This book is important for all Americans, especially Jewish Americans given their influence in Congress, to read. As Pamela Olson so well stated, if you have not been in Israel or the Occupied Territories or on top of the details of life in Israel particularly over the last five years, this book will immerse you quickly into the realities, "the facts on the ground" as the author states, of what it is like to live in that country today.
Based on extensive interviews with and research into all sections of the society from members of the Knesset, armed forces, Shin Bet security, Border Police, students both Jewish and non-Jewish, to Palestinians, Russian Jews, Africans, Americans, and Arab Jews or Mizrahi whether they be shop owners, fathers, mothers, or tourists, this is a comprehensive survey. There are 60 pages of notes to back up the reports.
What makes the anecdotes in this narrative mixed with historical data and the reporter's observations so powerful is the flat, matter-of-fact reporting that the author uses. This is well-written, legible writing, but a hard read for anyone, particularly Americans who are both slavishly supportive of Israel as a concept and hope (re: Leon Uris' "Exodus") and/or totally uniformed by a blind (and lazy) media.
Here is how Max Blumenthal (an American Jew) pulls you into the grim realities of life in Israel. He begins each anecdotal narrative (so short that there are 73 chapters in this 410 page report) with a good reporter's eye to an opening. To begin Chapter 30, "The Days of '48 Have Come Again", he writes, "In the eyes of Palestinians, there are few symbols of Israel's occupation more recognizable than the Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer. Custom fitted with explosive-resistant armor, the forty-nine ton tractor was the instrument responsible for Rachel Corrie's death and the demolition of more than fifteen hundred civilian homes in Rafah between the years of 2000 and 2005."
Later, in Chapter 62, "The Concentration Camp", he opens with this statement:" At 1 a.m. on January 10, 2012, the Knesset passed an amendment to the 1954 Prevention of Infiltration Law, a bill originally authorized to consolidate the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that began in 1947. The new law authorized the government to arrest and hold anyone the government deemed an "infiltrator" - namely, non-Jewish asylum seekers and migrants - in internment camps for a period as long as three years and without being charged or receiving trial."
The book is an eye-opener from the first when the author arrives in 2008 in time to see the first shelling of the Gaza under "Operation Cast Lead". I believe the chapters, sometimes just three pages, are short so as to not to overwhelm the reader with too much desperate and grim reality. He goes on to cover the background, goals, and principal politicians and players fulfilling the Zionist dream of a totally Jewish and democratic state. But, there is another hidden agenda here and that is to make the State stretch well beyond the UN mandates and plans for a two-state solution - from the Mediterranean Sea to the border of Jordan. Therein lies a dilemma. To have both a totally Jewish State (preferably "white" as well) and encompass all that geography, Israel must remove the indigenous Palestinian and Bedouin population, one way or another. This has been the goal of Zionism from the beginning taking form in 1937 with David Ben-Gurion and his committee of eleven.
First, the Israelis tried Jewish immigration until they realized that they would never out-populate the Palestinian peoples, and then, in 1947-1949 tried terrorizing and murdering the Palestinians removing 750,000 residents fleeing to refugee camps and the West Bank and destroying over 400 villages (from the map of depopulation in the book, it looks like there have been thousands of villages vacated then and since). After the 1967 War, settlements were seen as a solution and the list of strategies go on.
In a long section, the author gives an alternate version of the Israeli and U.S. coverage of the Mari Marmara incident, the Turkish flotilla of volunteers, aid workers, and activists who were on their way to help the residents of Gaza.
From there, the books documents the total indoctrination and propaganda campaigns of the government and the continual passage of laws restricting non-Jewish freedoms especially after the 2009 election of the conservative Likud Party and Benjamin Netanyahu, who spent his teenage years in the Philadelphia area, that has been pivotal ever since.
Life in Israel is enjoyed to the fullest in Tel Aviv, a 95% all-Jewish city, but the only city or town with that high of a Jewish population other than the settlements. There are progressive and activist Israelis that rail and demonstrate against what looks like the racist and fascist laws being passed and implemented these past five years, but they are few and far between. In the Knesset the reigning progressive, Hanin Zoabi, has been ridiculed, insulted, and driven from the speaker's dais by a mob of male legislators over policies. There are regular mob demonstrations in the streets of Israel, most often in non-Jewish sections of towns to harass and if encountered, beat and sometimes kill the non-Jews.
Most Israelis are in denial about their government, its actions, and perverse laws, but support the overt Zionist dream of cleansing the lands of non-Jews, particularly the Palestinians wiping out their culture, destroying their olive groves, arresting young men over the age of 11 and imprisoning them for indefinite periods, even killing them. The building of the Wall was the latest attempt to create a concrete Apartheid separation of Jews and Palestinians while confiscating thousand of acres of land and destroying thousands of olive groves in the process.
The irony of this experiment to create a 100% Jewish (religion and culture) State is that one million Israelis have left the country upset and frustrated with the life and government there. Instead this 17% of the Israeli population is emigrating to heterogenous countries with. of all places, Germany being their favorite alternative to life in "homogeneous" Israel. In addition, we all know that the Jewish population in the U.S. has been fabulously successful in careers and life - in a nation that is built on immigrants from all the nations of the world.
But, I ask, can we, Americans, stand by and allow this outrage in our name to continue. We are accomplices in the Israeli "ethnic cleansing" with loans Israel up to $8 billion/year. Since 1945, we have financed their activities, particularly the military, to the tune of $155 billion, more money given than to any other country.
This story needs to be told and now it has, thanks to the determination and reportage of Max Blumenthal.
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The author demonstrates profound ingnorance in the documentary Israel history, even at high school level.
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2016
Mandate for Palestine (Exhibit 1)The 1920 League of Nations Resolution concluded that the state of Israel shall be reconstructed on Jewish historic land, where Israel was originally created over 3600 years ago with the capitol of Jerusalem.Mandate for Palestine 1920British administration, that kept a mandate for Palestine from the League of Nations, refused to obey the Resolution and in 1922 stole 77% of Jewish territory to create illegal country Transjordan (now Jordan) for arabs living in Palestine. Thus, two-state solution has already been implemented.The “Mandate for Palestine” is valid to this dayThe 1922 “Mandate for Palestine” is a League of Nations document that laid down the Jewish legal rights in Palestine.The 1922 Mandate for Palestine granted Jews the irrevocable right to settle anywhere in Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, a right unaltered in international law and valid to this day. Jewish settlements in Judea, Samaria (i.e., the West Bank), Gaza and the whole of Jerusalem are legal. “The Mandate survived the demise of the League of Nations and is valid to this day. Article 80 of the UN Charter implicitly recognizes the “Mandate for Palestine” of the League of Nations. The International Court of Justice reaffirmed the meaning and validity of Article 80.SOVIET RUSSIA THE CREATORS OF THE PLO AND THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE (Exhibit 2)“It all started with the creation of a fictitious "Palestinian People" who allegedly demand political self-determination. This collective noun was created by the Soviet disinformation masters in 1964 when they created the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the "PLO". The term "Palestinian People" as a descriptive of Arabs in Palestine appeared for the first time in the preamble of the 1964 PLO Charter, drafted in Moscow. The Charter was affirmed by the first 422 members of the Palestinian National Council, handpicked by the KGB. Article 24 of the 1964 PLO Charter addressed to UN stipulates: "Palestinian muslims do not exercise authority over West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza territories”Thus, all UN resolutions on fake palestinian state are illegal; all pro-fakepalestinian activity is illegal according to the international law, and must be reversed to avoid bloody catastrophe around the world. Those who violate the international law shall be prosecuted including death penalty as their activity resulted in death of Americans, Israelis and Russians as well as stealing Israel land.Exhibit 1: “Mandate for Palestine” The legal aspects of Jewish rights to a National Home in Palestine by Eli E. HertzExhibit 2: “Soviet Russia the creators of the PLO and the palestinian people” by Wallace Edward Brand
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2016
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CharlesA
Each chapter reads like a very good quality magazine article and as a ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 21, 2017
Alastair Rosie
Tears Down The Veil Of Secrecy On Israeli Politics And Society.
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Anything by Max Blumenthal is worth reading!
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Peace through knowledge
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 18, 2017
