AMAZON REVIEW: The former deputy mayor of Jerusalem addresses the transformation of an Arab land into a Jewish state from a novel perspective: geography. How, asks Benvenisti (Intimate Enemies, 1995; City of Stone, 1996), did the Arabic names of mountains, towns, and bodies of water get replaced with Hebrew words? How did Umm Jurfinat become Kibbutz Grofit, and Rakhma become Yerukham? And how has the physical and political geography of the Arabs been affected by the development of a state whose mandate is to provide a homeland for Jews? In many ways, the answers Benvenisti provides to these questions comprise a geography not just of Israel but of the author, the son of a leading Israeli geographer who created some of those early Hebrew maps. The geographers son here wrestles with the questions of how this now-Jewish state can be a true home to both Arabs and Jews, and what it means to understand that his mortal enemiesthe Arabsare also his brothers. Benvenisti realizes that he cannot merely beat his breast and apologize for the wrongs Palestinians have suffered at the hands of Israelis. Though his intention [is not] to address the issues of an overall solution to the refugee problem, he does urge that Israel abolish and eradicate any form of discriminationlegal or otherwiseagainst the Palestinians. And he suggests that the state, which is selling to developers acres of land once owned by Arabs, compensate the original owners by paying them a portion of the profits. When peace finally comes to Israel, Benvenisti will be regarded as a moral and courageous thinker who spoke out on behalf of the oppressed before it became the fashionable thing to do. (23 b&w photos, 5 maps) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

AMAZON REVIEW: The history of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been marred by myths and accusations from all sides. Benny Morris takes a major step in setting straight the course of history as it happened. Morris attempts to see the people in his history for who they really were; he does not attempt to glamorize one side while making another the villian. This book attempts to explain the flight of the Palestinians from their homes during the war with the Israelis. While he does not find that the Arab states produced their flight as Israel has claimed, he also does not claim that Israel tried to drive them out with Plan D. Rather, Plan D was military in nature, not political. Its goals were to establish security for the Jews in the country. By doing so, local Arabs were set into flight by the victories won by the Haganah. The Intermixed populations made such a result inevitable. In other words, once a war broke, the loser would have been forced to flee no matter what. It just happened that the Jews were the better prepared side.

AMAZON REVIEW : Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials, Segev reconstructs a tumultuous era (1917 to 1948) of limitless possibilities and tragic missteps. He introduces the legendary figures-General Allenby, Lawrence of Arabia, David Ben-Gurion-as well as an array of pioneers, secret agents, diplomats, and fanatics. He tracks the steady advance of Jews and Arabs toward confrontation and with his hallmark originality puts forward a radical new argument: that the British, far from being pro-Arab, as commonly thought, consistently favored the Zionist position, and did so out of the mistaken-and anti-Semitic-belief that Jews turned the wheels of history.

AMAZON REVIEW: Published in 1982, this very short little book, written by Israel's leading civil libertarian Israel Shahak, using massive quotation from the Israeli press, discusses Israel's massive weapons sales, military and police training and other forms of collaboration with such terroristic regimes as in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua under Somoza, Iran under the Shah, Malawi under Dr. Benda, a close friend of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Perhaps the prominent examples have to do with Israel's extensive military and economic alliance with apartheid South Africa and support for the Shah, especially among the Labor party doves, like Yigal Allon, who, made frequent visits to his friend, the head of Savak, the Shah's sadistic secret police. Another interesting example has to do with the 1976-83 "dirty war" regime in Argentina which butchered hundreds of Jews and engaged in such practices as forcing Jewish prisoners to kneel in front of pictures of Hitler, yet Israel was its primary supplier of military hardware and Israeli generals, like Motta Gur, often made friendly visits to the country. Noam Chomsky, writing in August 1981, writes an outstanding introduction, and at the end of Shahak's essay, there are attached about five appendexis, containing good articles on this issue from the mainstream Israeli and American press and a few particularly good articles from Penny Lernoux of the National Catholic Reporter. Shahak's essay is not particularly easy to read, but the evidence he gives stands out above all else.

Kirkus Reviews: An impressively thoughtful, layered, and well documented study of key aspects of the evolution of modern Palestinian nationalism. Those expecting either a comprehensive history of the modern Palestinian movement or a polemic against Zionism and Israel should look elsewhere. Khalidi, who teaches history and directs the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago, and who was a member of the Palestinian delegation to the Mideast peace negotiations, focuses almost entirely on the late Ottoman and early Mandate period (1880s through 1920s). He sees Palestinian nationalism emerging far earlier than is generally thought--in the pre-WW I period, when absentee landlords in Beirut and elsewhere sold large tracts of Palestinian land to the Jewish Colonization Association. Yet while modern Palestinian history is inextricably intertwined with that of Zionism, Khalidi focuses as much on other constituents of modern Palestinian identity, which include ``patriotic feelings, local loyalties, Arabism, religious sentiments, [and] higher levels of education and literacy.'' He demonstrates how the long-term influence of modernization, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and concomitant European incursion in the preWW I era, followed by the betrayal of promises made by both the British and French, contributed as much to Palestinian nationalism as the 1917 Balfour Declaration and Zionist immigration. The only flaw here is that Khalidi races through the last 70 years of the development of Palestinian identity. Even here, however, he offers a fascinating analysis of why Palestinian nationalism seemingly became ``submerged'' after the first Arab- Israeli War (194749) and until the PLO's founding in 1964. At a time when the end of the hundred years' war between Zionism/Israel and the Palestinians appears on the horizon, this illuminating study will help readers gain a sophisticated understanding of how the Palestinians came to be who they are. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

AMAZON REVIEW : I found this book to be an excellent resource for historical, cultural, and economic issues relating to the Palestinians. However, the authors have written with a discernable, pro-Palestinian bias. The bias is definitely anti-Britian, anti-American, and anti-Israeli. The authors' attempt at fairness by criticizing Arafat does not make the book balanced overall. If you can read past the biases, there is some excellent information in this book on the plight of the Palestinian people. The authors could have achieved five stars with me by just presenting the facts about the Palestinians and omitting the frequent condescensions.

PMWATCH REVIEW: It's by a law professor at Ohio State and it methodically destroys all the claims that Israelis make to possession of the land in Palestine, details the ethnic cleansing, and outlines in detail Israeli violations of international law.

AMAZON REVIEW: I feel that this book is a must read for all Americans interested in U.S. - Middle East relations and the challenges to formulating a more balanced and just policies. Paul Findley, an Illinois Congressman for 22 years, examines the role of pro-Israel special interest groups in heavily influencing public officials and policy makers into making biased and counterproductive decisions impacting our relationship with the countries of an important region of the world. Findley has carefully researched and examined the extent of pro-Israel lobbying in this nation. While he defends the rights of American citizens to support causes they feel a moral obligation to, he argues eloquently that the interests of another country should never be placed above the interests of the United States. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the importance of having balanced foreign policies, particularly at a time when the United States is trying to serve as an honest broker to resolving conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere. It was educational and a real eye opener to me, a seeker of truth and objectivity.

AMAZON REVIEW: FINALLY!! NOW HERE'S A BOOK THAT PORTRAYS THE TRUTH...I recommend this book to anyone who has ever felt the media's portrayal of Islam and Muslims was anywhere near reality. This book takes on the long-feared task of exposing American media agendas and its sources, and how this portrayal has hurt and been totally unfair to the Second Largest Religion in the World where more than a billion Muslims live and practice a religion that has become the target of media distortion and the tool for American foreign policy and hidden agendas. An expose' of multibillion dollar campaigns to distort the image of a civilized, down-to-earth, honest religion, this book gives the real scoop on the high moral values of Muslim people, and their sincerety, and the media's distortion of them as terrorists and war-criminals.A must read for all political analysts

Edward Said, "End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After" (Pantheon Books, 2000)

AMAZON REVIEW: Edward Said opposes the "peace process" because it has been deliberately designed to confine Palestinians to cantons which are isolated from one another, over which Israel controls overall sovereignty, water , exits and entrances, overall security and so on. The "peace process" has allowed Israel to extend its military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip, with arrangements lest costly than the old direct military rule, letting the Palestinian Authority have "limited autonomy" in Palestinian population centers, the cantons, while it retains all the best land and continues expropriating Palestinian land and building more settlements, most fervently under the "moderate" Labor governments, contrary to much illusion. Israel currently retains direct rule in about seventy two percent of the West Bank and about fourty percent of the Gaza Strip. Said makes very clear that he believes the "peace process" to be similar to the effort in apartheid South Africa to establish batustans,"homelands" for the blacks. Doubtless, he says, the Palestinian cantons will one day be declared a "Palestinian state" but it will actually be no more than a caricature of the bantustans of South Africa.

Norman G. Finkelstein, "The Rise and Fall of Palestine : A Personal Account of the Intifada Years" (Univ. of Minnesotta, 1996)

AMAZON REVIEW: This book provides a welcome dissent from typical American Jewish political views, and provides refreshing objectivity towards the Arab/Israeli conflict. Finkelstein portrays West Bank Palestinians before and during the Gulf War: the effects of thirty years of brutal repression on these people, their lives, hope and aspirations--and why they might have cheered Saddam's scud missiles. One chapter is dedicated to Finkelstien's methodical summary of American foriegn policy toward Israel on one hand, and Iraq on the other--Finkelstein refrains from judging either of these two countries during his comparison--and the result demonstrates an undeniable double standard in the application of international law. There is much evidence--much of it taken from declassified Israeli documents--that suggests Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon was entirely an offensive operation, the sole purpose of which was to avoid having to come to political terms with the PLO, and Finkelstein touches on this as well. Overall, an excellent, insightful book well worth reading. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Noam Chomsky, Edward Said "Fateful Triangle : The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians" (South End Press Classics Series, 1983, 1999)

AMAZON.COM REVIEW: First published in 1983, Fateful Triangle is a comprehensive indictment of what Noam Chomsky calls the "disgraceful and extremely dangerous" policy the United States has enacted towards Israel, particularly with regard to Israel's actions concerning the Palestinians. Supporters of Israel must willfully overlook or deny that nation's long history of human rights violations and military aggression, Chomsky writes, and they will continue to do so as long as Israel is strategically useful towards "the U.S. aim of eliminating possible threats, largely indigenous, to American domination of the Middle East region." In the course of elaborating his argument, Chomsky cuts through the myths and distortions that appear in mainstream media accounts; the damning facts that he so systematically assembles portray a government more brutally and overtly racist, perhaps, than even apartheid-era South Africa. Three new chapters, drawing upon material from Z magazine and other publications, incorporate such developments as the Palestinian uprising, Israel's war on Lebanon, and the ongoing "peace process."