Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

At the outset of this gripping, well written study the writer declares that the "basic script" of the Middle East conflict has changed over the last generation.

The author maintaining that the fundamental issue in the Middle East today is the same as it has effectively been since the Muslim invasion in the seventh century. That being the hatred of the Jews. Although the writer admits that such is routinely denied by apologists for the Arab/Islamic world, the book proceeds to examine a number of relevant issues which support this particular outlook.

The book examines, how in recent times, the Arab war against the very existence of the Jewish state, has been waged for sixty years without a let-up. The text highlighting how Islamic/Arab leaders allegedly still yearn for their own "final solution" of the Jewish problem.

The attention of the reader is drawn to how, today, it is expediently overlooked that in 1948 there would not have been one single Arab refugee - not even one - had the Arab states not chosen to go to war in defiance of a United Nations resolution with the declared aim of destroying the newly reborn State of Israel.

With Israel being restored to areas of it's ancient Biblical homeland during the 1967 conflict the reader is also shown how since that time the perception of the region, and that of the international community, has changed. The writer citing how prior to the Six Day War,the aggressors were purportedly seen as Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq etc.. These nations being seen then as the aggressive "Goliath" as opposed to the lesser "David" of Israel. By comparison, today the new "David" are the Palestinians, and Israel has become the new threatening aggressive "Goliath".

The book pulls no punches as the reader is shown how for decades the Arab world sought to eradicate the Jewish state. After military failures the Arab world constantly inventing new public relations themes, new form of disinformation or new ways to misrepresent the Arab war against Israel.

The book revealing how the "Palestinianization" of the campaign of Arab aggression arose from a realization that you can allegedly further your agenda far more successfully through the political goals of self-determination than with declarations of intended genocide.

The very adoption of the "Palestinian cause" then becoming the fig leaf for the Arab war against Israel. A cause which has cloaked it's parallel agenda with political and media spin that has completely distorted the public's perception of what is really going on in the Middle East.

The reader is made aware of how basic historical truths and absolute facts relating to the Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflict are being ignored or trodden underfoot. Through the media and political theatres, the perception of the Western public being slanted by a series of half-truths, selective omission and some basic untruths that allegedly serve to further the International interests of a plethora of nations.

The reader becomes aware how it has been readily forgotten that the Israeli government, together with many International entities, only agreed to recognise and speak to Arafat/PLO at the very outset, on the firm agreement that they refrain from and utterly renounce terrorism and attend the negotiating table. Instead, the PLO still embraced terrorism and walked away from the negotiating table in favour of violence.

The Israeli government while acting in self defence, then being subjected to widespread international criticism, with even it's sovereign right of self defence being brought into question. Palestinian violence now being seen as "legitimate" and any Israeli act of self defence being the issue brought into question. History and the present indeed being turned "upside down" as the title of this excellent work suggests.

The media theme shown to be that Israel alone is allegedly responsible for the turmoil in the Middle East and that Israel alone holds the key to peace/stability and then subsequently portrayed as an outlaw state. This creating an international climate of anti-Israeli sentiment, that the Arab/Islamic world is intent upon using towards the eradication and annihilation of the Jewish state.

Various stages of the so called "peace process" are analized. Not least of these is the Palestinian refugee problem, which the study cites as being created by the Arabs themselves while flouting UN Resolutions, international law and their refusal to accept the existence of ANY Jewish state in 1947/8. A problem of their very own making, that they have been successful in deceiving the international community into placing unjust blame upon Israel.

It is clear from the contents of this study that Palestinian demands, plus those of the Islamic/Arab world, do not and will not end at the 1967 border. The text revealing how umerous groups have repeatedly reaffirmed a strategy of conquest of Israeli territory in stages, and the present generation of Palestinians being indoctrinated in the belief that Israel, all of it, is theirs.

Arafat himself, on the same day that he shook hands with the Clinton/Rabin on the White House lawn, declaring in Arabic to a Jordanian audience that all Israeli ground ceded to him under any peace treaty, would be used as a stepping-off point to obtain more territory and the eventual eradication of Israel.

May I respectfully recommend the following books to those interested in the history and context of the conflict and subjects addressed in this study by David Meir-Levi. Thank you.

"A History of Palestine; 634 - 1099" by Moshe Gil.
"Empires Of The Sands; Struggle For Mastery In The Middle East, 1789 - 1923" by Efraim & Inari Karsh
"The Palestine War 1948; Arab - Israeli Conflict" by Efraim Karsh
"Fabricating Israeli History; The `New Historians' " by Efraim Karsh
"Battleground; Fact & Fantasy In Palestine" by Samuel Katz
"Arafat's War" by Efraim Karsh
"Islam & The Jews" by Professor Mark Gabriel
"The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin al-Husseini" by Chuck Morse.

The book is short, you'll finish it within the day and it'll be worth it. The only reason I'm giving it four stars is because it is so short, I would have liked even more information and more endnotes, especially when the author mentions how much influence the KGB and the Soviet Union had on the PLO, but that's just me. Overall this book reaffirms facts and ideas that I've at times forgotten.

The propaganda campaign against Israel has been in full force for decades and is paying off quite well for the "Palestinian" government and its representatives. The multiple times that Israel has tried to make peace are recounted, only for the PLO and Arafat to reject it out of hand because Israel cannot exist for peace to exist. The idea that Israel is responsible for the refugee problem is discussed, it isn't Israel's fault that over half a dozen Arab nations decided to wage war against them and tell the Palestinians to leave so that they'd have an easier time killing and purging Jews from "their" land. The various hypocritical stances that world and the UN takes in regards to Israeli actions, while at the same time ignoring what's going on in the rest of the world should be nothing new but it helps to be reminded of it.

Thus far Israel is the only nation that has waged a war, won a war, and offered to return land for peace. It is high time that people understand that such a peace is not possible if the current situation in the middle east remains as it is. If the Israelis attack terrorists they are viewed as colonizers bent on genocide, if they offer peace and retreat from conquered territory they are viewed as weak and defeated by the terrorists. Israel has been on the front lines in the "war against terrorism" that the US has just joined, battling double standards and hypocrisy along the way.

This is a review of HISTORY UPSIDE DOWN: THE ROOTS OF PALESTINIAN FASCISM AND THE MYTH OF ISRAELI AGGRESSION by Professor David Mier-Levi who now teaches Middle Eastern History at San Jose State University. Professor Mier-Levi's slim volume is just a little over 100 pages long, not counting over 20 pages of notes and a useful index.

Professor Mier-Levi writes well and organizes a lot of complicated material into a coherent, readable narrative. He focuses on how information can be framed to shape the dialogue and influence the outcome. Using the example of Vietnam, Professor Mier-Levi illustrates how the Communists realized early on the critical importance of framing their invasion of the South so that it would not be perceived as an "invasion."

This was to be a "war of national liberation" not just another military conquest. And, it worked. The imagery of nationalism struck a chord in the West, even the US which was committed to resisting a classic, over-the-border invasion by armored divisions equipped with the latest T-54 tanks.

The Communists managed to cast themselves in the role of pajama-clad Davids to South Vietnamese/US Goliaths. The US won the military conflict but the Communists won the war by carefully framing its discussion to their advantage.
Political support eroded within the US and American troops withdrew without having experienced a military defeat. Indeed, US forces were raiding close to Hanoi looking for POW camps as the last combat troops pulled out.

The Communists won the war, however, because they weaponized the information about the war much more successfully than did the US. And, among the students of this weaponization of information was Yassir Arafat.

He learned his lessons well. A Kuwaiti businessman born in Cairo married to a French teenager, he established himself as the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Against him was Ariel Sharon, who was born in Palestine and was often described as a "Palestinian" himself.

Arafat co-opted the term "Palestinian" equating it with PLO and excluding Jews, Christians and others who were previously included when the term was used. Arafat also created the idea that Palestine was "occupied" and that the PLO were the helpless victims of brutal, Israeli oppression. He cast the Israelis as "European invaders" into the "Palestinian homeland."

This was a stunning achievement and it worked. People forgot that Israel had always been part of Palestine and that the Jews were historically a "Palestinian people" themselves.

They also forgot that Arafat's PLO had been kicked out "the Palestinian state" of Jordan after trying to take it over from King Hussein. Instead of wondering how many "Palestinian states" Arafat demanded, the West accepted his reframed debate of the issue and pivoted against Israel pressing it to trade "land for peace" and "restrict settlements on occupied land."

This while PLO and other anti-Jewish terrorists slaughtered innocent, unarmed Jewish men, women and children in various "martyrdom operations". So successfully had the discussion been reframed that terrorists could operate with impunity assured that the West would condemn Israel for any efforts to defend themselves.

This is the "upside down" history mentioned in the book's title. Rather than criticizing the aggressors, the West criticized the Israelis for refusing to commit suicide. It is truly a case of history being turned upside down by the realization that information can be weaponized successfully enough to bring strategic victory.

If you're interested in the Middle East and looking for a coherent, concise explanation of the issues, you need this book. I liked it and gave it five stars.

This book is a must read for those interested in the real nature of the Isreali/Arab conflict and its history. I was aware that the P.A. even after Oslo continued to act like they were more interested in destroying Israel than in building a viable state. I was aware that there has never previously been a Palestinian State in history. But I was not aware that the origin of the P.L.O. and its original master was the K.G.B. I was not aware of the ties between the Muslim Brotherhood and Nazi Germany. This book is well-written and well-documented.

David Meir-Levi is a serious historian. Most commonly historians write for other historians in a dry manner. David Meir-Levi, in his book History Upside Down, does what others have failed to do -- write in a clearly and concisely, showing how historical records demonstrate the true history of Israel and the Arabs war against the Jews.

There are two victims of Arab Islamo-fascism: the Jews of Israel and the Arabs of Palestine. David Meir-Levi book illustrates how time after time the Arab leadership rejected peace overtures, instead continuing their war against the Jews and Arabs of Israel.

Now is the time for the Palestinian people to recognize that their "leaders" do not want peace and do not want an independent Palestinian state. Now is the time for them to bring about a new Palestinian leadership that rejects the old teaching of hatred and war against the Jews taught in their mosques and on their government television stations.

Likewise, now is the time for the world to recognize that the suffering of Arabs and Jews in the Middle East is a symptom of Arab's war against the Jews.

In this short but highly instructive book David-Meir-Levi deals with the phenomenon of how the truth of history has been turned upside down by the Arabs/Muslims and their allies on the international left.
Historical revisionism of the worst kind has been so successful that at the United Nations, the world media and university campuses around the globe, Israel under genocidal attack since it's birth has been presented as a "Colonial oppressor", an "Apartheid State", "Racist" , "Fascist" and "Imperialist".
Israel, living in the shadow of the Holocaust have in a bizarre and sick twist of rhetoric and propaganda even been frequently branded as "Nazis".
The author "Arab propaganda under Communist tutelage transmuted the unacceptable anti-Semitism into justifiable anti-Zionism, and turned an odious Jew-hatred into a politically correct Israel-hatred".

Meir-Levi describes the machinations of of the Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini, his instigation of and planning of the 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1936-1939 pogroms in which hundreds of Jews were butchered by Arab terrorists.
The author points out the extensive use of swastikas, portraits of Hitler and Nazi imagery during the 1936-1939 "Great Arab Revolt" of 1936-1939.
He traces Al Husseini's close collaboration with Hitler and Eichmann. Al Husseini was one of the originators of the systematic destruction of European Jewry and was a close associate, confidante and advisor to Eichmann. He organized the Bosnian Muslim SS Hanjar divisions that annihilated 90% of Bosnian Jews and persuaded the Axis powers to prevent any Jews leaving Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria diverting hundreds of thousands of Jews to the death camps. Eichmann recounted "We have promised him (the mufti) that no European Jew would enter Palestine anymore."
A more detailed account of the history of the Mufti and Hitler can be found in The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin al-Husseini.

During the 1961 Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt commented on the astounding degree of anti-Jewish venom and praise for Hitler in the Arab press together with regret that he "did not finish the job".
40 years later the state-controlled Egyptian daily Al Akhbar (April 18, 2001) declared "Our thanks to the late Hitler who wrought, in advance, the vengeance of the Palestinians upon the most despicable villains on the face of the earth. However we rebuke Hitler for the fact that the vengeance was insufficient".
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said of the Jews after the 2006 Lebanon War "If they gather in Israel it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide" and former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani thundering his aims of a second holocaust and final solution declared "The use of nuclear bomb in Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas it will only damage the world of Islam."
The author describes how the PLO was a brainchild of the KGB working with Nasser, how the Vietnamese Communists and Romanian dictator Ceausescu persuaded Arafat to repackage his propaganda so that the Arab onslaught against Israel would be transformed in the world imagination as an anti-colonial struggle by the "oppressed Palestinians".
He outlines the support given by the Communist bloc to the Palestinian terror networks such as the PLO and PFLP, and the Arab campaign to drown Israel in blood.
The author carefully debunks the Arab hoax that "the Zionists stole our land", and reminds us how many times the Palestinians turned down the opportunity of obtaining a Palestinian State alongside Israel, as they were determined to destroy Israel and replace her with a Judenreihn "Palestine from the river to the sea".
In this they have been diabolically supported by the International Left.

Meir-Levi also outlines the truth about the much maligned security fence which has saved tens of thousands of Israeli lives and been dubbed by Israel's enemies as 'The Apartheid Wall".
Clearly the opponents of the barrier believe that Israeli lives are far less important than Palestinian inconvenience.
They also ignore the fact that many other countries have security barriers, some far more formidable than Israel's provisional fence.

The book traces how the evacuation by Israel of ten thousand Jews from Gaza and the handing over of Gaza over to full Palestinian control led to a renewed war by the Arabs of Gaza against Israel's people sending thousands of rockets into Israel with the aim of killing and maiming Israeli men, women and children.
Over 1800 Israelis (mainly women and children) have been killed since Arafat launched a war of terror against Israel's people in 2000, and thousands more maimed and injured.
The author finally points out that the incitement to genocide by the likes of Hezbollah's Nasrallah and Iran's Ahamdinejad may strip away the illusions of a struggle for Palestinian "liberation" and "national aspirations" and re-situate the Arab/Islamic Jihad against Israel with it's true roots- that of the Nazis and the Muslim Brotherhood.
If university departments had any interest in a true representation of the history and facts of the conflict, this would be a prescribed book, but unfortunately on most universities the aim is the opposite- venomous propaganda.

Especially for a christian zionist like me.

This book is easily read in a day; most of the content was not too new or unexpected for me.

One of the main points that most people do not realize is that the jews agreed early on in allowing the palestinian arabs to have their own land. This was stipulated in the UN resolution which allowed the creation of the state of Israel alongside that for the arabs. It never materialized because the arabs never ever tolerated the notion of the jews having their own country. In fact, the jews were attacked the day after the formal recognition of Israel as a nation by Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

This book distills the most important aspects of the Arab/Israeli conflict as well as revealing, as the title explains, that Hitler and the palestinians shared the same ideology. I will probably reread it before I return the book. It's been a week or so since I finished it, some facts a little fuzzy.

I did learn that Arafat was a pedophile and Nicolai Ceacescu supplied him with Rumanian orphans. OOOOO. Someone told me that the Mossad killed Ceacescu, don't know if it's true, but if so, good for them! I've heard some stories from Rumanians about Ceacescu-doesn't sound like a nice guy.

This book is undoubtedly a great one to start with before delving into Arab-Israeli history. A MUST READ!!!!!!!