Customer Reviews

Dishonest Broker: The Role of the United States in Palestine and Israel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book has been a long time coming. It finally speaks what many have known all along -- that the United States, due to its foreign policy in the Middle East, can not possibly be a fair broker in any Arab-Israeli relations. The author painstakingly lays down the foundation for the current situation in precise terms, providing a context for his general thesis that is both convincing and eye-opening, and then advances the discussion to places few have dared go in recent years. Anyone interested in learning the quiet truth about this issue would do well to add this book to his or her collection.

It seems like its the same negative reviews coming from the same people who have a seemingly blind support for Israel. Professor Naseer Aruri uses mainstream US, Israeli, and Palestinian sources to analyze whether in fact the United States government has been an honest broker in the Israel-Palestine conflict. According to the mounting evidence, US has in fact NOT been an honest broker, tilting more toward the side of Israel and placing any failure to the peace process on the Palestinians and their representatives. Also according to the documented history, Israel has enjoyed an immunity that is unprecedented in the international arena. For 40 years now, Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has been uncontested due to the fact that every meaningful international solution to the conflict has been vetoed by the US. US also continues to give over 3 billion dollars in military aid to the Israeli government to continue a very illegal occupation. According to the preambular paragraph of UN Security Council Resolution 242, "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." Therefore, Israel's occupation of West Bank and Gaza are illegal by international law. One also should look at Israeli scholars like Tanya Reinhart, Ilan Pape, Simha Flapan, Yosef Gorny, and others to corroborate such information. For human rights abuses that Israeli government commits on Palestinians go to the Israeli human rights organzation B'Tselem and other mainstream human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Once you compare the data to what the book presents and see that its dead on accurate, all the negative reviews on this site will seem ridiculous and show a blind following for Israel right or wrong rather than standing up for the truth regardless of who has it.

This book is a well written, factual documentation of how self-serving, dishonest US 'peace brokering' has effected the Palestinian/Israeli situation over past decades. Like it or not, the American people have been deliberately misled into thinking our negotiations have been fair and non-biased. If you have any sense of fairness - you owe it to yourself to read this book!

I was going to make this a comment in support of Edgar Hopida's review that I voted for, but decided that the Zionists voting against this book need some counter-voting, so I am lending my five stars to that endeavor. I am also listing below the ten links allowed by Amazon that I recommend in support of this book. Another seven links--and the easily browsed 1,500 non-fiction reviews that make me the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction--that in general support the proposition that Israel is a cancer and the USA is an immoral rogue on the world stage. I expect lots of votes against this review--no matter, as I am willing to take a bullet for Palestine and a bullet for what my latest book discusses, INTELLIGENCE for EARTH: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity, & Sustainability. Sadly, neither the governnment of Israel, and the government of the United States of America, display any of thos attributes.

I have ported Mr. Hopida's review to Phi Beta Iota, the Public Intelligence Blog, where all fifteen links can be seen, with his own review linking back to Amazon for both the book and the review (I do encourage one and all to vote for Mr. Hopida's review if they agree with his summary).

See also:
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
The Power of Israel in the United States
They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby
Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush
Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation
The Health of Nations: Society and Law beyond the State
The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
Painful Questions: An Analysis of the September 11th Attack
The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship
Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (American Empire Project)

There are books like this one, which say that the United States has been unfair to the Arabs. And unjust. There are other books, such as Ezra Sohar's "A Concubine in the Middle East," which explain that while the United States has given Israel some support, it has shown little concern for Israel's long-term well being. Well! Are both books wrong? Are both books right? Is the United States obviously doing something very, very right to annoy so many people on both sides? (of course not). Or is the United States simply being unfair to everyone?

According to this book, the United States is supporting Israel and is wrong to do so. But this book is not merely a political statement. It also deals with objective reality, and by calling Israel a colonialist settler state and occupier of foreign land, it denies that reality. And that can't be a good idea. No matter what the author wants to do, he would be better off sticking to the truth.

And there is one section where Aruri does have something to offer, namely those wonderful glossy color maps! They're just great, and only a little misleading.

Still, I can't see how propaganda is superior to honesty, no matter where one stands politically. Suppose one wanted to destroy France and expel its inhabitants. Would it help to believe that the French were really modern interlopers who had no genuine interest in the land nor any connection to it, and that given a little time, they would all pack up and go "home" to Antarctica? No. Now, France is a rather large nation, and it might be valid to believe that it needs to cede Bretagne or a few other areas to more local rule. But would it be helpful to believe that the French are so weak and underpopulated that they would not have any land at all in a peaceful and just world? Again, no.

Israel is a small nation and in the long run, it may not be too important how it fares. However, if enough people such as the author of this book have their way, it will set a precedent. And that precedent is that might makes right. That will encourage even the most good-hearted people to focus on getting the political strength to stay alive, rather than being helpful, honest, or just. And that's not going to help human society or civilization.

I can't see how this book will give anyone a better understanding of the Arab war against Israel. At best, it serves as just one more of way too many examples of propaganda against human rights.

This book explains that the U.S was a 'dishonest' broker in the Arab Israel conflict. If we take that to be the starting point then let us imagine what the author would have felt was an 'honest' approach. THis would apparently have been to do what the Soviets did, support the 22 Arab states and 200 million Arabs against the 1 non-muslim state and the 5 million Israelis. 'honost' brokering would have been something along what the Iraqi's did to the Kurds, maybe the use of Gas by the U.S to crush Israel, this is apparently the conclusion one is sopposed to draw from this unabashadly biased account.

The list of the U.S dishonest actions appears to be that the U.S dared to support Israel, dared to allow Israel to buy weapons and then dared to not give into the Oil cartel of the Arabs in 1973. The other 'dishonest' parts of the deal are apparently the U.S efforts to broker peace with Egypt, the U.S support of King Hussien, the U.S support of Afgahnistan against Russia, and the U.S attempt to stop the genocdie in Lebanon. If honesty is genocide, then let the U.S be the most dishonest country in the world, because when the words are changed, the deeds of right and wrong remain the same.

Seth J. Frantzman