Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

Front Cover
Verso, May 17, 2003 - History - 287 pages
“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.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Zionist Orientations
7
A Land Without a People
21
Born of War Not by Design
51
Settlement Not Conquest
88
War and Peace
121
To Live or Perish
123
Language of Force
150
Oslo The Apartheid Option
172
Abba Eban with Footnotes
184
Notes
199
Index
281
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page ix - The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.
Page xvi - Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force; 2.
Page 4 - Whether I knew or did not know, or how much or how little I knew, is totally unimportant when I consider what horrors I ought to have known about and what conclusions would have been the natural ones to draw from the little I did know. Those who ask me are fundamentally expecting me to offer justifications. But I have none. No apologies are possible.

About the author (2003)

Norman G. Finkelstein is the author of A Nation on Trial (with Ruth Bettina Birn), named a notable book for 1998 by the New York Times Book Review, and Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.