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Jonathan Cook

Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East Paperback – March 20, 2008

by Jonathan Cook (Author)

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Journalist Jonathan Cook explores Israel’s key role in persuading the Bush administration to invade Iraq, as part of a plan to remake the Middle East, and their joint determination to isolate Iran and prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons that might rival Israel’s own.

This concise and clearly argued book makes the case that Israel's desire to be the sole regional power in the Middle East neatly chimed with Bush’s objectives in the “war on terror”.

Examining a host of related issues, from the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to the role of Big Oil and the demonisation of the Arab world, Cook argues that the current chaos in the Middle East is the objective of the Bush administration – a policy that is equally beneficial to Israel.

Print length

192 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Pluto Press
Publication date

March 20, 2008
Dimensions

5.25 x 0.56 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0745327540
ISBN-13

978-0745327549
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Editorial Reviews

Review

'One of the most cogent understandings of the modern Middle East I have read. It is superb, because the author himself is a unique witness who blows away the media debris' John Pilger, author of Freedom Next Time (2006) and The New Rulers of the World (2003)

'A compelling account of the recent wars for Middle East oil, untangling a complex web of interests shared by the neocons, Israel and the Bush White House' David Hirst, author of The Gun and the Olive Branch

About the Author

Jonathan Cook is a former staff journalist for the Guardian and Observer newspapers. He has also written for The Times, Le Monde diplomatique, International Herald Tribune, Al-Ahram Weekly and Aljazeera.net. He is based in Nazareth.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pluto Press; Illustrated edition (March 20, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0745327540
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0745327549
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.56 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,335,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,045 in Iraq History (Books)
- #1,049 in Iran History
- #2,087 in Iraq War History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
19 ratings

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David J. B. Singer, MD

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2016

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An excellent historical writing about what can only be called "The clash of Civilizations."

7 people found this helpful

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S Wood

Short, Sharp and Shocking

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2012

Jonathan Cook has emerged over the last few years as one of the best writers on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. This, his second book, reflects on the part that the Israeli State has played in the formulation of United States policy on Iraq in particular, and the larger Middle East in general (including Iran).

In a tightly written 150 pages, Cook gathers evidence from a wide variety of sources including the American and Israeli Governments as well as a variety of knowledgeable commentators. The most interesting source is the Israeli press, in particular the Hebrew press. It is a little known fact that the Hebrew editions of newspapers in Israel deal with Israeli foreign policy in a far franker way than the English editions of the same papers. This provides fertile ground for Cooks investigations into Israeli foreign policy and its relations with the United States, in particular the recently deceased Neo-Con administration of George W Bush.

It is evident that the Israeli state is quite happy to see its neighbouring Arab states fragmented along ethnic and religious lines, this was the policy that drove its invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the attack on Hizbollah in 2006. Voices within the foreign policy establishment of Israel and the U.S. hoped that the other communities within Lebanon would turn on the Shiite Hizbollah and blame them for the destruction that the Israelis rained on that country.

The debacle in Iraq is explicable in these terms, the U.S. support for militias on a communal basis, the still possible and probable split of Iraq into three parts: Sunni, Shiite and Kurd. The Israelis were extremely supportive of that invasion and Cook documents their involvement with policy formation in occupied Iraq. It also appears that the Israelis have been supporting and courting Kurdish forces in northern Iraq as well as eyeing the Kurdish minority (20% of population) in Syria.

Other issues covered by the book include relations between the Israeli Government and the neo-cons of the Bush administration, the excessive part played by the Military in Israeli "democracy" and how the long running occupation of Palestinian Territories has been affected by, and effected, recent developments. The situation regarding Iran, again in the news with regard to the Nuclear question, is also covered at some length. Given the amount of information the book contains it is somewhat surprising to consider the shortness of Cooks book.

This book exposes trends and thinking in the United States and Israel with regard to the States in the Middle East, and as such is a valuable, readable account that fills in many of the gaps in recent history and press reporting on these issues. Well recommended, as are his other two books Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State and Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair .

19 people found this helpful

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Alan Holman

Well researched and well written

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2011

If this type of material was better available in the western education systems, the neocons and their allies would have a harder time using their sound bites like `axis of evil' and `weapons of mass destruction' to rally the troops.

All too often, well meaning, poorly educated and ill-informed patriots rally to the flag to fight wars in places they couldn't even find on a map just a few weeks before.

Only after countless thousands are killed or maimed, and millions displaced, do they ask themselves `what the hell am I doing here anyway'? All too late the neocon's intentions are exposed and the returning patriots receive less than a hero's welcome.

During the 1990's the neocons would have us believe that Iranian woman were getting their faces slashed by razors for wearing lipstick in public places. I was in Tehran during the 90's and noted the high percentage of woman wearing lipstick. In fact it was quiet pleasant to take an evening stroll around the city parks and watch the families chatting, having an Ice cream and generally enjoying themselves. Just a decade earlier America had backed `good old boy' Saddam Hussein to murder hundreds of thousands of Iranians in a proxy war that included the use of chemical weapons.

More recently during the Medicare debates, one neocon advised that `Americans didn't need a medical care system like Britain or North Korea'. Exactly who was the target audience here? Is it possible to find any Americans that would believe the upmarket `cradle to grave' medical systems available in Britain (and most Western countries) are even vaguely similar to those in North Korea? These neocons must be fishing for dummies.

30 people found this helpful

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Thomas S.Karat

...without demanding omniscience

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2009

The Book:

In "Israel and the clash of civilizations Jonathan Cook argues that the prevalent view of Iraq's fate - that its civil war was a terrible and unforeseen consequence of the US invasion and a series of bad decisions made by the occupation regime - is profoundly mistaken. Rather, civil war and partition were the intended outcome of the invasion and seen as beneficial to American interests, or at least they were by a small group of ultra-hawks known as the neoconservatives who came to dominate the White House under President George W.Bush. The neoconservatives' understanding of American interests in the Middle East was little different from that of previous administrations: securing control of oil in the Persian Gulf. But what distinguished Bush's invasion of Iraq from similar US attempts at regime change was the strategy used to achieve this goal.

This distinctive new strategy for regime overthrow adopted by the White House originated far from Washington, and was apparently opposed by most of the country's senior military command and by the Sate Department under Colin Powell. In the early 1980s Israel's security establishment has developed ideas about dissolving the other states of the Middle East to encourage ethnic and religious discord. This was in essence a re-imagining of the regional power structure that had existed under the Ottomans - before the arrival of the European colonialists and their forced reordering of the Middle East into nation states - but with Israel replacing the Turks as the local imperial power. In this way, hoped Israel and the neocons, large and potentially powerful states such as Iraq and Iran could be partitioned between their rival ethnic and sectarian communities.

Comment:

Writing from within (Nazareth), Jonathan Cook has an unrivaled vantage point for his arguments. It is easy to see why he is labeled an extreme leftist by those whose actions and motives he questions in his books. For an objective and interested reader on the other hand, his books provide insights and enhances understanding.

As I write this review Iran's cleric leaders try to deal with the fallout of the contested elections. In televised "confessions" the western media is blamed for instigating the street protests going into the second week now. What is described as false accusations by the West, - looking into history it is clear that what the clerics fear had happened in Iran in 1953, - bears a deeper meaning for those looking beyond the daily headlines. No one country, politician or point of view (or journalist) can accurately convey even a small measure of objectivity on the whole spectrum of events (historical and present). We should be grateful to writers who present to us their inside knowledge the way they experience it, without demanding omniscience. Yes, we also must oppose Islamic fundamentalism, which is the symptom of the problem not the cause, but we must have the courage to confront one of the root causes nurturing Islamic fundamentalism today, - the enslavement of a whole people for generations. "Israel and the clash of civilizations focuses on Israel and its allies' motives. It is a book that will deepen an objective readers understanding of a very complex issue. What more can one ask for?

34 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

s43

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

Excellent account of events, very insightful.

Ruth Jacob

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 21, 2017

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Very interesting.

M. McManus

Provocative look at the Middle East - instability being spread deliberately?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 8, 2008

Verified Purchase

This book examines Israel's strategic goals in the Middle East. The author argues that traditionally, both America and Israel prefered Arab states to be run by strongmen. The key strategic goal was to keep Arab countries stable. The author argues that after 9/11, this changed. Israeli and American hawks changed strategy, and decided that it was time to reverse the policy. Far from promoting stability, the aim should now be to promote instability in Arab countries. This would weaken Arab rivals to Israel's dominance of the region, and empower minority client groups in Arab nations, with which Israel and the US could form alliances of convenience.

Indeed, the author argues that the rioting, looting and civil war post-Iraq invasion were not the unexpected consequence of a well meaning invasion. They were, contends the author, part of the plan to keep Iraq weak and divided, and thus easier to exploit for its oil and fresh water. Furthermore, it had been an Israeli idea stretching back to the 1980s to encourage Iraq to become de facto a state divided into three (Sunni, Shia and Kurd). The author warns that Iran is next on the hitlist for this "spread instability" strategy, particularly because its posession of nuclear weapons could throw this strategy on its head.

The book is deeply provocative, and anyone interested in the war on terror, Iraq or current affairs generally will gain from this book.

20 people found this helpful

Pat

A very well-researched, thoughtful and insightful look at the ...

Reviewed in Canada on November 6, 2016

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A very well-researched, thoughtful and insightful look at the role Israel has played and continues to play in the middle east.

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