the help of author Nicholas Blanford, who looks upon Lebanon as a second home (residing there since 1994) - we are able to understand just how outnumbered the Lebanese - along with the Islamic/Arab Resistance Movement - truly are, in comparison with the Israeli Defense Forces, who, quite plainly, wouldn't have the state of Israel without the backing of the United States, British peacekeepers at the time of the conflict who turned a blind eye, and many other sympathetic western governments.
Outnumbered when it comes to international public opinion supporting their interests, outnumbered by Israel's military (and all of the latest weaponry, tactical knowledge, technical equipment, etc., provided by Western governments), outnumbered in the devastating number of civilian casualties (280 civilian deaths alone in two short Israeli operations occurring in 1996 and 2006, I believe). All because Hezbollah took it upon themselves to fight back.
I could go on and on for days about the injustices done to the Palestinians, how the Zionist Jews used the Holocaust "resettlement" as propaganda efforts (you know, insisting that the state of Israel was created as a safe haven for concentration camp survivors - when really, it was far more Jewish people from all over the world setting up camp there in territories already occupied by Palestinians for centuries). Given the collective guilt of the West to prevent the Holocaust, they were prepared to give the Jews anything they wanted when WWII commenced. Unfortunately, it wasn't the Holocaust survivors making the demands. It was the Zionists, with no connection to the Holocaust survivors, using their horrific circumstances to justify their own evil misdeeds.
But enough on that. Check out The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe (a Jewish academic) for more information on the true origins and nature of this supposed "war" (I use quotation marks because war generally implies there are two evenly matched sides) and the devastating consequences it has had for Palestinians for going on eight decades or so.
This book is much more about the group that formed in the early 1980s to deal with the lack of resistance from the Arab states in the face of Israeli aggression (the PLO was all too willing to "negotiate" with Israel, trading their morality for money). Hezbollah really is an admirable group, for the most part 100% committed to their cause (of course there will always be some black sheep within the organization, but for the most part, Hezbollah has managed to keep the corrupt ones at bay). The new recruits then and now undergo incredibly vigorous training courses - from ideological classes on Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, and worship - to arms and explosives training, and actual combat situations.
As most other reviewers have pointed out, the only real deficiency in this book is that Blanford really does overhype Hezbollah to the point that it's a bit silly. To the point that it really wouldn't surprise me in the least if they had hired him as a propagandist for their cause. Nevertheless, he really dives deep into their organization, and how intensely powerful they've become since the 1980s. Even if they don't have the strength to destroy Israel, they'll never stop fighting. Although it is certainly commendable, given that someone has to fight for the Arab cause, it's also quite sad that they know civilians will be targeted by the IDF when they DO fight back.
I guess they really don't have much choice, but it still makes you wonder how the international community hasn't held Israel more responsible for the deliberate civilian targeting and airstrike campaigns. When cars are fleeing from town with white flags pleading with the IDF, "look, we're civilians, we aren't fighting you" yet are still being shot at, or clearly marked Red Cross ambulances with passengers literally on the brink of death are held back from reaching hospitals because the IDF has bombed the main bridges and highways to reach those hospitals... I don't know, I guess you'd think that decades of that behavior would finally culminate in the international community forcing Israel to answer for its crimes against humanity. But nope.
Anyway, I digress. It is still a highly readable book, and anyone interested in Hezbollah will walk away from this book more well-informed than they possibly could have asked for. That's another problem: aside from the clear one-sidedness and often fanboy compliments Blanford employs throughout this book, it also drags on far longer than necessary. Some chapters are extremely exciting and you get through quickly; others, not so much. Still, I doubt there is a better written book on the intricacies of Hezbollah (aside from what Hezbollah itself might publish).
I'd love to see a follow-up to this book now that it's been over a decade since its publication....more
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