Customer Reviews

The Road Map to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Tanya Reinhart's detailed account of the tragic Israeli aggression against the Palestinian population is courageous and timely. This thoroughly referenced book is a must for anybody who wants to understand what is really happening in Israel and Palestine. With the Israeli propaganda machine saturating the media with misinformation this book provides an insight on the actions, true intentions and expansionate policies of the current and past Israeli governments.
It also provides further evidence of the role of the US administration in shaping the Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.

Reinhart's clarity of thought and reliable sources makes it a compelling read.

Highly recommended.

Kudos to this author for her complex and timely analysis of the disaster occuring in the Middle-East. If only CNN and Fox News had the same courage in their reporting, we would be a nation better able to understand the comlex issues that we as Americans must now face.

If you noticed, all the 1 star reviews came from people who seem to have a blind uncritical support for Israel and begin the name-calling on anyone who says anything critical of the Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. Any objective reader who has any working knowledge of international law, United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, kept up with Israeli and international media (outside America, and the work of human rights organizations knows that what Professor Tanya Reinhart is saying is absolutely true. People outside of the United States for some reason seem to have more of a pulse of what is going on in Israel and the Occupied Territories than most Americans do. Israel has been virtually immune to any sanctions or actions done because of the unflinching and uncritical monetary, military, and diplomatic support of the U.S. All the crimes that Israel has committed if applied to other countries, would have caused military and economic sanctions by the international community. So why the double standard? Tanya Reinhart along with Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein give us the hard to swallow truth about what is going on. If there is to be truly peace in that region we need to look honestly at what Israel has done to the Palestinians and seek to correct that wrong, not support it.

Tanya Reinhart was a professor of philosophy at Tel Aviv University until her recent untimely death. This book examines the last four years of Israel's 40-year illegal occupation of Palestine. She shows how, under the pretence of ending its occupation, the Israeli state has reimposed military control of the occupied territories.

Gaza and the West Bank are a system of prisons, sealed enclaves. The Israeli state controls all movements of goods, services and people. It plans to retain control of these enclaves, from the outside, retaining the army's `freedom of action'.

This is in defiance of the two-thirds of the Israeli people who have consistently backed ending the occupation. 100,000-strong demonstrations have demanded, "Leave the Territories - Save the Country."

Reinhart describes the Palestinians' struggle against the illegal Separation Wall, which the Israeli state wants to be its permanent, unilaterally-decided border. The Wall annexes 40% of the West Bank. If completed, it would rob 400,000 Palestinians of their land and livelihoods.

On 25 June 2003, Palestinian organisations, including Hamas, announced that they would cease fire for three months. The Israeli and US governments immediately responded by rejecting the ceasefire and demanding the `dismantling' of Hamas and other organisations; the Israeli army killed two Palestinians, including a woman. After six weeks' ceasefire, the Israeli state resumed its policy of assassinations, killing 14 Hamas leaders in the first half of August 2003. The EU helped by placing Hamas' political leadership on its list of terrorist organisations.

In February 2004, Sharon unveiled his disengagement plan, which was a feint to cover building the Wall. In September 2005, the British Presidency of the EU demanded that the Palestinian Authority rein in the militants, while allowing Israel full freedom of action, saying, "The Presidency recognises Israel's right to act in self-defence." This is the formula that the USA usually employs to back the Israeli state's assassinations policy and aggressions.

In January 2006, Hamas won the elections. Israel, the EU and the USA at once demanded that it recognise Israel, accept all existing agreements and renounce violence. They did not make similar demands of Israel, yet Israel does not recognise Palestine, respect existing agreements or renounce violence.

There is a road to peace, a simple, unilateral solution available to Israel - end the occupation.

Tanya Reinhart's latest book is a worthy successor to her Israel/Palestine: How to end the War of 1948. This is must reading for Americans, especially for those who do not speak or read Hebrew. Prof. Reinhart's searing analysis of Israeli media reveals the full extent of Israel's failure to comply with even the most basic requirements of the "Roadmap", Further, her revelations will be news to anyone who relies on information from the US press, though they are not surprising to those who have witnessed the daily tragedy that is enacted under Israel's Occupation of Palestine. While her analysis is unflinching and therefore not very optimistic, she ends her book on a note of hope. The basis for this hope is the unwavering commitment to reconciliation by some in the Israeli Peace Movement and the dedicated steadfastness of Palestinian communities like Bil'in , who have resisted the Wall and the confiscation of their lands.

Tanya Reinhart's former book: Israel/Palestine - How to End the !948 War, was the best account and analysis of the Oslo Years and the Second Intiphada. The new book, The Road Map to Nowhere, covers the Years 2002-2006, and contributes as no other book, in information, analysis and assesment of the current situation.

Reinhart compares and contrasts what we read in the media with the reality on the ground. It is a stunning indictment of western -- and particularly American -- media, as well as an indictment of those who are relentlessly pursuing a genocidal treatment of those whose deeds they covet.

A "must read" book for those interested in an analysis of a complex situation rendered in black & white by a colorblind Ms. Reinhart. The book will give you many reasons to hate Israelis/Jews. If you prefer to learn about the conflict, you may want to read Tom Segev's and Raja Shehadeh's books instead.

There are two kinds of critics. One tries to look at the objective reality, and make criticisms which might be useful, and lead to improvement. The other is biased, and so distorted in judgment that simple facts are turned upside down to make the case. Reinhart is the latter sort. Most recently she has been broadcasting the out- and - out fiction that Israel intended to occupy Lebanon and used the kidnapping of its soldiers there as pretext for doing so. In fact the Israel is already out of Lebanon, would never have gone in had Israel not been attacked by Hizbollah.
This is one example and a small one . Her book is filled with many. Among them claims that the 'road-map' idea was an Israeli deception from the beginning. The fact is that the Israeli people as a whole aims above all for peace. Israel has made so many kinds of gestures to the Palestinians, so many offers of Peace through the years that one does not know where to begin to list them.
The land of Israel historically, politically, religiously belongs to the Jewish people. But Israel in accepting the road map agreed with the idea of a Palestinian Arab State. Reinhart consistently underplays the violence of the Palestinians, the cruelty of that violence, the unending litany of 'no' which has characterized their relations with Israel all along.
This book is not simply bad, it is shameful.

I could not find anything positive to say about this useless book.

Yes, Tanya Reinhart has discovered that Israel actually uses force to defend itself! But that should not come as a surprise to anyone.

And the author also claims that Israel sometimes does what the United States says it wants Israel to do. That also should not surprise anyone.

To make up for these stunning insights, Reinhart indicates that Israel's founding was a "primal sin!" But that's not true. Jews were unable to protect their rights when Britain was in charge of the Mandate. Getting rid of the British colonialists and establishing Israel was a major triumph not just for Israelis but for everyone who abides human rights. It was not a sin of any sort, primal or otherwise.

There's more nonsense from Reinhart. She calls the British Guardian "a reliable alternative source of information." But on the topic of the Arab war against Israel, it is nothing of the sort. In fact, it is no better than a cheap propaganda rag when it comes to this subject.

The author implies that theft of Jewish land by Arab thugs is in fact "liberation." Um, liberation of whom? Not Jews or Arabs! And she complains about Israel lacking established borders. Has she thought about the fact that if the region were up for auction, the Israelis would easily purchase the amount of land they now have and more? She should have taken the time to notice that Israel is in fact land-poor, but she did not bother to do so.

I do not recommend this book.