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Arabs and Israel for Beginners (For Beginners) (For Beginners (Steerforth Press))
by Ron David
Product Group: Book
Publisher: For Beginners (2007-08-21)
ISBN: 1934389161
EAN: 9781934389164
Dewy Decimal #: 956
Paperback: 224 pages
SKU: B259-1508
Condition: Like New
Comments: UNREAD but may have minor imperfections such as a crease or mark. In stock - quick dispatch, from an efficient and professional leading British bookselling firm.
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Customer Reviews
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Grossly Biased - About as subtle as a 'Horrible History' book.
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-07-21
This is a grossly incorrect book that would have you believe every Israeli is a monster. While I appreciate that biased accounts will come from both sides, this book attempts to present itself as some sort of balanced historical account.
As someone who's generally very sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians, even I found this book to be grossly anti Israel. Only possible to read as some sort of tongue in cheek approach, this is otherwise best avoided when there are so many more books on the subject.
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Arabs and Israel For Beginners
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-02-19
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
The conflict in the Middle East is the most intractable and longest running offence against democracy, religion and truth in modern history. Much of what has been written about it is simply propaganda and a concerted effort has been made by fanatics to keep rational discussion or scholarship from having a voice. Both the disinformation of the Zionist movement (both in Israel and in the U. S.) and the disastrous undermining of Arab, Palestinian and other Middle Eastern voices by religious fundamentalism, have served to cloud and confuse a conflict which demands clarity of understanding and dispassionate scholarship.
Dispassionate Ron David is not, yet he does manage to be impartial. It is this remarkable moral achievement which makes me recommend this book as a first point of study. David, a Lebanese American, wrote Arabs and Israel for Beginners in the early 1990s, rooting it in the perspective of 12,000 years of human settlement of the Middle East but making clear that the current conflict was a product of modern (post and anti-enlightenment) European history. His sources are for the most part unimpeachable and where they are questionable he is ruthless in examining their motives. He is a very angry but very clear moral voice.
What this book serves as is a hugely useful scene-setter for anyone wishing to get in to some serious study of the Palestine wars. I don't recommend using a comic book as your final source, but as an overview and starting point, you could not do better.
Next stop, Chomsky.
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Pure Propaganda
Rating (1)
Date: 2007-12-08
0 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is Arab propaganda and nothing else. There are a few select half-truths in this book but even those are distorted to present the Arab side of this most complex story.
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