Customer Reviews

Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1999

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

Righteous Victims is a "revisionist" history of the Zionist-Arab conflict, so its conclusions spark terrific controversy (as you can see from the other reviews on Amazon.com!) I found this book very informative, balanced, and nuanced--a very well written analytic and descriptive history. As the NY Times reviewer said, the book's tone is "calm."

Morris had access to more Jewish and Israeli sources than Arab-Palestinian-Muslim sources, so of course critics can claim that the conclusions are "biased" in some ways. Nevertheless, at each turn in the narrative, Morris clearly describes the political, social, economic, demographic, ideological, intellectual, national, and military consequences of each "phase" or "stage" in the conflict, from "both" sides. (The conflict is far more complicated than "two" sides, however.)

No matter how one regards his conclusions, Morris's dual empathy--for a people nearly crushed under (centuries of European) anti-Semitism and Hitler, and for a dispossessed, poorly led, and impoverished people--comes clear. The book is 784 pages (counting the index) so there is ample opportunity to find something to disagree with, but the thrust and conclusions are hard to escape: security eludes Israel, which has never felt safe; and the Palestinians are citizens of nothing outside the refugee camps.

At some level, this book sadly reminded me of Yeats' poem, written in WW I, "Slouching toward Bethlehem." What new beast, in this terrible time for both Israelis and Arabs, is waiting to be born?

I recently finished my master's thesis, writing about the debate between Israel's "New historians" and the traditional accepted version of the events surrounding the establishment of the State of Israel. I've read a lot of books in the past year (from both sides of the argument) but I think that Morris's "Righteous Victims" did the best job of examining ALL the evidence--even the parts that were hard to accept--and writing a conclusion that was well thought out and highly accurate.

This book is easy to read and provides a solid background from Herzl through the events of last year. It is the most comprehensive of the new historians' works, and probably also the most tame. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to understand the background of the conflict in the Middle East.

Benny Morris has tackled a difficult subject with flair. He has avoided the extremes that an emotionally provocative subject as this usually inspires in some people. He has presented both sides of the conflict, or at least done so as good as anyone could expect, as well as pointing out the failures on both sides that have conspired to leave us with a seemingly hopeless situation today.

For anyone looking for a broad introduction into the history, causes, contributing factors and personalities of the Arab-Zionist conflict, this book is hard to go past. It is comprehensive, well-written, well-referenced and very balanced in its presentation.

Morris is a lively writer, and has struck a happy medium between detail and the need to keep on track in what is a complex subject.

How do you rate Righteous Victims? It is a difficult question, and not an easy thing to do. So much of what people have written here is true. This book is everything that has been written here.
The book is highly readable. The book is as up to date as possible. It goes to the election of Ariel Sharon. The book has so much information it can be exhaustive at times. And yes, the book at times seems very sympathetic to the Palestinians and the Arabs. There are many examples of the author leaning a bit in that direction. HOwever, the author does make it clear in many places as well that the Palestinians and many of the Arab nations and extremists other than Egypt and Jordan have been against the peace proccess and are very anti-event the very existance of Israel.
so is the book pro-palestinian? at times yes, but i think it is part of a bigger picture and goal of showing all sides and angles of the situation.
The bottom line about this book or any history book is whether or not you learn new things by reading it. This book is not perfect. I do not agree with everything in this book, but this book taught be a lot about the situation, this book made me think, and this book exposed me to some point of views and historical facts i was not aware of.
Ultimately, this book taught me a lot about what is going on in the Middle East and that fact alone made it a good read.

Actually, for a topic this fascinating, it could've been longer. Great book. One gets the impression Morris genuinely desires to be objective. The problems, however, were these: It WAS slightly biased towards the Palestinians. However, my guess is this was not ideologically based and more the result of another flaw: the overwhelmingly Israeli source material and the paucity of Arab documentation. This is glaring. How can one be totally objective with such missing data? It's easy to discuss Israeli aggressions with pages of detailed reports. Would he have found the same evidence of atrocity and plotting with adequate Arab documentation? My guess is the information would be rather disturbing and might vindicate the Jews a little more than does the tone of this book. Still..........great book.

Benny Morris, the author of "Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001," has been counted as one of the Israeli "revisionist" historians, that group of Israelis that have debunked some of the myths that have surrounded the birth of Israel. In an earlier book, "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949," Morris examined one such myth: that Palestinian Arabs left the nascent Israeli state in 1948 of their own volition or under the direction of their own leaders. Although that occurred in a small number of instances, there were many more cases in which the Israeli army drove Arabs out at gunpoint. Such revelations have not endeared him to many of his countrymen. In "Righteous Victims," first published in 1999, Morris also describes many instances of Arab antisemitism, venality, and brutality directed against Jewish settlements in Palestine. He provides many fascinating details in the early years of the interaction of the Zionist organization in Europe, British and French colonial policy, and the moribund Ottoman empire. For example, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 in which Great Britain promised the Jews of Palestine a national homeland was seen to be a completely self serving act by Britain to further its own military-political aims in World War I. This nearly 700 page book, as its title indicates, covers the entire history of the conflict from the origins of the Zionist movement including the birth of Israel and all of the subsequent Arab-Israeli wars as well as political considerations and attempts by Arab and Israeli leaders at achieving peace. Objectivity is Morris's aim, and he achieves it quite well.

Like every treatment of the Arab Israeli conflict, this book will not please everyone (or anyone?). The book is brisk. Fortunately, Morris has an even tone throughout and does not remain fixed on any one subject for too long. As anyone knows who has written on a broad topic, this is an exceptional accomplishment. Even at 600 plus pages, this book could have easily gotten bogged along the way on the wealth of detail about this well researched conflict. And this book shows that despite some of Morris' more inflammatory interviews recently, he can still present a work of historical research that is even handed and fair.

This is a fascinating and detailed examination of the evolution of Israel from the perspective of early Zionist aspirations, through to the Hagannah and the IDF. Morris clearly has access to high quality IDF intelligence and archives. While many reviewers have focused on the Arab vs. Zionist sections of the book - presumably because these tensions feed naive political emotions - the text itself devotes a large amount of space to the double dealing by Britain that sowed the seeds of much of the current conflict. In my opinion, an understanding of international subterfuges plotted against, and subsequently thwarted by, a nascent Israel is proably the primary added value of this text. Irrespectove of one's ideological stance, Morris draws together a compelling account of the injustices directed at the early state of Israel (Yishuv). Well worth reading. Packed with detail and certainly not propaganda.

The author covers a long period of this one century old conflict. He makes alot of efforst in maintaining an unbiased view of the events, and covers the the important events and incidents of this conflict. This book can be used as a good starting point to learn about the enormous web of people, events, plots, plans, wars that shaped and still shaping this conflict without a forseeable end.

If you want to understand the Arab Israeli conflict this is the best book that you can get. Covers the relevant history and deals evenly with both sides. Points out Israel's start of the suicide bombings and shows the ineffective nature of the PLO in getting their demands through unreasonable leadership. Overall it is just an excellent book that gets straight to the point about its topic. If you are looking for a book that talks about terrorism or the conflict in the Middle East this is a great place to start. This was a wonderful textbook for a class on the Arab Israeli conflict. The history was clearly outlined and made for useful discussions of how the conflict evolved.