Customer Reviews

Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948, Second Edition (Open Media Series)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Despite the many detractors of this book, this book is a wonderful and honest piece on the current situation regarding Palestine and Israel. All the facts are documented, and character attacks put out by the reviewers before me show the brainwashed and rejectionist mentality that effects western academia and media. This book goes well with Norman Finkelstein's book Image and Reality of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict and Fateful Triangle by Noam Chomsky. It seems that whenever scholars or people speak out against the unlawful practices of the Israeli government, people are labeled as anti semites and this and that. This cant be applied to this author or noam chomsky or norman finkelstein. All of them are Jews and all of them have documented the evidence. So instead of attacking this book based on rejectionist literature and models, confirm it from the sources its drawn on

Professor Reinhart presents a history of the Israel/ Palestine conflict with coincides with at least four other books on this subject. Her power is to write cogently and clearly on the key elements in the Zionist taking of most of British mandate Palestine. She argues clearly and persuasively that it is in the interest of both parties that Israel withdraw from the Occupied Territories and thereby permit a viable Palestinian state on these 22 % of the mandate Palestine. A must read for any person wanting to understand the genesis and unfolding of the conflict. Her suggested resolution is persuasive to this reader.

I am ordering two more copies of this book to lend to friends. It is essential reading from a respected Israeli academic for anyone wanting to have a real understanding of current Israel/Palestine problems and a reasonable resolution.
Reconciliation is difficult unless based on truth and it is the truths presented here - confirmed to me by other Israelis as well as by my observations - that have been systematically avoided by persistant propaganda that have impeded it.
It is ironic that the greatest long-term threat to the safety and security of Israel and Palestine is those Americans who most loudly and vociferously support Sharon's stated efforts to purge the entire land of Palestinians.

Tanya Reinhart's book is a gem, combining analytical precision with in-depth understanding of her own society. She doesn't just blow apart the myth of Barak's "generous offer" -- she gives us a plausible interpretation of Barak's strategic reasoning. The fundamental question in Israeli society right now is, as she says, "How to end the War of 1948." Her counterposition of the two options -- Oslo-style apartheid vs. "transfer" -- is right on the money, but she goes further, exploring the civilian-military split at the heart of the question. Her analysis that Barak, like Sharon, is an advocate of transfer, and that both his non-negotiations with Syria and his non-offer at Camp David were deliberately designed to manipulate Israeli public opinion is original and compelling. The suggestions of high-level Israeli military collusion are intriguing, although likely the full story will come out only years later. Tanya Reinhart has not just repackaged standard analysis of the occupation -- she has seen deeper into the past five years of Israeli state policy than anyone else writing in English.

This is dynamite, I love it. I have been a friend of Israel's policy for a long time, mostly because of it well oiled military force (air force to be precise) and everything they've done. A purely professional, military opinion.
But it is reveling to read Tanya Reinhart, an expert on theoretical linguistics at Tel Aviv University, put forward all these facts about the conflict that has been hidden from the world community for more than half of a century. She also reveals what she calls "The Oslo Apartheid" and compares it with South Africans Apartheid system. It enlightes you I promise. It is objective and very well written.
She makes it clear that only an immediate and unconditional withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza can bring peace to the area. And she also states that in a 2002 survey 77 percent of Palestinians still agree that "both Israel and Palestine have the right to live in peace and security."
One of the most chocking facts are that the Israel's military force(taking order from the country's leaders), which is one of the most powerful in the world, also backed by the United States, deliberately shoots civilian Palestinians, not to kill, but to wound them and to practice. United States is of course the rouge state here. They block every UN resolution just to please the Jewish lobby in Washington D.C. And because of that Israel can continue to laugh at the UN Resolutions and crimes against the Geneva Conventions. It's a fact Serbians that committed war crimes face the Haag tribunal, but what about Israeli leaders, and of course Hamas terrorist.
To make peace USA HAVE to stop support Israel with money and guns. But as a student of international relations and political science at Halmstad University I recommend this book, it's great.

For me this book begins to answer many of the questions I've had about the conflict, including:

(1) why have Palestinian negotiators been so "stubborn" about agreeing to deals in which Israel returns up to 90% (or 97%, depending on what you read) of the land?

(2) why are extraordinary sums of U.S. tax dollars going to support such clearly visible oppression and killing of innocent people?

(3) why is Israel allowed to ignore all U.N. resolutions and keep international inquiries at bay?

(4) what are the U.S. media not telling us?

This book does NOT answer how those in the U.S. administration who fanatically decry destruction of a human embryo as "murder" can justify and support bulldozing homes with living human men, women and children inside.

(One reviewer of this book concerns herself almost entirely with the supposedly contradictory choice of the date 1948 rather than 1967 in the subtitle, but the author clearly states that she chose 1948 because that was when the current ethnic cleansing began.)

Many of us have seen the photograph of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein (BEFORE Saddam became a 'bad guy'?). That image haunts me. What is the potential of Ariel Sharon, who openly flaunts his power and has at his fingertips numerous weapons of mass destruction?

This book unveils the vicious circle that is behind the Israeli power which is responsible for the crisis among them and the palestines. The author did a good job of showing the 'generous offer' fraud of the Israeli peace offers and the subsequent media highlight. It shows how the men-in-uniform-turned-politicians dictate every policy according to their military whim and push the region in to anarchy. As a result this book gets harsh criticisms from some other reviewers. It is really illuminating how the author unfolds the untold lies - the myths and realities - of the Oslo agreement and the root cause for the second uprising or intifada.

Reinhart offers a brilliant analysis of Israel's aggressive and merciless policy toward the Palestinians. As has always been the case in the past, those who dare criticize Israel somehow always end up being called self-hate Jews, traitors or even anti-Semitists. Needless to say, this is a highly efficient strategy, the goal of which is to deter people from criticising the infallible and omnipotent Israelis. Reinhart, being a Jewish woman, has already been labelled a self-hate Jew and in many cases even a traitor. In this book, Reinhart carefully reviews the previous peace processes and explains why they all failed and what Israel and U.S. actually offered at Camp David. Contrary to a popular belief, Israelis did not offer to dismantle the already existing settlements or to stop building new settlements. Also, Reinhart exposes the myths about the peace process and rectifies the grossly misrepresented and distorted images of the peace plan as presented by corporate American media. According to Reinhart, because Israel anticipated a refusal by the Palestinians, Israel deliberately offered little. A refusal by the Palestinians is then automatically attributed to their intransigence and belligerence. The Palestinians are then portrayed by the mass media as war-mongering terrorists who strongly oppose the existence of the state of Israel while Israel comes off as generous and peace-loving. In spite of the U.N. resolution calling upon Israel to immediately withdraw from and stop building new settlements in the occupied areas, Israel continues building new settlements in a flagrant violation of international law and yet the mass media keep blaming the Palestinians. Any reasonable human being finds this extremely unjust and cynical. To be able to truly understand the plight of the Palestinians, one has to know what it feels like to be oppressed, devoid of hope and powerless. As Tanya points out, Israel feels omnipotent having the U.S. on its side while the Palestinians have no one to turn to for help. Imagine what it must feel like being unable to change anything, imagine being stopped by Israeli police every single day on your way to work and finally imagine a life over which you have no control. Now, imagine that your oppressor is much more powerful and armed than yourself, what can you do? Nothing. You can urge the U.N. and the rest of the world to put an end to your misery. However, the mainstream media keep telling the whole world that it is your fault and that you must change, no matter that you are the victim. Reinhart brilliantly accounts for the unfathomable suffering of the Palestinians, for their despair and hopelessness. Reinhart also briefly discusses the U.S. role in the conflict as a dishonest broker that always unconditionally sides with Israelis. In fact, following an atrocious attack by Israelis in which many Palestinian civilians were killed, the U.S. senate approved $2.76 billion in financial aid to Israel. Few people wonder why the U.S. supports Israel given Israel's extensive record of human rights violations. Had the U.S. truly wanted to obliterate terrorism, then it would not have backed up autocratic and oppressive regimes. Tanya's book is by far the most exhaustive and devastating critique of Israel's oppression; it is extremely well written and argued. There is something special about such a noble mind which cannot be described in words. Thank you Tanya for your honesty, courage, empathy but above all a great dedication for the weak and the victimized.

Perfect book to read completing the period of Israeli history covered by Simha Flapan's "The Birth of Israel", Noam Chomsky's "Fateful Triangle" and Avi Schlaim's "The Iron Wall". Effectively discusses Israel's intransigence towards peace from Barak to Sharon with an excellent section about the myth of Barak's "more than generous offer" and the Taba negotiations following.

It's rare seeing an Israeli having the courage to stand up to it's government telling the world what it has done and how savagely it's been treating Palestinians. If you don't have access to Aljazeera, and your only news source is the misleading western media, this book will make it up to you.