Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

by Norman G. Finkelstein

Book Overview

"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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1859844421
• ISBN13: 9781859844427
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Verso
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Finkelstein Review

So far the book is structured in a sound manner and delves into the oft neglected portions of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Finkelstein references a plethora of sources, Israeli and otherwise that lend credence to his thesis. I recommend this to anyone that wants a more cogent and coherent view of the dilemma taking place in Middle East.

detailed insight which is never discussed in the media

This work is very important for people to read as it provides a worthwhile alternative view to Israeli history. I can't determine from my own research whether the author is totally right or wrong in his thesis, but the one thing that I can say is that like all history, it is important to hear all sides of a story.Anyone who believes (as portrayed in the mainstream media) that Israel is the font of reason and love in the middle east and simply wants to be left alone to exist, and that it is the Arab States (and Palestinians) which cause all the problems in the area must read this book simply to inform themselves of other perspectives. To believe what is said in the media these days, you would never know about the history of land encroachment etc by Israel. The settlements which are still expanding to this day were going on since 1948! These things came as news to me, and simply points to the need to inform oneself about history from both sides, including the Arab side. You very rarely (never?) see or hear this side of the argument in the US. It is that very fact which should indicate that reading this version of history is important - ignorance is the foundation of an unfair world.Read this book!

A Rare Example of Scrupulous Scholarship

If you want to understand the origins of the on-going tragedy of the Intifada, read this book. But it will take nerves of steel. You will be confronted with facts that will upset every one of your preconceived notions about Israel and the Palestinian conflict. If that prospect sacres you, don't read this book. Otherwise, reading this work is a great, liberating experience.Norman Finkelstein (Princeton University PhD & Professor at De Paul University) wows his reader with his scholarship but also his integrity. One can only admire his intellectual courage and probity for having painstakingly analysed the complex array of social, political and ideological forces that shaped the rise of the Zionist movement and which led simultaneously to the creation of Israel and the tragic displacement of the indigenous Palestinian population. And he accomplishes this remarkable feat in 240 pages. As a scrupulous historian, his most important contribution is the courage to debunk so many of the myths that surround the rise of the Israeli state and that pass as common currency in America. Finkelstein is loathe to advance a fact without detailed argumentation, backed up by very thorough research and abundant footnotes. 27% of his book is made up of very carefully crafted notes, each drilling down further his searh for historical veracity. He chases down the truth/falsehood of every fact, exposing the fraudulent work of so-called "experts" (Joan Peters), challenges the political bias of some of today's leading Israeli historians (Benny Morris), and punches holes through the inconsistencies of respected Zionist apologists (Anita Shapira), letting the historical cards fall where they may, without allowing Nationalist ideology to warp or intimidate his findings. Finkelstein's book renders a very considerable public service in enlightening our minds to the many inherited falsehoods that masquerade as truth regarding the reality of the Israel-Palestine conflict. For this, we all, Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans owe him a great debt.

A brilliantly written, thought provoking scholarly book. (From Shifra Stern)

Dr. Norman Finkelstein has written a brilliant and scholarly expose of the Israel-Palestine conflict. He is not a dispassionate historian/scholar nor does he pretend to be. He dedicates the book to his parents, survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazi extermination camps: "May I never forget or forgive what was done to them." Finkelstein's keen intellect is breathtaking. His painstaking research which supports the evidence how the "reality" of the causes of the conflict is vastly different than the "image" presented to us by the media is a marvel to behold. My favorite chapters in the book are chapters 2 and 4. In Chapter 2, he discusses Joan Peters book "From Time Immemorial" and masterfully exposes it as a hoax. The crux of Peters' thesis was that "Palestine was, literally, 'uninhabited' on the eve of the Zionist colonization; and that if the Arab population did not materialize, literally, ex nihilo in Palestine, it did surreptitiously enter to exploit the economic opportunities that the Jews created when they made the 'desert bloom'." By that logic, most Palestinians were not even there in 1948 to be expelled from their homes. The fact that such a threadbare hoax can be published in this country is not surprising. But the fact that this book received accolades from journalists and scholars alike, from such luminaries as Daniel Pipes, Sidney Zion, Holocaust historian Lucy Dawidowicz, and Nobel peace prize laureate Elie Wiesel, speaks volumes about the American commissar culture. After the book went through several printings and was exposed as an utter fraud in Britain, it finally prompted Anthony Lewis to write a column for The New York Times aptly entitled "There Were No Indians." Perhaps the most illuminating part of the book is Chapter 4 entitled "Settlement, Not Conquest." Finkelstein's dissection of how the historical rhetoric and justifications for conquest are strikingly similar -- "from the British in North America to the Dutch in South Africa, from the Nazis in Eastern Europe, to the Zionists in Palestine" -- is both enlightening and comical. Finally, it is noteworthy to mention Finkelstein's poignant observation for those of us who want to see justice done to the Palestinians and to all people who are suffering as a direct result of America's diplomatic and military support to the darkest and most oppressive regimes around the globe: "The plea of 'not knowing' cannot in good faith be entered at history's bar. Those who want to know can know the truth; at all events, enough of it to draw the just conclusions." To buttress his point, he quotes Albert Speer's mea culpa at Nuremberg: "Whether I knew or did not know, or how much or little I knew, is totally unimportant when I consider the horrors I OUGHT to have known about and what conclusions would have been natural ones to draw from the little I did know . . ." Thus, Finkelstein co