Customer Reviews

Will Israel Survive?

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I found this book fascinating even though I often had minor disagreements with what Mitchell Bard said in it.

Bard gets off to a good start by cautioning us about thinking we have the "secret to peace." After all, "no one wants to admit that no solution may exist between Israel and its neighbors." And he notes that the U.S. State Department has long held the view that the way to achieve peace is to use American influence to pressure Israel into making concessions that the Arabs will accept. Well, I happen to think that the conflict is about human rights, not borders, so I have not been too impressed by any of this. Bard also sees the State Department as being misguided here, although he characterizes the conflict as about "religion, not land."

The author has some things to say about the Muslim demographic threat to Israel. But I admit that I see it differently than he does: he sees the threat as one to defeat Israel just with population. Yes, that could happen, but I see that not as a way to defeat Israel peacefully, but through violence. After all, there are over 5 million Jews in Israel. No matter how many Arabs there may be, it will be difficult to stop 5 million Jews from dominating a few thousand square miles and asserting their rights there unless one uses force.

There is also a section on the nuclear weapons threat to Israel. Here, I am more in agreement with Bard: the threat is real but not overwhelming. Iran will get the bomb, and it may use it. But it's more likely not to.

There is also a good chapter on water, and I think Bard does a fine job here. There is enough water for now. Desalination is not an immediate answer, but it will eventually ameliorate the situation.

There is an interesting chapter on prospects for peace. Bard quickly points out that Arafat was indeed able to "control the militants." The problem was that he did indeed control them "and wanted them to engage in violence." In addition, he flooded the territories he controlled with propaganda, especially in schoolbooks. Bard also has some useful things to say about Israel's separation barrier. I do think that Bard ought to have mentioned that the problem of Arab propaganda in schools is not limited to the Middle East but exists in many Western universities.

There are good chapters on the Israeli Arabs, and on the Israeli economy. Next is one on media bias, which Bard portrays as virtually unfixable but not life-threatening. I think this overlooks the point that journalistic malpractice hurts everyone. He does say that many in the media have been "manipulated" by the Arabs. That may be obvious to most people, but not to me. It seems to me that many of those who appear to be "manipulated" are in fact self-manipulated: they actively seek to act the way they do.

Bard does not mince words about the negative impact of Israel's many enemies around the world, especially at the United Nations. And I have to praise him for noting the infamous Durban conference in 2001, anti-Israeli boycotts in Britain, and Jimmy Carter's notorious "book of anti-Israeli calumnies" that was published last year. By the way, Bard has written a superb review of that awful book, and I recommend that review to everyone.

Bard concludes that Israel is likely to have a good future, and I think he may well be right about this. In any case, I highly recommend this interesting book.

When I first saw this book and then read some of the blurbs for it, I thought that it sounded like it could be a very interesting book, but in the end it just was not as good as it could or should have been. Some of the material was very insightful, but other parts were superficial and the author makes some absurd statements and argues at cross purposes at times.

Like on page 4 were the author asserts that the U.S. has "good relations with every Arab state except perhaps Syria and Libya" (I am not going to argue the validity of that statement) and then two paragraphs later says that the U.S. only has influence on Israel. If the U.S., as the world's only superpower, has good relations with almost all Arab nations then why does it not have any influence with those nations?

Even more ludicrous is when the author asserts on page 10 that when Israel assassinates a Hamas leader and Hamas "declares its intention to extract revenge" is a character flaw endemic of the Arab people. Let's ignore the fact that extrajudicial assassinations of these kinds are illegal under international law, let's forget that innocent people sometimes die in these operations, instead lets focus on the assertion itself. Killing these people, whether criminals or not, is somehow supposed to lead the Palestinians to seek compromises with the Israelis? That is ludicrous. If an Israeli leader or any Israeli for that matter were killed by a Palestinian I would not expect Israel's reaction to be to automatically seek to accommodate those responsible for the killing.

The first chapter was difficult to get through, and I thought the book was going to be worthless since it begins as a one-sided diatribe, but in the preceding chapters the book gets much better, and the material takes on a much more pragmatic and realistic tone, but I found the coverage of possibly the most significant threat, radical Muslims, to be lacking and superficial. For anyone who is informed and spends time learning about this situation the material on this issue will seem cursory at best, and will be rehash you have heard a hundred times before. The author offers nothing new or terribly insightful, and this for me was a major disappointment.

The author's chapter The Nuclear Apocalypse was another interesting chapter. The author makes a well thought out and detailed argument for why Iran going nuclear would be an epic disaster for Israel. The author uses nearly twenty pages detailing how horrific this would be, only to use the last couple of pages to tear down his own arguments by basically saying that Iran getting weapons is inevitable and not really a big deal since any first strike by Iran would bring down strikes by both Israel and the U.S., and that Iran would have no hope of surviving. I don't understand why the author does this.

In the chapter Civil War the author doesn't even mention the other demographic bomb looming in the distance, and that is the ultra-Orthodox women in Israel who are having 6 to 10 kids or more. This has the potential to change the face of Israel just as much as the Arab/Israelis population growth. The potential impact if this trend continues is huge yet the author says nothing about this. I don't know if the author is ignoring this or just doesn't know about it but either way I can't believe he didn't cover this. This was one of the main reasons I got this book since I thought he would address this.

His chapter 10 was the best and most realistic analysis of the alleged media bias I have come across. The Israelis are the only democratic state in the area and so we in the West expect more of them than their neighbors. This isn't always fair, but it is a tribute to Israel that they maintain their openness in spite of the difficulties that entails.

The book had its moments and even when I disagreed with the author I found most of the book to insightful with just a few glaring problems. I was debating with myself whether the book deserved 3 or 4 stars and I just couldn't decide. Toward the end of the book I was leaning to 3 and a half stars until I read the concluding chapter which convincingly made this book a 3 star or 2 and a half star work. I could have done without the religiosity at the end. This is supposed to be a professional work so why inject it at the end with the authors religious thoughts. Why couldn't the author stick with concrete facts and evidence and leave the metaphysical to the religion or philosophy sections of the book store I will never know.

Also when the author attributes the creation and maintenance of the state to miracles I found that offensive and I am not even Israeli or Jewish. I'm pretty sure the state owes less to miracles and more to adept politicians like Ben-Gurion and the fortitude of the military and civilian populations who not only brave life in Israel but also thrive there.

I think this book would be good for someone who is trying to become familiar with the current situation, but for those who are already versed in the topic I think this book will be somewhat of a disappointment. There is some good stuff in there but the book was just, in the end, poorly done. I do recommend the book, but not very highly. Wait to get a good price used.

Mitchell Bard's 2007 book is excellent as usual. Thoughtful, intelligent, and factual, Mr Bard describes the problem's facing Israel in a hostile world circa 2007. Now that it is 5 years after the book was first published, the reader will be amazed about how many things Mr Bard gets right in a world that is increasingly hostile and myopic to the very existence to the state of Israel. This is a very good book for those who want an accurate analysis of events in this troubled part of the world. For the rest of you, hid your heads in the sand and continue to search for Jews under your bed. In the end, Mr Bard is hopeful that rationality and fairness will win out, but I wonder what he would think of today's world as the west continues to deny the obvious.

As with any great book, I couldn't put this one down! M.Bard gives the reader details not widely known (but they should be) and does so in a manner that I believe, is fair to all sides. He points out hard facts that the world should be paying attention to in trying to "resolve" this conflict between a civil society of free nations and a hodge-podge collection of extremetist nations bent on destroying a minority people and their nation. Easy to read, expertly organized, detailed with thoroughly supported facts, and inspiring! Hats off to Mitchell Bard!!!

In "Will Israel Survive?," Middle East policy expert and Washington insider Mitchell G. Bard surveys the upcoming challenges to Israel and dismisses easy solutions to the Arab-Israel conflict.

"Can you imagine anyone asking whether the United States will survive or whether it should exist? Or anyone saying `no' if asked?," says Bard. "Israel is the only country in the world facing a concerted delegitimization campaign that makes the book title relevant, even in the United States."

While Israel faces the Palestinian conflict, terrorism, demographic risks, vulnerable water resources, and multiple internal political and religious conflicts, the U.S. alliance ostensibly is the one bright spot on the horizon.

But Bard cautions against complacency. Troubling questions include: Will the U.S. retreat from its Iraq misadventure cost Israel American public support? Will it leave Israel facing the Iranian nuclear threat alone, as a lame duck president fades into history? Could the upcoming U.S. elections cost Israel staunch White House support?

"American Jews fear the United States could one day turn against Israel because of the bias of the media, the prevalence of anti-Israel professors on college campuses, or the changing demographics of the electorate," says Bard.

Nor is the pro-Israel lobby the answer. "The Israel lobby has very limited influence on security and political issues," Bard explains. "U.S. Middle East policy is not made by Congress. It is formulated by the President, and he (or she) is relatively insulated from the lobby's pressure. Through Congress, the lobby can set parameters within which the president can operate, but decisions affecting peace and security are in the hands of the person in the Oval Office."

While he paints a realistic and unflinching picture of the road ahead, Bard's conclusion is ultimately a hopeful one: Israel will not only survive but will endure long into the future.

This book was terrible. Spelling errors, paragraphs repeated almost verbatim, logical fallacies and right leaning author trying to look unbiased so in the end his arguments trail off into pointlessness.

I would have had more respect for this author if he would have just argued what he believed instead of trying to argue both sides. This book is a failed attempt at objectivity. I knew the author was a right winger and "pro"-Israel and I expected to disagree and even end up pissed off by this book but in the end with all the problems with this book I just felt sorry for this guy. The book just comes off as amateurish. It really doesn't warrant a review at all, except to warn people to stay away from it. There are much better right, left or center books out there so don't waste your money on this one.