Customer Reviews

Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine

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This, like the work of Joan Peters, is a magnificent piece of reporting on the real history of the Middle East conflict. But in the 27 years since it was published, that past has grown ever more faded in public and journalistic memory.

Supporting Israel and the facts is now so politically incorrect that a prominent newspaper website recently deleted a posting stating this important background: In 1922 the League of Nations adopted by international vote a plan to establish a Jewish National Home in Palestine, which then included all of current day Israel and Transjordan. Shortly thereafter, Britain unilaterally and illegally granted more than 80% of that original Palestine to the Arabs, creating current day Jordan. And now, Israel is blamed for the plight of "refugees" that the Arab nations have exploited to the max in their 52-year war against the Jewish state.

Of many important pieces of the historical puzzle, the best is this: In 1919, less than two years after the Balfour Declaration, Emir Faisal of Syria and Iraq--then the only recognized Arab leader in the world--declared the plan "moderate and proper." One result was the 1922 League of Nations vote to adopt the plan.

King Faisal's approval of plans for a National Home for the Jews was no less significant because it encompassed all of current day Israel and all of current day Jordan. In 1919, there were very few Arabs and many Jews in Palestine, and King Faisal saw the importance of recognizing the rights of the Jewish people to their homeland.

Unfortunately, most Arab nations--from which most "Palestinians" actually immigrated--never recognized even the considerably reduced version of the Jewish state and still prefer a permanent state of war rather than admit Jews the right to their state governing places in which tens of thousands of Jews resided even after the Romans sacked the second Temple in 70 A.D. And why should they? Thanks to a largely uninformed press corps, they are winning a propaganda war that has all but wiped out the past, substituting instead a Kafkaesque fantasy.

The publishers should RUSH this book back into print! Alyssa A. Lappen

Samuel Katz is one of the few in the media who tells the truth about the Israeli/Arab conflict in Israel. He provides astounding facts about the British invovlement against the Jews in Palestine and the truth behind the Arab propaganda machine and the real beginning of the "refugee" problem. This book is a must if you want to learn what happened in Palestine and the real problems between Israel and not only its neighbors, but also its relations with the world community. This book deserves two thumbs up.

Samuel Katz has written one of the most crucial compilations of the historical facts surrounding all of the issues relevant to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No-one can speak with authority on the issue without heeding to the eye opening facts revealed by Ktaz' extraordinary research and compelling penmanship.

Book was an excellent historical resource and an accurate compilation of historical facts. Verifiable sources are cited and facts are fully corroborated. One can imagine that most anti-Israel propagandists will be unnerved and thoroughly shaken by this book, as their ability to distort and disinform will be severly limited, or even eliminated. A truly unbiased student of history will appreciated this book. Anti-Zionists and ant-Semites will probably find an additional opportunity to spew their hatred and deceitful rhetoric regarding undeniable realities.

This book is concise, interesting, and fully documented. This is a truly professional work, giving the reader the best, most accurate information on the Arab-Jewish conflict in moderen times. Most books on the subject are simply fiction...this is simply the facts.

I have bought this book at least twenty times. I give it to friends who wish to gain a quick yet thorough understanding of the sources of the Israel-Arab conflict. Katz writes clearly and makes the complex simple to grasp without over simplifying--not an easy feat.

Required reading for both sides of these issues. Jews should know this stuff and Arabs should be challenged to refute it.

The impact of this work is greatly undermined by its inaccuracies, so numerous that clearly cannot be listed here in full. An example is the notion that Jews represented a majority population in historic Palestine throughout the last few centuries. Another is that Arab and British propananda have been more greatly at work that Zionist propaganda in skewing international opinion surrounding the current conflict.