Israel is too often seen as the guilty party in the Middle East conflict. Neill Lochery argues that this interpretation, led by the liberal media, is unfair.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Attempts to explore the facts behind the headlines,
By Gary Selikow (Great Kush) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Why Blame Israel (Paperback)
"Why Blame Israel" by Neil Lochery attempts to get to the bottom of some of the persistant prejudices and untruths about Israel , and it's war against Arab terror , and to explore the reality of the conflict and Israeli politics.
As Julie Burchill so aptly puts it : " There exists a quite striking bias against Israel. Neill Lochery's excellent , accesible book is a must read for anyone wanting a tonic to this persistent and illogical prejudice". Lochery describes the battle over the existance of Israel as "the battle of the maps" from maps purporting to show the first Jewish settlements after the return to the Land of Israel , to attempts by the international powers to divide the land , to the maps dividing the Land of Israel today such as the "Oslo Redeployment" map., Lochery provides us with several maps in the middle of the book showing the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 for the partition of the Middle East of 1916 , the map of British Mandate Palestine , which includes all of modern Israel , the Disputed territories and Jordan folowed by a map showing how 78.2% of the Palestine Mandate was cut off by the British in 1922 to create the Arab Kingdom of Transjordan , leaving 22.8% for the Jewish homeland which included what today are the Disputed territories in the ancient Jewish homeland of Judea and Samaria. The "Palestinian" Arabs now had their State in most of what before 1922 was known as "Palestine". Maps No 3 and 4 show British attempts to limit the Jewish presence to a fraction of "Western Palestine" : The Peel Commission recommendation for the partition of "Palestine" in 1937 an the Woodhead reccomendation for the partition of "Palestine" in 1938. Map No 5 shows the United Nations partition plan , which divided the remaining 23% of Palestine into a Jewish State and a SECOND Arab Palestinian State (Trans-Jordan being the first) based upon population concentrations. The Jews accepted... the Arabs rejected. The Arabs still wanted ALL of Palestine... both east AND west of the Jordan River . Other maps show Israel's borders after the War of Independence (1948) and the Six Day War (1967) , Israel's very strategic width as a result of the 1949 borders and the Oslo Redeployment map under which large parts of the Land of Israel were to be turned over to PLO control. Lochery also reminds us how the deep rooted conflict is characterized by visual images , describing how two images have come to characterize the Arab-Israeli conflict : A burned out bus with only it's basic structure intact , symbolizing the grisly Arab strategy of sucide bombing in which hundreds of Israeli men , women and children have been murdered and maimed , which reduced life in Israel into a peverse game of Russian roulette were Israelis going about their ordinary life could never know if they would live or die. The second image is of "an Israeli soldier firing on a Palestinian and the wounded Palestinian being carried onto a waiting ambulance". The latter image however is usually doctored by the media sources who hide the reality that the Israelis were only firing in self defence after having come under attack from the Arabs. As Lochery puts it: " Sadly nowadays it would appear that most images are used in conjunction with largely ill informed reporting. The reports are shown by television companies dominated by a left-of-centre political culture to reinforce stereotypical perceptions such as the notion of the Israelis as opressors and the Palestinians as victims. Coverage of the alleged massacre of the Palestinians by the Israeli army in the refugee camp at Jenin in 2002 illustrates this in-built political correctness. Many television companies were quick to act as judge and jury and convict Israel of commiting a terible crime against the Palestinians , relying on accounts by local Palestinians and second hand accounts by aid workers in the area. As we now know , no such massacre took place and when the area was opened up to the international press , revised versions of events had to be put out by the news networks , who had in effect broken codes of practise in reporting such events. Once more the humanistic story with pieces to camera by clearly anti-Israel reporters had replaced hard facts" The author points out how in the last few decades , there has been such a disproportionate amount of intrerest from the media , academics , diplomats and politicians (almost all of it prejudiced and hostile) that one has to be reminded that the population of Israel is only 6.5 million people , and that Israel takes up less than one percent of the land surface of the Middle East. Israel takes up more news hours than any other country in the world , with the exception of the United States. The book traces the Oslo negotiations and the reasons for the failure of the Camp David talks in 2000 , when in a response to a generous offer by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to hand over almost all of the Disputed Territories (including most of East Jerusalem) to the Palestinian Authority , Arafat stormed out of the talk and launched a terror war against the Israeli people. Lochery analyses the reasoning behind Arafat's actions, that the Israeli people would be unable to deal with being murdered in buses and on the streets , and would pressure their government to return to negotiations and give further concessions to the PA. I believe that Arafat smelled weakness and believed that the time was ripe for the complete destruction of Israel and the genocide of her Jews. He may have underestimated the survival instinct of the Jewish people , but still the goal of the Palestinians , radical Arab/Islamic regimes and the international Hard Left remains the complete destruction of Israel. The author explains that the Nazi holocaust , and the allied inaction in the face of this , tought Jews that only they alone can defend themselves , and that is why Israel will never agree to dismantle it's nuclear programme , which is for the purpose of defence only , preventing the genocide of Israel's Jews, unlike the nuclear weapons programme of Iran and other Islamic states , which is explicitly for the purpose of anihilating Israel. Lochery then goes on to outline the history of the ancient Jewish link to the Land of Israel and the fact that over the millenia in exile , Jews never forgot their dream to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland.Lochery analyses the period of the British Mandate and the reason for the British , after having promised the Jews their support for the re-establishment of a State in "Palestine" , did all they could to circumvent this and help the Arabs against the Jews. He outlines the re-birth of Israel in 1948 , the political history of Israel and it's struggle for a place among the nations , Israel's struggle for peace and the Arab refusal to accept Israel's existance , as well as the divisions within Israeli society. He also touches on the deep seated Jew-hatred and bloodlust against Israel that is such a deep rooted part of Arab and Islamic culture , such as the perfidious and absurd propaganda equating Zionism with Nazism by the Arab media (echoed by the prejudiced Leftist media and academia and hate-filled far-left politicians around the world) , and the labelling of Jews as sons of pigs and monkeys in the media in Moslem countries and in Islamic religious circles. While he outlines the differences within the approaches of the "Left" and "Right" camps in Israel as to how peace can be brought about and Israel's survival secured , he points out how the Israeli "Right" have warned that the 1998 withdrawal from Lebanon and the offer of Barak to cede Gaza , and almost all of the West Bank (Judea-Samaria) and East Jerusalem far from bringing about peace , convinced the Arabs that the end was near , and spurred them on to further acts of terror. While the author urges the withdrawal by Israel from Gaza and parts of Judea-Samaria , the actual withdrawal from Gaza not long after the book's publication simply led to more terrorist attacks into Israel from Gaza and South Lebanon , leading to Israel's eventual retaliation and the subsequent usual world anti-Israel blood-hysteria. The author explores the so-called Road Map , backed by the USA , Russia and the UN , and poses the question as to whether this can bring peace. I believe that no moves can be made towards peace before the Arabs and their fellow travellers on the international left accept Israel's existance and right to be here[...].
5.0 out of 5 stars
Because It's So Convenient to Blame Israel,
By
This review is from: Why Blame Israel (Paperback)
The Israeli-Arab conflict has spawned so much discussion in the information age, that it has become difficult to sift through the truths. Neil Lochery's "Why Blame Israel?" (Totem Books, 2005) offers an alternative interpretation, and it succeeds.
Mr Lochery's well-researched submissions allow us to understand the circumstances around the conflict in ways that are not usually heard or read in today's media. The polemics are easy to grasp, but this is not an easy reader: several times, I had to go to Google and Wikipedia to have a background check on people, places, and events. I strongly recommend the book, and suggest that the reader dedicate time, effort, and an open mind in reading it.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good insight, a little lengthy,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Why Blame Israel (Paperback)
The book absolutely accomplished a lot. I find the tit for tat political info a bit dry and deep though.
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