Books on Palestine and Israel
Directory Index
(The) 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine
Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East
Arabs and Jews in Ottoman Palestine: Two Worlds Collide
Arik: The Life of Ariel Sharon
Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993
Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel
The Battle for Justice in Palestine
Benny Morris’s Untenable Denial of the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
Beyond Alliance: Israel in U.S. Foreign Policy
Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel
Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East
David Ben-Gurion, War Diaries (1947-1949)
Eighteen Days in October: The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East
Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017
Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
Exposing a Zionist Hoax
Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians
From Beirut to Jerusalem
Gaza
Genocide, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine: First-Person History in Times of Crisis
Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad
Golda Meir: Israel’s Matriarch (Jewish Lives)
Hundred Years’ War on Palestine
The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood
Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn
Israel and Palestine: The Complete History
Israeli and Palestinian Conflict: A Comprehensive, Unbiased Exploration of the History and Perspectives of Both Nations
The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict
The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A History
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know
Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
The Last Treaty: Lausanne and the End of the First World War in the Middle East
Middle East Affairs – Will Peace Ever be Possible
The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace
Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service
The Mossad: The History and Legacy of Israel’s National Intelligence Agency
No Mission Is Impossible: The Death-Defying Missions of the Israeli Special Forces
Obstacle to Peace
On Palestine
The Ottomans: An Enthralling Overview of the Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Life of Suleiman the Magnificent (Exploring the Past)
Palestine
Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict (Not recommended)
Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History
Palestine: A Socialist Introduction
Palestine And Its Dreamers: All You Should Know
Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire
The Palestinian National Revival: In the Shadow of the Leadership Crisis, 1937–1967
Palestine Peace Not Apartheid
The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989–2011
The Pivotal Years: Israel and the Arab World 1966 – 1977 (Pro-Israel)
The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969-1994
The Question of Palestine
Refuge and Resistance: Palestinians and the International Refugee System (Columbia Studies in International and Global History)
Rejection of Palestinian Self-Determination
Return to Zion: The History of Modern Israel
Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations
The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy
Shortest History of Israel and Palestine
Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine
Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East
The Struggle for Palestine
Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine–A Tale of Two Narratives
Under Siege: P.L.O. Decisionmaking During the 1982 War
The Wars of the Jews
Water Conflict: Economics, Politics, Law and the Palestinian-Israeli Water Resources
Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn
What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Whose Holy Land?: The Roots of the Conflict Between Jews and Arabs
Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories
Books with Information
Palestinian Youth Movement – OUR HISTORY OF POPULAR RESISTANCE: PALESTINE READING LIST – As Palestinians, we are bearers of a rich and beautiful history. Our history is not defined by Zionism, but by our people’s steadfast popular resistance to Zionist colonization and imperialism. For over 73 years, our people have faced Zionist ethnic cleansing and for over 73 years we have risen in struggle against it. Even prior to the 1948 Nakba, Palestinians consistently rose up against British imperialism and the Zionist movement, as exemplified in the 1936-9 Arab Revolt. Our history and struggle, therefore, cannot be defined by victimhood. Instead, they are defined by a relentless persistence toward liberation, even under the most brutal colonial conditions. https://palestinianyouthmovement.com/reading-list
Institute for Palestinian Studies (mostly books in Arabic) https://store.palestine-studies.org/en/books/explorer1
(The) 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine (on-Line for full story) Between 1936 and 1939, the Palestinian revolutionary movement suffered a severe setback at the hands of three separate enemies that were to constitute together the principal threat to the nationalist movement in Palestine in all subsequent stages of its struggle: the local reactionary leadership; the regimes in the Arab states surrounding Palestine; and the imperialist-Zionist enemy. The present study will concentrate on the respective structures of these separate forces and the dialectical relations that existed among them.
The intensity of the Palestinian nationalist experience, which emerged since 1918, and was accompanied in one way or another with armed struggle, could not reflect itself on the upper structure of the Palestinian national movement which remained virtually under the control of semi-feudal and semi-religious leadership. This was due primarily to two related factors:
1. The existence and effectiveness of the Zionist movement, which gave the national challenge relative predominance over the social contradictions. The impact of this challenge was being systematically felt by the masses of Palestinian Arabs, who were the primary victims of the Zionist invasion supported by British imperialism.
2. The existence of a significant conflict of interests between the local feudal-religious leadership and British imperialism: It was consistently in the interest of the ruling class to promote and support a certain degree of revolutionary struggle, instead of being more or less completely allied with the imperialist power as would otherwise be the case. The British imperialists had found in the Zionists “a more suitable ally.” (O
Committee for a Democratic Palestine, New York, 1972
https://www.marxists.org/archive/kanafani/1972/revolt.htm
Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East
This book is now my gold reference standard. If you only have the patience to read ONLY one book, this is the one that will NOT leave you improperly biased in one direction or the other.
….and, If you are horribly biased in one direction or the other to start with, it is hard to believe that you will not soften your position for the other side after reading this book, and, simply shake your head as to how complex, intractable, and sad this whole situation is.
Be advised though….this is a college textbook, and by design, is a very dry, analytical read. Suffer through it….it is well worth it.
Arabs and Jews in Ottoman Palestine: Two Worlds Collide
The historian and expert on Israeli-Palestinian relations offers “a well-written, well-balanced” account of cultural conflicts in the region before WWI (Anita Shapira, author of Israel: A History).
When did the Arab-Israeli conflict begin? Some discussions focus on the 1967 war, some go back to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and others look to the beginning of the British Mandate in 1922. Alan Dowty, however, traces the earliest roots of the conflict to the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, arguing that this historical approach highlights constant clashes between religious and ethnic groups in Palestine. Dowty demonstrates that, during the 19th century, there was an overwhelming hostility to European foreigners, and that Arab residents viewed new Jewish settlers as European. He also shows that Jewish settlers had tremendous incentive to minimize all obstacles to settlement, including the inconvenient hostility of the existing population. Dowty’s thorough research reveals how events that occurred over 125 years ago shaped the implacable conflict that dominates the Middle East today.
by Alan Dowty February 2019
Arik: The Life of Ariel Sharon
From the former editor in chief of Haaretz, the first in-depth comprehensive biography of Ariel Sharon, the most important Israeli political and military leader of the last forty years.
The life of Ariel Sharon spans much of modern Israel’s history: A commander in the Israeli Army from its inception in 1948, Sharon participated in the 1948 War of Independence, and played decisive roles in the 1956 Suez War and the six day War of 1967, and most dramatically is largely credited with the shift in the outcome of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. After returning from the army in 1982, Sharon became a political leader and served in numerous governments, most prominently as the defense minister during the 1983 Lebanon War in which he bore “personal responsibility” according to the Kahan Commission for massacres of Palestinian civilians by Lebanese militia, and he championed the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. But as prime minister he performed a dramatic reversal: orchestrating Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Landau brilliantly chronicles and analyzes his surprising about-face. Sharon suffered a stroke in January 2006 and remains in a persistent vegetative state. Considered by many to be Israel’s greatest military leader and political statesman, this biography recounts his life and shows how this leadership transformed Israel, and how Sharon’s views were shaped by the changing nature of Israeli society.
by David Landau 2014
Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993
This book spans an entire epoch in the history of the contemporary Palestinian national movement, from the establishment of Israel at the end of the British Mandate of Palestine in 1948, to the PLO-Israel accord of 1993. The book draws extensively on PLO archives, official publications and internal documents of the various guerrilla groups, and on over 400 interviews conducted by the author with PLO rank-and-file. Its span, primary sources, and conceptual framework make this the definitive work on the subject. This work was originally published in English as a copublication between the Institute for Palestine Studies and Oxford University.
By Yezid Sayigh
https://store.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1649743
Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel
“Prodigiously documented… Alison Weir must be highly commended for throwing such a brilliantly hard light on the relationship between the United States and Israel. I hope this marvelous book gets all the attention it deserves.” – Ambassador Andrew Killgore Soon after WWII, US statesman Dean Acheson warned that creating Israel on land already inhabited by Palestinians would “imperil” both American and all Western interests in the region. Despite warnings such as this one, President Truman supported establishing a Jewish state on land primarily inhabited by Muslims and Christians. Few Americans today are aware that US support enabled the creation of modern Israel. Even fewer know that US politicians pushed this policy over the forceful objections of top diplomatic and military experts. As this work demonstrates, these politicians were bombarded by a massive pro-Israel lobbying effort that ranged from well-funded and very public Zionist organizations to an “elitist secret society” whose members included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. AGAINST OUR BETTER JUDGMENT brings together meticulously sourced evidence to illuminate a reality that differs starkly from the prevailing narrative. It provides a clear view of the history that is key to understanding one of the most critically important political issues of our day.
by Alison Weir 2014
The Battle for Justice in Palestine
In this essential work, journalist Ali Abunimah takes a comprehensive look at the shifting tides of the politics of Palestine and the Israelis in a neoliberal worldland makes a compelling and surprising case for why the Palestine solidarity movement just might win. “This is the best book on Palestine in the last decade. No existing book presents the staggering details and sophistication of analysis that Abunimah’s book offers. Abunimah’s scope includes an analysis of the politics, econo March 2014mics, environmental policies, identity politics, international relations, academic scholarship and activism, global solidarity, and official and unofficial lobbies that have come to bear on Palestine and the Palestinians. The Battle for Justice in Palestine is the most comprehensive treatment of Palestinian suffering under Israeli control and offers the only possible way to end it. It is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the current situation of the Palestinians and Israel.”
by Ali Abunimah 2014
Benny Morris’s Untenable Denial of the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
In a series of articles in the Israeli daily Haaretz in October 2016, Benny Morris hashed it out with several of his critics over the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Who got it right? While Morris now denies that ethnic cleansing occurred during the 1948 war, his own research shows that this was indeed the means by which the “Jewish state” of Israel came into existence.
by Jeremy R. Hammond PDF
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Beyond Alliance: Israel in U.S. Foreign Policy
Acclaimed by scholars, Beyond Alliance is an elegantly reasoned and nonpolemical discussion of American policy towards Israel. In seeking the why behind the privileged relationship, the author takes the unusual approach of exploring the American foreign policy establishment’s competing views of Israel as a strategic asset and Israel as a burden. Drawing his source material from experts writing both in general media and in specialized international and strategic studies journals, he allows proponents of the opposing positions to speak for themselves without editorializing. Mansour’s inquiry is divided into three phases: the forging of Israel’s strategic role from 1948 to 1973, the reassessment of that role from the 1973 war to 1980, and the strategic alliance and the New World Order from 1981 to 1992. While addressing his overall theme, he weaves into the discussion penetrating insights concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Suez crisis, the Camp David Accords, Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, and the influence of the pro-Israel lobby on the Jewish community and American society as a whole.
By Camille Mansour 1998
https://store.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1648061
Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel
As a child, Elias Chacour lived in a small Palestinian village in Galilee. When tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed and nearly one million forced into refugee camps in 1948, Elias began a long struggle with how to respond. In Blood Brothers, he blends his riveting life story with historical research to reveal a little-known side of the Arab-Israeli conflict, touching on questions such as:
•What behind-the-scenes politics touched off the turmoil in the Middle East?
•What does Bible prophecy really have to say?
•Can bitter enemies ever be reconciled?
Now updated with commentary on the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as a new foreword by Lynne Hybels and Gabe Lyons, this book offers hope and insight that can help each of us learn to live at peace in a world of tension and terror.
by Elias Chacour (Author), David Hazard (Author), Lynne Hybels April 2013
Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East
An examination of the failure of the United States as a broker in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, through three key historical moments. For more than seven decades the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people has raged on with no end in sight, and for much of that time, the United States has been involved as a mediator in the conflict. In this book, acclaimed historian Rashid Khalidi zeroes in on the United States’s role as the purported impartial broker in this failed peace process.
Khalidi closely analyzes three historical moments that illuminate how the United States’ involvement has, in fact, thwarted progress toward peace between Israel and Palestine. The first moment he investigates is the “Reagan Plan” of 1982, when Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin refused to accept the Reagan administration’s proposal to reframe the Camp David Accords more impartially. The second moment covers the period after the Madrid Peace Conference, from 1991 to 1993, during which negotiations between Israel and Palestine were brokered by the United States until the signing of the secretly negotiated Oslo accords. Finally, Khalidi takes on President Barack Obama’s retreat from plans to insist on halting the settlements in the West Bank.
Through in-depth research into and keen analysis of these three moments, as well as his own firsthand experience as an advisor to the Palestinian delegation at the 1991 pre–Oslo negotiations in Washington, DC, Khalidi reveals how the United States and Israel have actively colluded to prevent a Palestinian state and resolve the situation in Israel’s favor. Brokers of Deceit bares the truth about why peace in the Middle East has been impossible to achieve: for decades, US policymakers have masqueraded as unbiased agents working to bring the two sides together, when, in fact, they have been the agents of continuing injustice, effectively preventing the difficult but essential steps needed to achieve peace in the region.
by Rashid Khalidi March 2014
David Ben-Gurion, War Diaries (1947-1949)
The paramount Zionist leader and first prime minister of Israel kept a detailed daily diary throughout the 1948 War in which he commented on virtually every aspect of the war, military, political and international. These diaries constitute an indispensable source for understanding the war and Israeli policies and strategies during its course. This book comprises extensive selections from the diaries translated from the Hebrew original.
Edited by : Gershon Rivlin، Elhanan Orren Translated by : Samir Jabbour 1998
https://store.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1648062
Eighteen Days in October: The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East
October 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, a conflict that shaped the modern Middle East. The War was a trauma for Israel, a dangerous superpower showdown, and, following the oil embargo, a pivotal reordering of the global economic order. The Jewish State came shockingly close to defeat. A panicky cabinet meeting debated the use of nuclear weapons. After the war, Prime Minister Golda Meir resigned in disgrace, and a 9/11-style commission investigated the “debacle.”
But, argues Uri Kaufman, from the perspective of a half century, the War can be seen as a pivotal victory for Israel. After nearly being routed, the Israeli Defense Force clawed its way back to threaten Cairo and Damascus. In the war’s aftermath both sides had to accept unwelcome truths: Israel could no longer take military superiority for granted―but the Arabs could no longer hope to wipe Israel off the map. A straight line leads from the battlefields of 1973 to the Camp David Accords of 1978 and all the treaties since. Like Michael Oren’s Six Days of War, this is the definitive account of a critical moment in history.
by Uri Kaufman August 2023
Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017
From a long-time Guardian correspondent and editor, an expansive, authoritative, and balanced account of over a century of violent confrontation, war, and occupation in Palestine and Israel, published on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration and 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War
In Enemies and Neighbors, Ian Black, who has spent over three decades covering events in the Middle East and is currently a fellow at the London School of Economics, offers a major new history of the Arab-Zionist conflict from 1917 to today, published on the centenary of the Balfour Declaration.
Laying the historical groundwork in the final decades of the Ottoman Era, when the first Zionist settlers arrived in the Holy Land, Black draws on a wide range of sources―from declassified documents to oral histories to his own vivid on-the-ground reporting―to recreate the major milestones in the most polarizing conflict of the modern age from both sides. In the third year of World War I, the seed was planted for an inevitable clash: Jerusalem Governor Izzat Pasha surrendered to British troops and Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour issued a fateful document sympathizing with the establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people.” The chronicle takes us through the Arab rebellion of the 1930s; the long shadow of the Nazi Holocaust; the war of 1948―culminating in Israel’s independence and the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe); the “cursed victory” of the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Palestinian re-awakening; the first and second Intifadas; the Oslo Accords; and other failed peace negotiations and continued violence up to 2017.
Combining engaging narrative with historical and political analysis and cultural insights, Enemies and Neighbors is both an accessible overview and a fascinating investigation into the deeper truths of a history that continues to dominate Middle Eastern politics and diplomacy―one which has preserved Palestinians and Israelis as unequal enemies and neighbors, their conflict unresolved as prospects for a two-state solution have all but disappeared.
by Ian Black November 2017
The book that is providing a storm of controversy, from ‘Israel’s bravest historian’ (John Pilger)
Renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe’s groundbreaking book revisits the formation of the State of Israel. Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed, civilians were massacred and around a million men, women, and children were expelled from their homes at gunpoint.
Denied for almost six decades, had it happened today it could only have been called “ethnic cleansing”. Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord in the course of this war, Ilan Pappe offers impressive archival evidence to demonstrate that, from its very inception, a central plank in Israel’s founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. Indispensable for anyone interested in the current crisis in the Middle East.
by Ilan Pappe 2007
Exposing a Zionist Hoax
How Elan Journo’s “What Justice Demands” Deceives Readers about the Palestine Conflict. In his book What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Elan Journo purports to offer a fresh pro-liberty approach to the subject, but its pages are filled with all the same tired Zionist propaganda that has always been used to justify Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians. Exposing a Zionist Hoax systematically deconstructs the lying propaganda that pervades the mainstream discourse, setting the historical record straight about the true causes of the conflict, the reasons for its persistence, and the path forward to a just peace.
by Jeremy R. Hammond PDF
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Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians
Fateful Triangle is Noam Chomsky’s seminal work on Mideast politics. In the updated edition of this classic book, with a new introduction by Chomsky, readers seeking to understand the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy today will find an invaluable tool.
by Noam Chomsky February 2015
From Beirut to Jerusalem
One of the most thought-provoking books ever written about the Middle East, From Beirut to Jerusalem remains vital to our understanding of this complex and volatile region of the world. Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman drew upon his ten years of experience reporting from Lebanon and Israel to write this now-classic work of journalism. In a new afterword, he updates his journey with a fresh discussion of the Arab Awakenings and how they are transforming the area, and a new look at relations between Israelis and Palestinians, and Israelis and Israelis.
Rich with anecdote, history, analysis, and autobiography, From Beirut to Jerusalem will continue to shape how we see the Middle East for many years to come.
by Thomas L. Friedman April 2010
Gaza
“In its comprehensive sweep, deep probing and acute critical analysis, Finkelstein’s study stands alone.”—Noam Chomsky. “No one who ventures an opinion on Gaza . . . is entitled to do so without taking into account the evidence in this book.” —The Intercept
The Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated places in the world. More than two-thirds of its inhabitants are refugees, and more than half are under eighteen years of age. Since 2004, Israel has launched eight devastating “operations” against Gaza’s largely defenseless population. Thousands have perished, and tens of thousands have been left homeless. In the meantime, Israel has subjected Gaza to a merciless illegal blockade.
What has befallen Gaza is a man-made humanitarian disaster. Based on scores of human rights reports, Norman G. Finkelstein’s new book presents a meticulously researched inquest into Gaza’s martyrdom. He shows that although Israel has justified its assaults in the name of self-defense, in fact these actions constituted flagrant violations of international law.
But Finkelstein also documents that the guardians of international law—from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to the UN Human Rights Council—ultimately failed Gaza. One of his most disturbing conclusions is that, after Judge Richard Goldstone’s humiliating retraction of his UN report, human rights organizations succumbed to the Israeli juggernaut. Finkelstein’s magnum opus is both a monument to Gaza’s martyrs and an act of resistance against the forgetfulness of history.
by Finkelstein July 2021
Genocide, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine: First-Person History in Times of Crisis
This book discusses some of the most urgent current debates over the study, commemoration, and politicization of the Holocaust through key critical perspectives. Omer Bartov adeptly assesses the tensions between Holocaust and genocide studies, which have repeatedly both enriched and clashed with each other, whilst convincingly arguing for the importance of local history and individual testimony in grasping the nature of mass murder. He goes on to critically examine how legal discourse has served to both uncover and deny individual and national complicity. Genocide, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine outlines how first-person histories provide a better understanding of events otherwise perceived as inexplicable and, lastly, draws on the author’s own personal trajectory to consider links between the fate of Jews in World War II and the plight of Palestinians during and in the aftermath of the establishment of the state of Israel.
Bartov demonstrates that these five perspectives, rarely if ever previously discussed in a single book, are inextricably linked, and shed much light on each other. Thus the Holocaust and other genocides must be seen as related catastrophes in the modern era; understanding such vast human tragedies necessitates scrutinizing them on the local and personal scale; this in turn calls for historical empathy, accomplished via personal-biographical introspection; and true, open-minded, and rigorous introspection, without which historical understanding tends toward obfuscation, brings to light uncomfortable yet clarifying connections, such as that between the Holocaust and the Nakba, the mass flight and expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948.
by Omer Bartov August 2023
Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad
In the secret world of spies and covert operations, no other intelligence service continues to be as surrounded by myth and mystery as the Mossad. Gordon Thomas reveals that all too often the truth exceeds all the fantasies about the Mossad. Revised and updated for 2015, this new edition includes:
Mossad’s secret meeting in 2013 with Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief to plan for Israel to use Saudi to attack Iran should the Geneva discussion fail to be honored by Iran.
– The attack on Iraq’s nuclear reactor that will be the flight path to an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
– Mossad’s new cyber-war unit preparing to launch its own pre-emptive strike.
– Why Mossad’s former director, Meir Dagan, has spoken out against an attack on Iran.
– Mossad agents who operate in the “Dark Side” of the internet to track terrorists.
– Mossad’s drone and its first killing.
– Mossad’s role in the defense of Israel’s Embassy in Cairo during the Arab Spring.
– An introduction to Mossad’s new director, Tamir Pardo.
These and other stunning details combine to give Gideon’s Spies the sense of urgency and relevance that is characteristic of truly engrossing nonfiction.
by Gordon Thomas March 2015
Golda Meir: Israel’s Matriarch (Jewish Lives)
Golda Meir (1898–1978) was the first and only woman to serve as prime minister of Israel. She was born in Kiev into a childhood of poverty, hunger, and antisemitism. When she was five, her father left to find work in America, and a year later the family settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a teenager she became devoted to Labor Zionism, giving street-corner speeches, and her family’s home became a destination for Zionist emissaries. Her love for Labor Zionism was so fervent that her boyfriend, Morris Meyerson (her future husband), was often in competition with her dedication to the cause.
Zionism prevailed. In 1921, Golda left America for Palestine with Morris and her sister Sheyna. Though the reality of living in Palestine was far from the dream of Zionism, Meir settled on the kibbutz Merhavia and was swiftly appointed to the Histadrut (the General Organization of Hebrew Workers in Palestine). As an ally of the Zionist David Ben-Gurion, Meir played an important role in the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine; proved an almost singular ability to connect and fundraise with diaspora Jewry, particularly Americans; and served in three pivotal positions following Israel’s independence: labor secretary of the newly formed state, foreign minister, and Israel’s fourth prime minister.
In tracing the life of Golda Meir, acclaimed author Deborah E. Lipstadt explores the history of the Yishuv and Jewish state from the 1920s through the 1973 Yom Kippur War, all while highlighting the contradictions and complexities of a person who was only the third woman to serve as a head of state in the twentieth century.
by Deborah E. Lipstadt August 2023
Hundred Years’ War on Palestine
A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history
In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.
Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members―mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists―The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process.
by Rashid Khalidi 2021
Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict
“An impressive analysis of Zionist ideology and a searing . . . indictment of Israel’s treatment of the Arabs since 1948” through a survey of popular and scholarly images (London Review of Books) “The most revealing study of the historical background of the conflict.” —Noam Chomsky
Finkelstein opens this acclaimed study with a theoretical discussion of Zionism, locating it as a romantic form of nationalism that assumed the bankruptcy of liberal democracy. He goes on to look at the demographic origins of the Palestinians, with particular reference to the work of Joan Peters, and develops critiques of the influential studies of both Benny Morris and Anita Shapira.
Reviewing the diplomatic history with Aban Eban‘s oeuvre as his foil, Finkelstein closes by demonstrating that the casting of Israel as the innocent victim of Arab aggression in the June 1967 and October 1973 wars is not supported by the documentary record. This new edition critically reexamines dominant popular and scholarly images in the light of the current failures of the peace process.
by Norman G. Finkelstein April 2003
The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood
At a time when a lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis seems virtually unattainable, understanding the roots of their conflict is an essential step in restoring hope to the region. In The Iron Cage, Rashid Khalidi, one of the most respected historians and political observers of the Middle East, homes in on Palestinian politics and history. By drawing on a wealth of experience and scholarship, Khalidi provides a lucid context for the realities on the ground today, a context that has been, until now, notably lacking in our discourse.
The story of the Palestinian search to establish a state begins in the mandate period immediately following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, the era of British control, when fledgling Arab states were established by the colonial powers with assurances of eventual independence. Mandatory Palestine was a place of real promise, with unusually high literacy rates and a relatively advanced economy. But the British had already begun to construct an iron cage to hem in the Palestinians, and the Palestinian leadership made a series of errors that would eventually prove crippling to their dream of independence.
The Palestinians’ struggle intensified in the stretch before and after World War II, when colonial control of the region became increasingly unpopular, population shifts began with heavy Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe, and power began to devolve to the United States. In this crucial period, Palestinian leaders continued to run up against the walls of the ever-constricting iron cage. They proved unable to achieve their long-cherished goal of establishing an independent state—a critical failure that set a course for the decades that followed, right through the eras of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas. Rashid Khalidi’s engrossing narrative of this torturous history offers much-needed perspective for anyone concerned about peace in the Middle East.
by Rashid Khalidi September 2007
Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn
The first comprehensive yet accessible history of the state of Israel from its inception to present day, from Daniel Gordis, “one of the most respected Israel analysts” (The Forward) living and writing in Jerusalem.
Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world’s attention, aroused its imagination, and lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future?
We cannot answer these questions until we understand Israel’s people and the questions and conflicts, the hopes and desires, that have animated their conversations and actions. Though Israel’s history is rife with conflict, these conflicts do not fully communicate the spirit of Israel and its people: they give short shrift to the dream that gave birth to the state, and to the vision for the Jewish people that was at its core. Guiding us through the milestones of Israeli history, Gordis relays the drama of the Jewish people’s story and the creation of the state. Clear-eyed and erudite, he illustrates how Israel became a cultural, economic and military powerhouse—but also explains where Israel made grave mistakes and traces the long history of Israel’s deepening isolation.
With Israel, public intellectual Daniel Gordis offers us a brief but thorough account of the cultural, economic, and political history of this complex nation, from its beginnings to the present. Accessible, levelheaded, and rigorous, Israel sheds light on the Israel’s past so we can understand its future. The result is a vivid portrait of a people, and a nation, reborn.
by Daniel Gordis October 2016
Israel and Palestine: The Complete History
In July 2018, Israel’s Knesset approved the Nation-State Bill, a controversial piece of legislation, both at home and abroad, which declared Israel a sovereign state for the Jewish people. It followed US President Donald Trump’s 2017 decision to relocate the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Both events provoked consternation and scorn from many countries, and offer the latest twists in the Israeli-Palestinian saga: two peoples on an everlasting – and seemingly irreconcilable – path to peace. Israel and Palestine: The Complete History seeks to explain the overall story of Israeli and Palestinian tensions and divisions in the region. Indeed, without properly understanding the full history of the area, it is impossible to understand the current situation. In this book, author Ian Carroll takes the reader back to the very beginning of the conflict some 4,000 years ago, then moves through the major events of the Middle Ages and 20th century, and brings us right up to the present day, documenting the significant events that have happened along the way. The reader is allowed to make up their own mind as to where praise and condemnation belong with this complicated issue. From Exodus to the birth of Jesus, from Islam to the Crusades, through the Diaspora and up to the recreation of the modern state of Israel and beyond, Israel and Palestine: The Complete History avoids a dry academic approach. It aims to tell the history of the region and peoples in a balanced and brisk fashion, from a storyteller’s perspective. With talk of a Third Intifada and the introduction of the Nation-State Bill all bringing this age-old issue to the forefront of world news once more, there has never been a more appropriate time to understand and appreciate Israel and Palestine’s history. Note: This is an updated, expanded, and re-edited version of “Israel / Palestine – a 4000 year history” by Ian Carroll, originally published in 2006.
by Ian Carroll January 2019
Israeli and Palestinian Conflict: A Comprehensive, Unbiased Exploration of the History and Perspectives of Both Nations
This book offers a clear, unbiased view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, making it ideal for those seeking to understand the complex history and ongoing tensions.
by Ethan Fakhoury November 2023
The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A History
Now in its fourth edition, James L. Gelvin’s award-winning account of the conflict between Israel and Palestine offers a compelling, accessible and current introduction for students and general readers. The book traces the struggle from the emergence of nationalism among the Jews of Europe and the Arab inhabitants of Ottoman Palestine through to the present, exploring the external pressures and internal logic that have propelled it. Placing events in Palestine within the framework of global history, The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A History skilfully interweaves biographical sketches, eyewitness accounts, poetry, fiction, and official documentation into its narrative. This updated edition features new material on the fate of the two-state solution during the Trump/Netanyahu era, alongside an expanded glossary and suggestions for further reading.
by James L. Gelvin March 2021
The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict
In print for nearly half a century, and now in its eighth edition, The Israel-Arab Reader is an authoritative guide to over a century of conflict in the Middle East. It covers the full spectrum of a violent and checkered history—the origins of Zionism and Arab nationalism, the struggles surrounding Israel’s independence in 1948, the Six-Day War and other wars and hostilities over the decades, and the long diplomatic process and many peace initiatives.
Arranged chronologically and without bias by two veteran historians of the Middle East, this comprehensive reference brings together speeches, letters, articles, and reports involving all the major interests in the area. The eighth edition features a new introduction as well as a large new section—more than 40 pages—recounting developments over the last decade, including the intra-Palestinian factional strife between Fatah and Hamas, the roles played by Egypt and Iran in the region, enduring arguments over a two-state solution and the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and issues of human rights abuse and terrorism.
by Walter Laqueur (Editor), Dan Schueftan (Editor) September 2016
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know® (What Everyone Needs To KnowRG)
No conflict in the world has lasted as long, generated as many news headlines, or incited as much controversy as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet, despite, or perhaps because of, the degree of international attention it receives, the conflict is still widely misunderstood. While Israelis and Palestinians and their respective supporters trade accusations, many outside observers remain confused by the conflict’s complexity and perplexed by the passion it arouses.
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers an even-handed and judicious guide to the world’s most intractable dispute. Writing in an engaging, jargon-free Q&A format, Dov Waxman provides clear and concise answers to common questions, from the most basic to the most contentious. Covering the conflict from its nineteenth-century origins to the latest developments of the twenty-first century, this book explains the key events, examines the core issues, and presents the competing claims and narratives of both sides. Readers will learn what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about, how it has evolved over time, and why it continues to defy diplomatic efforts at a resolution.
by Waxman 2019
Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter examines the true history of the discord between Israel and Palestine with surprising results Though the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict have traditionally been traced to the British Mandate (1920-1948) that ended with the creation of the Israeli state, a new generation of scholars has taken the investigation further back, to the Ottoman period. The first popular account of this key era, Jerusalem 1913 shows us a cosmopolitan city whose religious tolerance crumbled before the onset of Z ionism and its corresponding nationalism on both sides-a conflict that could have been resolved were it not for the onset of World War I. With extraordinary skill, Amy Dockser Marcus rewrites the story of one of the world’s most indelible divides.
by Amy Dockser Marcus 2008
The Last Treaty: Lausanne and the End of the First World War in the Middle East
In The Last Treaty, Michelle Tusan profoundly reshapes the story of how the First World War ended in the Middle East. Tracing Europe’s war with the Ottoman Empire through to the signing of Lausanne, which finally ended the war in 1923, she places the decisive Allied victory over Germany in 1918 in sharp relief against the unrelenting war in the East and reassesses the military operations, humanitarian activities and diplomatic dealings that continued after the signing of Versailles in 1919. She shows how, on the Middle Eastern Front, Britain and France directed Allied war strategy against a resurgent Ottoman Empire to sustain an imperial system that favored Europe’s dominance within the nascent international system. The protracted nature of the conflict and ongoing humanitarian crisis proved devastating for the civilian populations caught in its wake and increasingly questioned old certainties about a European-led imperial order and humanitarian intervention. Its consequences would transform the postwar world.
by Michelle Tusan June 2023
Middle East Affairs – Will Peace Ever be Possible
The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace
The Missing Peace, published to great acclaim last year, is the most candid inside account of the Middle East peace process ever written. Dennis Ross, the chief Middle East peace negotiator in the presidential administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, is that rare figure who is respected by all parties: Democrats and Republicans, Palestinians and Israelis, presidents and people on the street in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Washington, D.C.
Ross recounts the peace process in detail from 1988 to the breakdown of talks in early 2001 that prompted the so-called second Intifada-and takes account of recent developments in a new afterword written for this edition. It’s all here: Camp David, Oslo, Geneva, Egypt, and other summits; the assassination of Yitzak Rabin; the rise and fall of Benjamin Netanyahu; the very different characters and strategies of Rabin, Yasir Arafat, and Bill Clinton; and the first steps of the Palestinian Authority. For the first time, the backroom negotiations, the dramatic and often secretive nature of the process, and the reasons for its faltering are on display for all to see. The Missing Peace explains, as no other book has, why Middle East peace remains so elusive.
Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service
For decades, Israel’s renowned security arm, the Mossad, has been widely recognized as the best intelligence service in the world. In Mossad, authors Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal take us behind the closed curtain with riveting, eye-opening, boots-on-the-ground accounts of the most dangerous, most crucial missions in the agency’s 60-year history. These are real Mission: Impossible true stories brimming with high-octane action—from the breathtaking capture of Nazi executioner Adolph Eichmann to the recent elimination of key Iranian nuclear scientists. Anyone who is fascinated by the world of international espionage, intelligence, and covert “Black-Ops” warfare will find Mossad electrifying reading.
Mossad unveils the defining and most dangerous operations, unknown heroes, and mysterious agents of the world’s most respected—and most enigmatic—intelligence service. Here are the thrilling stories of daring top secret missions, including the capture of Adolf Eichmann, the eradication of Black September, the destruction of the Syrian nuclear facility, and the elimination of key Iranian nuclear scientists.
Drawn from intensive research and exclusive interviews with Israeli leaders and Mossad operatives, this riveting history brings to life the brave agents, deadly villains, and major battlegrounds that have shaped Israel and the world at large for more than sixty years.
by Michael Bar-Zohar (Author), Nissim Mishal (Author) September 2014
The Mossad: The History and Legacy of Israel’s National Intelligence Agency
The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is technically 69 years old and counting but has its roots in over 2,000 years of history. With so much time and history, the Middle East peace process has become laden with unique, politically sensitive concepts like the right of return, contiguous borders, secure borders, demilitarized zones, and security requirements, with players like the Quartet, Palestinian Authority, Fatah, Hamas, the Arab League and Israel. Over time, it has become exceedingly difficult for even sophisticated political pundits and followers to keep track of it all.
Thanks to the existential crises Israel faced in the first decades of its existence, it was virtually necessary to possess superior intelligence organizations, so it should come as no surprise that the Mossad is one of the most famed agencies in history. In Hebrew, Mossad means “the Institute,” but the name is short for Mossad Merkazi le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim, which means, “Central Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations.” Comprised of 10 separate departments, the Mossad as it exists today was formed via a directive during the leadership of Prime Minister Ben Gurion, and it stated, “For our state which since its creation has been under siege by its enemies. Intelligence constitutes the first line of defense…we must learn well how to recognize what is going on around us.”
Since then, the Mossad has been recognized by some as the greatest intelligence service in the world and one of the most ruthless and opaque by others. Since its inception in 1949, the Mossad has been credited with incredible rescues, violent assassinations, and the clever sabotage of enemy operations. Whether nefarious or essential, both critics and supporters of Mossad recognize that its estimated 1,200 employees have the unique ability to adapt to uncertain and hostile circumstances, accomplish large-scale objectives with limited resources, and persevere when seemingly hopelessly outnumbered.
The Mossad: The History and Legacy of Israel’s National Intelligence Agency looks at the agency’s organizational characteristics, historical inception, Cold War growth, and its recent influence. Along with pictures and a bibliography, you will learn about the agency like never before.
by Charles River Editors April 2019
The New Middle East
The late-summer headlines of a landmark peace accord between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization stunned and delighted citizens of conscience from every walk of life and from all over the world. Here, at last, were the first glimmerings of harmony for a region whose bloody, intractable conflicts between Arab and Jew had outlived hot and cold wars alike to become an inescapable, insoluble fact of life in our modern age.
Many men and women of peace and vision worked together to bring about this epoch-making accord, but none played a more prominent and crucial role than Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former Prime Minister, Shimon Peres. Using both behind-the-scenes statecraft and the very public platform of the international media, Peres has called for nothing less than a total transvaluation of our thinking about the future of the Middle East. Peace, he has argued eloquently, is the only alternative for Jews and Arabs poised on the verge of a new century, and a new millennium. Peace will come only as the result of compromise. Peace is the only way to prevent posterity from making the same terrible mistakes of preceding generations.
In The New Middle East Peres offers a compelling vision of the future for his region. He sees a reconstructed Middle East, free of the conflicts that plagued it in the past, set to take its place in a new era – an era that will not tolerate backwardness or ignorance. He sees a social revival, and an economic revival as well – one fueled by the billions upon billions of dollars wasted for decades on defense. But crucially, he is not fixated only on what might be. He offers a no less cogent analysis of how peace can be achieved. He seeks nothing short of a historic new chapter between two peoples: to end a hundred years of hostility, and to begin a hundred years of peace and understanding.
The New Middle East is a blueprint for the dawning of a new age. A visionary manifesto of current events no one can afford to ignore, it also may become one of the enduring political documents of our time.
by Shimon Peres (Author), Arye Naor (Author) January 1993
No Mission Is Impossible: The Death-Defying Missions of the Israeli Special Forces
A riveting follow-up to Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal’s account of the most memorable missions of the Mossad, No Mission Is Impossible sheds light on some of the most harrowing, nail-biting operations of the Israeli Special Forces.
In No Mission Is Impossible, Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal depict in electrifying detail major battles, raids in enemy territory, and the death- defying commando missions of the Israeli Special Forces. The stories are often of victories, but sometimes also of immense failures, and they run side by side with the accounts of the lives and accomplishments of some of Israel’s most prominent figures.
Captivating and eye-opening, No Mission Is Impossible is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how these crucial missions shaped Israel, and the world at large.
by Michael Bar-Zohar (Author), Nissim Mishal (Author) November 2016
The US Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Obstacle to Peace shatters mainstream propaganda narratives about the conflict, revealing the true reasons for its persistence and illuminating the path forward to a just resolution. Exclusively when you buy from this website, get a copy of the book signed by Jeremy!
by Jeremy R. Hammond, Foreword by Richard A. Falk, Introduction by Gene Epstein
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On Palestine
Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s most recent assault on Gaza, left thousands of Palestinians dead and cleared the way for another Israeli land grab. The need to stand in solidarity with Palestinians has never been greater. Ilan Pappé and Noam Chomsky, two leading voices in the struggle to liberate Palestine, discuss the road ahead for Palestinians and how the international community can pressure Israel to end its human rights abuses against the people of Palestine. On Palestine is the sequel to their acclaimed book Gaza in Crisis.
by Noam Chomsky (Author), Ilan Pappé (Author), Frank Barat (Editor) April 2015
The Ottomans: An Enthralling Overview of the Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Life of Suleiman the Magnificent (Exploring the Past)
Spanning three continents and controlling lands in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Crimea, Anatolia, the Middle East, the Levant, Egypt, and North Africa, the Ottoman Empire was one of the most menacing powers at the height of its power in the 16th century. It was feared by other great empires of Europe. But how exactly did the Ottomans achieve this great power, and how did they lose it by the early 20th century?
Suleiman the Magnificent certainly earned his name. He not only had a huge impact on the history of Turkey and the Middle East but also on the European politics of his day, allying himself with France against the Habsburgs of Spain. He is also known for his life-long love affair with Roxelana, a slave girl who became his wife and, some say, co-ruler of the empire.
by Billy Wellman January 2023
Palestine
A landmark of journalism and the art form of comics. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s, this is a major work of political and historical nonfiction. Prior to Safe Area Gorazde: The War In Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995―Joe Sacco’s breakthrough novel of graphic journalism―the acclaimed author was best known for Palestine, a two-volume graphic novel that won an American Book Award in 1996. Fantagraphics Books is pleased to present the first single-volume collection of this landmark of journalism and the art form of comics. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s (where he conducted over 100 interviews with Palestinians and Jews), Palestine was the first major comics work of political and historical nonfiction by Sacco, whose name has since become synonymous with this graphic form of New Journalism. Like Safe Area Gorazde, Palestine has been favorably compared to Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus for its ability to brilliantly navigate such socially and politically sensitive subject matter within the confines of the comic book medium. Sacco has often been called the first comic book journalist, and he is certainly the best. This edition of Palestine also features an introduction from renowned author, critic, and historian Edward Said (Peace and Its Discontents and The Question of Palestine), one of the world’s most respected authorities on the Middle Eastern conflict.
by Joe Sacco 2001
Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict
Not recommended as scolarly work and bias against arabs and Palestinians
“Kessler’s history is key to understanding the current situation between Israelis and Palestinians.” A gripping, profoundly human, yet even-handed narrative of the origins of the Middle East conflict, with enduring resonance and relevance for our time.
In spring 1936, the Holy Land erupted in a rebellion that targeted both the local Jewish community and the British Mandate authorities that for two decades had midwifed the Zionist project. The Great Arab Revolt would last three years, cost thousands of lives—Jewish, British, and Arab—and cast the trajectory for the Middle East conflict ever since. Yet incredibly, no history of this seminal, formative first “Intifada” has ever been published for a general audience.
The 1936–1939 revolt was the crucible in which Palestinian identity coalesced, uniting rival families, city and country, rich and poor in a single struggle for independence. Yet the rebellion would ultimately turn on itself, shredding the social fabric, sidelining pragmatists in favor of extremists, and propelling waves of refugees from their homes. British forces’ aggressive counterinsurgency took care of the rest, finally quashing the uprising on the eve of World War II. The revolt to end Zionism had instead crushed the Arabs themselves, leaving them crippled in facing the Jews’ own drive for statehood a decade later.
To the Jews, the insurgency would leave a very different legacy. It was then that Zionist leaders began to abandon illusions over Arab acquiescence, to face the unnerving prospect that fulfilling their dream of sovereignty might mean forever clinging to the sword. The revolt saw thousands of Jews trained and armed by Britain—the world’s supreme military power—turning their ramshackle guard units into the seed of a formidable Jewish army. And it was then, amid carnage in Palestine and the Hitler menace in Europe, that portentous words like “partition” and “Jewish state” first appeared on the international diplomatic agenda.
This is the story of two national movements and the first sustained confrontation between them. The rebellion was Arab, but the Zionist counter-rebellion—the Jews’ military, economic, and psychological transformation—is a vital, overlooked element in the chronicle of how Palestine became Israel.
Today, eight decades on, the revolt’s legacy endures. Hamas’s armed wing and rockets carry the name of the fighter-preacher whose death sparked the 1936 rebellion. When Israel builds security barriers, sets up checkpoints, or razes homes, it is evoking laws and methods inherited from its British predecessor. And when Washington promotes a “two-state solution,” it is invoking a plan with roots in this same pivotal period.
Based on extensive archival research on three continents and in three languages, Palestine 1936 is the origin story of the world’s most intractable conflict, but it is also more than that. In Oren Kessler’s engaging, journalistic voice, it reveals world-changing events through extraordinary individuals on all sides: their loves and their hatreds, their deepest fears and profoundest hopes.
by Oren Kessler 2023
Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History
This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine’s millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history.
Starting with the earliest references in Egyptian and Assyrian texts, Nur Masalha explores how Palestine and its Palestinian identity have evolved over thousands of years, from the Bronze Age to the present day. Drawing on a rich body of sources and the latest archaeological evidence, Masalha shows how Palestine’s multicultural past has been distorted and mythologised by Biblical lore and the Israel–Palestinian conflict.
In the process, Masalha reveals that the concept of Palestine, contrary to accepted belief, is not a modern invention or one constructed in opposition to Israel, but rooted firmly in ancient past. Palestine represents the authoritative account of the country’s history.
by Nur Masalha October 2023
Palestine: A Socialist Introduction
This essay collection presents a compelling and insightful analysis of the Palestinian freedom movement from a socialist perspective.
In Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, contributors examine a number of key aspects in the Palestinian struggle for liberation. These essays contextualize the situation in today’s polarized world and offer a socialist perspective on how full liberation can be won. Through an internationalist, anti-imperialist lens, this book explores the links between the struggle for freedom in the United States and that in Palestine, and beyond. Contributors examine both the historical and contemporary trajectory of the Palestine solidarity movement in order to glean lessons for today’s organizers. They argue that, in order to achieve justice in Palestine, the movement must take up the question of socialism regionally and internationally. Contributors include: Jehad Abusalim, Shireen Akram-Boshar, Omar Barghouti, Nada Elia, Toufic Haddad, Remi Kanazi, Annie Levin, Mostafa Omar, Khury Petersen-Smith, and Daphna Thier.
by Sumaya Awad (Editor), brian bean (Editor) December 2020
Palestine And Its Dreamers: All You Should Know
While living for a dream to change the world around them, how do dreamers immerse in their dream and live in it? How do they turn the dream to become their reality? How do they make their happiness and sorrows part of it? What happened to the dream and what happened to the dreamers? find out in this story, see it through the eyes of the people who lived it.
by Mohamed Ammouri June 2014
Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire
A sharp analysis of the struggle for Palestine–from the division of the Middle East by Western powers and the Zionist settler movement, to the founding of Israel and its role as a watchdog for US interests, to present day conflicts and the prospects for a just resolution. The narrative is firmly rooted in the politics of Palestinian liberation. Here is a neccesary contribution to the heroic efforts of the Palestinian people to achieve justice in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.This book contains a complete index and a timeline of developments in the history of Palestine.
by Richard Becker May 2021
The Palestinian National Revival: In the Shadow of the Leadership Crisis, 1937–1967
A former Israeli intelligence officer offers a fresh understanding of the complex history and politics of the Middle East in this new analysis. In this book, Moshe Shemesh looks at the formative years of the Palestinian national movement that emerged following the 1948 War and traces the leaders, their objectives, and their weaknesses, fragmentation, and conflicts with their neighbors.
He follows the formation of the Sons of Nakba, the establishment of Fatah, the reframing of Jordan as analogous with the Palestinian cause, and the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its new expression of nationalism until the 1967 War. With unprecedented access to Arabic sources, Shemesh provides new perspectives on inter-Arab politics and the history of the intractable Arab-Israeli conflict.
by Moshe Shemesh September 2018
Following his #1 New York Times bestseller, Our Endangered Values, the former president, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, offers an assessment of what must be done to bring permanent peace to Israel with dignity and justice to Palestine.
President Carter, who was able to negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, has remained deeply involved in Middle East affairs since leaving the White House. He has stayed in touch with the major players from all sides in the conflict and has made numerous trips to the Holy Land, most recently as an observer in the Palestinian elections of 2005 and 2006. In this book, President Carter shares his intimate knowledge of the history of the Middle East and his personal experiences with the principal actors, and he addresses sensitive political issues many American officials avoid. Pulling no punches, Carter prescribes steps that must be taken for the two states to share the Holy Land without a system of apartheid or the constant fear of terrorism.
The general parameters of a long-term, two-state agreement are well known, the president writes. There will be no substantive and permanent peace for any peoples in this troubled region as long as Israel is violating key UN resolutions, official American policy, and the international “road map” for peace by occupying Arab lands and oppressing the Palestinians. Except for mutually agreeable negotiated modifications, Israel’s official pre-1967 borders must be honored. As were all previous administrations since the founding of Israel, US government leaders must be in the forefront of achieving this long-delayed goal of a just agreement that both sides can honor.
by Jimmy Carter 2006
The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989–2011
Each phase of Arab-Israeli peacemaking has been inordinately difficult in its own right, and every critical juncture and decision point in the long process has been shaped by U.S. politics and the U.S. leaders of the moment. The Peace Puzzle tracks the American determination to articulate policy, develop strategy and tactics, and see through negotiations to agreements on an issue that has been of singular importance to U.S. interests for more than forty years.
In 2006, the authors of The Peace Puzzle formed the Study Group on Arab-Israeli Peacemaking, a project supported by the United States Institute of Peace, to develop a set of “best practices” for American diplomacy. The Study Group conducted in-depth interviews with more than 120 policymakers, diplomats, academics, and civil society figures and developed performance assessments of the various U.S. administrations of the post–Cold War period. This book, an objective account of the role of the United States in attempting to achieve a lasting Arab–Israeli peace, is informed by the authors’ access to key individuals and official archives. https://www.amazon.com/Peace-Puzzle-Americas-Arab-Israeli-1989-2011/dp/0801451477
The Pivotal Years: Israel and the Arab World 1966 – 1977 (Pro-Israel)
How Did Israel Navigate Through the Six-Day War, the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War, and Early Attempts to Resolve the Palestinian Issue to a Fragile, Imperfect Peace?
Clifford Sobin, in a captivating literary style that covers the broad sweep of eleven pivotal years, reveals in the Pivotal Years: Israel and the Arab World 1966-1977, the frightening, frustrating and inspiring events that began with the threat of Israel’s annihilation and culminated with an Egyptian President visiting Jerusalem on a mission of peace. Writing incisively, Sobin seamlessly weaves narrative and historical events in a narrative that reads like a suspenseful thriller, but that also definitively connects the dots during the most pivotal period in Israel’s history.
Over the course of one hundred linked chapters that read like a novel, you will become intimately familiar with:
The Six Day War—What led to it, how it was fought, and the aftermath.
Jordan’s attempts to play on both sides of the political fence.
The PLO’s rise.
The Yom Kippur War—How the Arabs achieved a surprise, Israel’s near defeat, and Israel’s tarnished victory.
The failures and bias of the United Nations.
The beginning of the Settlers’ movement.
How an imperfect peace was achieved.
You also will become intimately acquainted with the motives and actions of the leading personalities of the time that shaped the region, including: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Henry Kissinger, Chief of Staff David “Dadu” Elazar, Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat, President Anwar Sadat, President Hafiz al-Asad, King Hussein.
Here, you will discover how Israel survived wars, terrorism, diplomatic isolation, and internal disruption while holding to her principles that true peace with the Arab world required normalized relations and direct negotiations, not international guarantees that would only temporarily bring an absence of war.
If you have an interest in Israel, if stories of courage overcoming overwhelming odds and determination in the face of despair fascinate you
The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969-1994
In The Politics of Dispossession, Said traces his people’s struggle for statehood through twenty-five years of exile, from the PLO’s bloody 1970 exile from Jordan through the debacle of the Gulf War and the ambiguous 1994 peace accord with Israel.
As frank as he is about his personal involvement in that struggle, Said is equally unsparing in his demolition of Arab icons and American shibboleths. Stylish, impassioned, and informed by a magisterial knowledge of history and literature, The Politics of Dispossession is a masterly synthesis of scholarship and polemic that has the power to redefine the debate over the Middle East.
by Edward W. Said May 1995
The Question of Palestine
This original and deeply provocative book was the first to make Palestine the subject of a serious debate–one that remains as critical as ever. With the rigorous scholarship he brought to his influential Orientalism and an exile’s passion (he is Palestinian by birth), Edward W. Said traces the fatal collision between two peoples in the Middle East and its repercussions in the lives of both the occupier and the occupied–as well as in the conscience of the West. He has updated this landmark work to portray the changed status of Palestine and its people in light of such developments as the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the intifada, the Gulf War, and the ongoing MIddle East peace initiative. For anyone interested in this region and its future, The Question of Palestine remains the most useful and authoritative account available.
by Edward W. Said August 2015
Refuge and Resistance: Palestinians and the International Refugee System (Columbia Studies in International and Global History)
In the decades after World War II, the United Nations established a global refugee regime that became central to the lives of displaced people around the world. This regime has exerted particular authority over Palestinian refugees, who are served by a specialized UN body, the Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Formed shortly after the 1948 war, UNRWA continues to provide quasi-state services such as education and health care to Palestinian refugee communities in the Middle East today.
This book is a groundbreaking international history of Palestinian refugee politics. Anne Irfan traces the history and politics of UNRWA’s interactions with Palestinian communities, particularly in the refugee camps where it functioned as a surrogate state. She shows how Palestinian refugees invoked internationalist norms to demand their political rights while resisting the UN’s categorization of their plight as an apolitical humanitarian issue. Refuge and Resistance foregrounds how nonelite activism shaped the Palestinian campaign for international recognition, showing that engagement with world politics was driven as much by the refugee grass roots as by the upper echelons of the Palestine Liberation Organization. It demonstrates that refugee groups are important actors in global politics, not simply aid recipients.
Recasting modern Palestinian history through the lens of refugee camps and communities, Refuge and Resistance offers vital new perspectives for understanding politics beyond the nation-state.
by Anne Irfan July 2023
Rejection of Palestinian Self-Determination
The Struggle for Palestine and the Roots of the Israeli-Arab Conflict. To understand why the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians persists today, we need to understand its root causes. The Rejection of Palestinian Self-Determination deconstructs numerous historical myths with incisive reanalysis of key events during the post World War I Mandate era, illuminating how Israel was created through the wholesale violation of the rights of the Palestinian people.
This book is an overview of the crucial period from the rise of the Zionist movement until the creation of the state of Israel, examining how the seeds of the continuing conflict in the Middle East between Jews and Arabs were sown during this time. It sets out to show, by examining principle historical documents and placing key events in proper context, that the root of today’s conflict is the rejection of the right to self-determination for the Arab Palestinians.
by Jeremy R. Hammond 2009
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Return to Zion: The History of Modern Israel
The history of modern Israel is a story of ambition, violence, and survival. Return to Zion traces how a scattered and stateless people reconstituted themselves in their traditional homeland, only to face threats by those who, during the many years of the dispersion, had come to regard the land as their home. This is a story of the “ingathering of the exiles” from Europe to an outpost on the fringes of the Ottoman Empire, of courage and perseverance, and of reinvention and tragedy.
Eric Gartman focuses on two main themes of modern Israel: reconstitution and survival. Even as new settlers built their state they faced constant challenges from hostile neighbors and divided support from foreign governments, as well as being attacked by larger armies no fewer than three times during the first twenty-five years of Israel’s history. Focusing on a land torn by turmoil, Return to Zion is the story of Israel—the fight for independence through the Israeli Independence War in 1948, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the near-collapse of the Israeli Army during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Gartman examines the roles of the leading figures of modern Israel—Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Yitzchak Rabin, and Ariel Sharon—alongside popular perceptions of events as they unfolded in the post–World War II decades. He presents declassified CIA, White House, and U.S. State Department documents that detail America’s involvement in the 1967 and 1973 wars, as well as proof that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a case of mistaken identity. Return to Zion pulls together the myriad threads of this history from inside and out to create a seamless look into modern Israel’s truest self.
by Eric Gartman November 2015
Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations
The Talmud says: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” This instinct to take every measure, even the most aggressive, to defend the Jewish people is hardwired into Israel’s DNA. From the very beginning of its statehood in 1948, protecting the nation from harm has been the responsibility of its intelligence community and armed services, and there is one weapon in their vast arsenal that they have relied upon to thwart the most serious threats: Targeted assassinations have been used countless times, on enemies large and small, sometimes in response to attacks against the Israeli people and sometimes preemptively.
In this page-turning, eye-opening book, journalist and military analyst Ronen Bergman—praised by David Remnick as “arguably [Israel’s] best investigative reporter”—offers a riveting inside account of the targeted killing programs: their successes, their failures, and the moral and political price exacted on the men and women who approved and carried out the missions.
Bergman has gained the exceedingly rare cooperation of many current and former members of the Israeli government, including Prime Ministers Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as high-level figures in the country’s military and intelligence services: the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), the Mossad (the world’s most feared intelligence agency), Caesarea (a “Mossad within the Mossad” that carries out attacks on the highest-value targets), and the Shin Bet (an internal security service that implemented the largest targeted assassination campaign ever, in order to stop what had once appeared to be unstoppable: suicide terrorism).
Including never-before-reported, behind-the-curtain accounts of key operations, and based on hundreds of on-the-record interviews and thousands of files to which Bergman has gotten exclusive access over his decades of reporting, Rise and Kill First brings us deep into the heart of Israel’s most secret activities. Bergman traces, from statehood to the present, the gripping events and thorny ethical questions underlying Israel’s targeted killing campaign, which has shaped the Israeli nation, the Middle East, and the entire world.
by Ronen Bergman July 2019
The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy
Exposes one of the most well-protected political-military secrets of the Cold War. Ever since the early 1950s, Israel has had one military eye firmly fixed on atomic weapons as a means of salvation, using them primarily as a military threat for both offensive and defensive purposes. Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize winner, expounds on the steady but quiet growth of an Israeli nuclear industry that proved so successful that Israel was able to coerce several U.S. administrations into doing its bidding. He also explores in depth Israeli access to U.S. intelligence satellite technologies that resulted from inattention by Washington leaders as well as from the four years of insider spying by Jonathan Jay Pollard. He reveals that the Soviet Union has been targeted by Israeli nuclear warheads since the mid-1980s. Unlike several other recent expos es of Israeli intelligence apparatus (Ian Black and Benny Morris’s Israel’s Secret Wars , LJ 8/91, and Andrew and Leslie Cockburn’s Dangerous Liaison , LJ 6/15/91), Hersh follows the threads of a specific intelligence focus while highlighting U.S. policies that ultimately ignore the very real presence of the Israeli nuclear arsenal. This incredibly well-written book should be in every collection.
by Seymour M. Hersh October 1991
Shortest History of Israel and Palestine
Newly updated, an accessible chronicle of how the Israel-Palestine conflict originated and developed over the past century. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read.
The ongoing struggle between Israel and Palestine is one of the most bitter conflicts in history, with profound global consequences. In this book, Middle East expert Michael Scott-Baumann succinctly describes its origins and charts its evolution from civil war to the present day. Each chapter offers a lucid explanation of the politics and ends with personal testimony from Palestinians and Israelis whose lives have been overshadowed by violence.
While presenting competing interpretations, Scott-Baumann examines key flash points including the early role of the British, the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the Six-Day War of 1967, the Trump administration’s 2020 peace plan, and the war ignited by Hamas’s surprise attacks on Israel in 2023. He delineates both the nature of Israeli control over the Palestinian territories and Palestinian resistance—going to the heart of recent clashes. The result is an indispensable history, including a time line, glossary, and analysis of why efforts to restore peace have continually failed—at immense human cost on both sides of the conflict—and what it will take to succeed.
by Michael Scott-Baumann 2023
Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine
More than twenty years ago, in the midst of widespread violence in Israel and Palestine, a group of Israeli and Palestinian teachers gathered to address what, to many people, seemed an unbridgeable gulf between the two societies. Struck by how different the standard Israeli and Palestinian textbook histories of the same events were from one another—whether of the Balfour Declaration or the 1967 War—they began to explore how a new understanding of history itself might open up different kinds of dialogue in an increasingly hostile climate. Their express goal was to “disarm” the teaching of Middle East history in Israeli and Palestinian classrooms.
The result is a riveting and unprecedented “dual narrative” of Israeli and Palestinian history. Side by Side comprises the history of two peoples, in separate narratives set literally side by side, so that readers can track each against the other, noting both where they differ as well as where they correspond. This unique and fascinating format, translated into English from Arabic and Hebrew, reveals surprising juxtapositions and allows readers to consider and process the very different viewpoints and logic of each side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
An eye-opening—and inspiring—new approach to thinking about one of the world’s most deeply entrenched conflicts, Side by Side is a now classic book that offers to its readers a way to discuss and perhaps help find a bridge to peace in the Middle East.
by Sami Adwan (Editor), Dan Bar-On (Editor), Eyal Naveh (Editor) March 2012
Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East
Though it lasted for only six tense days in June, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades, from the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to the ongoing intifada, is a direct consequence of those six days of fighting.
Writing with a novelist’s command of narrative and a historian’s grasp of fact and motive, Michael B. Oren reconstructs both the lightning-fast action on the battlefields and the political shocks that electrified the world. Extraordinary personalities—Moshe Dayan and Gamal Abdul Nasser, Lyndon Johnson and Alexei Kosygin—rose and toppled from power as a result of this war; borders were redrawn; daring strategies brilliantly succeeded or disastrously failed in a matter of hours. And the balance of power changed—in the Middle East and in the world. A towering work of history and an enthralling human narrative, Six Days of War is the most important book on the Middle East conflict to appear in a generation.
by Michael B. Oren June 2003
The Struggle for Palestine
Leading international solidarity activists offer insight into the ongoing struggle for Palestinian freedom and justice. Includes Anthony Arnove, Naseer Aruri, David Barsamian, Paul D’Amato, Phil Gasper, Toufic Haddad, Tikva Honig-Parnass, Rania Masri, Tanya Reinhart, Edward Said, and Ahmed Shawki.
by Lance Selfa (Editor) June 2002
Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine–A Tale of Two Narratives
Disputes over settlements, the right of return, the rise of Hamas, recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, and other intractable issues have repeatedly derailed peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
Now, in a book that is sure to spark controversy, renowned peacemaker Padraig O’Malley argues that the moment for a two-state solution has passed. After examining each issue and speaking with Palestinians and Israelis as well as negotiators directly involved in past summits, O’Malley concludes that even if such an agreement could be reached, it would be nearly impossible to implement given the staggering costs, Palestine’s political disunity and the viability of its economy, rapidly changing demographics, Israel’s continuing political shift to the right, global warming’s effect on the water supply, and more.
In this revelatory, hard-hitting book, O’Malley approaches the key issues pragmatically, without ideological bias, to show that we must find new frameworks for reconciliation if there is to be lasting peace between Palestine and Israel.
by Padraig O’Malley 2015
Under Siege: P.L.O. Decisionmaking During the 1982 War
A fascinating and often terrifying firsthand account of the 1982 war in Lebanon, Under Siege vividly reveals the complex negotiations and military maneuvers which ended with the evacuation of the P.L.O. from Beirut. Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian, lived with his family in Beirut during the siege and ensuing massacres. Using many usually inaccessible sources, such as P.L.O. telexes and government messages, and interviews with key military officials and diplomats, he tells the story from the compelling viewpoint of those living amid the fighting. Khalidi provides a carefully detailed picture of the P.L.O. from within, the local Lebanese environment, the military pressure on the P.L.O. and Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, and of U.S. diplomacy during the crisis. While focusing primarily on the inner workings of the P.L.O., the author also addresses various aspects of Lebanese and inter-Arab politics and examines the military and diplomatic behavior of involved outside parties such as the United States, France, and the former Soviet Union.
by Rashid Khalidi December 1985
The Wars of the Jews
In 66 CE, unrest and disquiet among Jewish peoples in Roman-occupied Jerusalem boiled over, first into open rebellion and then into all-out war. The following seven years would see bloodshed on a massive scale, as the Roman Empire sought to re-establish control over Judea. This would culminate in the Siege of Masada, in which a corps of several hundred defenders, alongside non-combatants, held out against the might of a Roman legion — to this day, a symbol of heroism, resilience, and resistance among the Jewish people.
Flavius Josephus was present in Judea at the time of the conflict, and he documented the unfolding carnage. Himself an adherent of the Jewish faith, Josephus examines the tumultuous period across seven books, analyzing first the history of the Jews in the region before chronicling the enormity of the conflict. His work remains a vital component of contemporary understanding of the First Jewish-Roman War even though the original version — written in Aramaic or Hebrew, most probably – did not survive. This version of the book was translated from Greek to English by William Whiston.
by Flavius Josephus (Author), William Whiston (Translator) November 2022
Water Conflict: Economics, Politics, Law and the Palestinian-Israeli Water Resources
This study of the conflict over the natural water resources of geographic Palestine — Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip — is the first comprehensive examination of all the region’s shared water sources and the economics of their use in agriculture, households, and industry. The author’s detailed survey of the surface and groundwater resources provides essential data for understanding both the extent and limits of the water supply for Israelis and Palestinians. By focusing on both the scarcity and the commonality of the water resources, he demonstrates why water has become a contentious issue between Israel and the Palestinians. The author argues that a just solution of the conflict over water is an indispensable ingredient of a comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
By Sharif S. Elmusa 1997
https://store.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1648392
Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn
Meticulously researched while reading like a fast-paced thriller, this explosive new book details the way the Israel lobby deployed charges of anti-Semitism to destroy Jeremy Corbyn’s bid for power as leader of the Labour Party.
In an electrifying account, investigative journalist Asa Winstanley shows how Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis was manufactured by pro-Israel groups. Despised and feared by Israel and its allies because of his long-standing support for the Palestine solidarity movement, Jeremy Corbyn became a target of enemies determined to abort his left-wing project. Drawing on new interviews with many of those victimized in purges the Labour leadership claimed were necessary to tackle anti-Semitism, Winstanley exposes a plot by the Israel lobby, in alliance with the Labour right and Israeli and British intelligence agencies, to prevent a socialist entering Downing Street. An essential historical corrective, Weaponising Anti-Semitism shines light into the murkiest corners of the British state and those who work with it.
by Asa Winstanley May 2023
What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
In this book, Elan Journo explains the essential nature of the conflict, and what has fueled it for so long. What justice demands, he shows, is that we evaluate both adversaries—and America’s approach to the conflict—according to a universal moral ideal: individual liberty. From that secular moral framework, the book analyzes the conflict, examines major Palestinian grievances and Israel’s character as a nation, and explains what’s at stake for everyone who values human life, freedom, and progress. What Justice Demands shows us why America should be strongly supportive of freedom and freedom-seekers—but, in this conflict and across the Middle East, it hasn’t been, much to our detriment.
by Elan Journo October 2023
Whose Holy Land?: The Roots of the Conflict Between Jews and Arabs
This book explains the historical roots of the conflict between Jews and Arabs, which has lost none of its explosiveness to the present day, in a comprehensive and easy-to-understand manner.
The question of who owns the Holy Land is more relevant today than ever. The debates on this topic are often characterized by ignorance and strong emotions, while partiality and power interests still obscure the view on the political situation in the Middle East.
Shaking up old myths and prejudices, this book presents an overall historical as well as political analysis of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim structures, actors, and actions from the very beginning to this very day, as well as a topical analysis. It combines history with theology and political science.
Thus, the book is a must-read for scholars and students of political science, history, and international relations, as well as policy-makers, interested in a better understanding of the historical background and current political situation in the Middle East.
by Michael Wolffsohn 2021
Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories
Updated & revised in 2014 with new photos, appendices, testimonials, and afterword. Full color, original photographs, maps, and stories — popular for classrooms, book groups, etc. From back cover: Anna Baltzer, a young Jewish American, visited the West Bank to discover for herself the realities of everyday life for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. What she found would change her outlook on the issue forever. For eight months over the following four years, Baltzer lived and worked with farmers, Palestinian and Israeli activists, and the families of political prisoners, traveling with them across checkpoints and roadblocks to reach hospitals, universities, and olive groves. Baltzer witnessed firsthand the devastation wrought by expanding settlements and the Wall. She also encountered countless Palestinian grievances beyond the occupation, of non-Jews living in a Jewish state and refugees yearning to return to their homes and land. Baltzer’s probing and honest examination of the occupation, Zionism, and the pervasive spirit of Palestinian resilience offer a fresh look at Palestine today.
by Anna Baltzer August 2007
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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict
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