History Upside Down: The Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression [Hardcover]

David Meir-Levi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 20, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1594031924 | ISBN-13: 978-1594031922 | Edition: First Edition

In the United Nations, on university campuses, and among a growing number of our most prestigious Western newspapers, the historical record has been rewritten so thoroughly that Israel is seen as the worst of the oppressive Western occupiers of the Third World. So successful has this propaganda campaign been that Palestinian spinmeisters and their apologists have effectively declared the Israelis, a people living in the shadow of the Holocaust, to be "Nazis." How could this happen? How did unacceptable anti-Semitism morph into justifiable anti-Zionism, and odious Jew-hatred turn into a politically correct Israel-hatred? In History Upside Down, David Meir-Levi exposes the ideological DNA of Palestinian nationalism and its ludicrous "alternative" histories, revealing how Nazi fascism gave the Arab world's amorphous hatred of the Jews an intellectual structure and how Soviet communism masked its genocidal intentions with the mantle of national liberation. Meir-Levi then explodes the cornerstone myths that the Palestinian movement created--myths that rationalize and celebrate decades of unremitting terror and genocidal ambitions, turning the history of the Middle East upside down and inside out, making the victim the aggressor and the aggressor the victim. History Upside Down is the first wave in a counterattack against this Arab war on history. It rejects the idea that the basic situation in the Middle East has changed since the United Nations first established the Jewish state and the Palestinian state that would have stood alongside it. Sadly, argues Meir-Levi, the issue in the Middle East is today what it has been since the Muslim invasion in the seventh century: the Arabs' hatred of the Jews.

Editorial Reviews

Review

David Meir-Levi's "brief encounter" offers a solid approach to understanding the basics of the Arab-Israeli conflict, arguably the world's most persistent and polarized political issue. History Upside Down applies great common sense where demagogues and ignorami too often dominate. -- Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum and author of Militant Islam Reaches America

In order for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be resolved, the demonology will have to be taken out of it, and the historical and political facts allowed to speak for themselves dispassionately. David Meir-Levi shows how this can be done. -- David Pryce-Jones, author of Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews

About the Author

David Meir-Levi is an American-born Israeli currently living in Palo Alto, California. He taught archaeology and Near Eastern history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at the University of Tel Aviv, and served in the Israeli military. He now teaches Middle Eastern history at San Jose State University. A senior project manager at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, Mr. Meir-Levi writes extensively on Middle East issues for Front Page Magazine and other online journals, and also hosts radio and TV programs analyzing the Middle East conflict.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; First Edition edition (December 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594031924
• ISBN-13: 978-1594031922
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #897,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

113 of 138 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exposes some ridiculous untruths about Israel that should not have been believed in the first place December 30, 2007

By Jill Malter

Format:Hardcover

This short book summarizes some rather obvious truths about the Arab-Israeli conflict. I'm giving it five stars only because many of these truths are disputed in what ought to be respectable places.

The first chapter traces the roots of some of the Arab anti-Israeli aggression to the German National Socialists. The second chapter shows an additional source of inspiration for these aggressors, namely the Communist Soviet Union. As Meir-Levy explains, the Levantine Arabs have never had a sovereign state. Nor have they been a people or a nation, or even claimed to be one prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. When the West Bank was controlled by Jordan, there was no move to liberate that land from Jordan: Arafat's gang had designs only on Israel. The author claims that Arafat in fact created "the only national movement for political self-determination in the entire world, and across all of world history, to have destruction of a sovereign state and the genocide of a people as its only raison d'etre." I think that's pretty much the case, although some national movements, such as that of the Sudeten Germans, have been similar in some respects.

The focus of the third chapter is on Hamas. Israel at first hoped that Hamas might be a counterweight to Arafat's organization. But when Hamas began a long series of deadly terror attacks, Israel outlawed it, in 1989. Here, Meir-Levy points out that "perhaps the most valuable asset of all for Hamas has been the United Nations.

Chapter Four discusses a very specific lie, namely, "Zionists stole our land." And while it is true that from the year 1880 to 1930, about eight hundred families were indeed rendered landless by Jewish land purchases during that time, these were in fact legal purchases. I would add that the presence of the Jews improved the economy and caused an increase, not a decrease, in the Arab population.

Yes, there was a flight of Arabs in 1947 and 1948, but that was brought about not by the Zionists, but by Arab aggression, which caused the Jews to defend themselves. The resulting war did cause many Arabs to flee, but this was in no way a Jewish plot to steal land! Yes, I am sure that many Zionists dearly wanted to buy more land, but once again, I favor legal purchases of land and I think it is outrageous to call such purchases (especially when one is the high bidder and pays high prices) "theft."

The fifth chapter is about the Levantine Arab refugees. As the author tells us, the State of Israel was not responsible for the refugee status of these people, and it is a malicious lie to say otherwise. In fact, I would remind people that Israel has been reprimanded by the United Nations when it has tried to get Arabs to be resettled and out of the refugee camps.

These days, some revisionist historians imply that there was a master Israeli plan to massacre Arabs and ethnically cleanse the region. But the author replies that at the time, there were "no reports in the world press, including the Arab press and those elements of the Western press openly hostile to Israel, about any such actions of which Israel today stands condemned." Yes, there was a battle at Deir Yassin (prior to the establishment of Israel), but that was not part of some overall plan of this sort. And even the battle of Deir Yassin has been badly misreported by those who wanted to show Israel in a negative light.

The final chapter is on one more myth, namely that of colonial occupation. It includes a discussion of the Israeli West Bank towns, which have been branded by some folks as "illegal" settlements.

I think it ought to be obvious that we humans are better off with truth than with lies, no matter what it is we wish to accomplish, and I think this book is useful in distinguishing between truth and lies. I recommend it.

129 of 164 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exposing the lies December 22, 2007

By Michael

Format:Hardcover

This is the best book on the Arab-Israeli conflict since "Battleground" by Samuel Katz in 1985, because it effectively makes the rarely-heard case for Israel. A short book, it shows concisely how and why the popular arguments against Israel are false. The first half documents the cultural and historical sources for the Arab determination to destroy Israel. Although we are gradually learning about the dangers of religious fanaticism among Arabs, most people today are unaware of the Palestinian Arab collaboration with the Nazis during World War II or how their leaders were later trained and directed by communists in the Soviet Union for their own ideologically-driven goals. These goals include spreading egregious lies and false narratives to fool the ignorant. The second half demolishes the standard accusations against the Jewish state made by anti-Zionists and anti-Semites, such as the topics of refugees, "occupation," settlements, and whether the land was "stolen." Relying entirely on facts and logic, this rhetoric-free book makes an excellent resource for preparing to debate the Middle East. The only fault with the book: no maps!

146 of 188 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Jews of Israel are the Real Victims December 26, 2007

By David Thomson

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

David Meir-Levi succinctly---and convincingly presents the case that Israel is the victim of an organized slander campaign. It did not begin yesterday. The slandering began well over seven decades ago. History has indeed been turned upside down. A large number of Westerners, perhaps even the majority, perceive the Arab religious and secular militants as freedom fighters against Israeli imperialism. The Arabs were supposedly robbed of their land and dignity. Both the Communists and the Nazis taught them how to employ the rhetoric of victimization to further their goals. "Stop talking about annihilating Israel," advised North Vietnam's General Giap, "and instead turn your terror war into a struggle for human rights. Then you will have the American people eating out of your hand." No truer words were ever spoken. This is definitely the consensus opinion of the hard Left and Right within the United States. The entire book contains only 131 pages. It is, as far as I'm concerned, the best short work available to offer well meaning individuals confused by extremist propaganda.