Image and Reality of the Israel–Palestine Conflict

Image and Reality of the Israel–Palestine Conflict
Cover of the first edition
Author Norman Finkelstein
Country United States
Language English
Subject Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Publisher Verso Books
Publication date
 1995
Media type Print
Pages 256 (second edition)
ISBN 978-1859844427

Image and Reality of the Israel–Palestine Conflict is a 1995 book about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict by Norman G. Finkelstein. Finkelstein examines and scrutinizes popular historical versions of the conflict by authors such as Joan Peters, Benny Morris, Anita Shapira and Abba Eban. The text draws upon Finkelstein's doctoral political science work. The 2003 revised edition offers an additional appendix devoted to criticism of Michael Oren's 2002 bestseller Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East.

Finkelstein, expanding upon his doctorate thesis, writes that the modern Zionist historical tradition is based on a series of ideologically-charged systematic biases, all of which face considerable problems when measured up with the actual record in his view. For example, he specifically refers to the Palestinian exodus before Israeli independence and the purported causes. Finkelstein credits Zionist military aggression upon Palestinian villages and calls for a transfer of populations as driving Palestinian refugees out of their lands, rather than a voluntary exodus occurring mixed in with orders to leave from Arabic leaders and other factors as Israeli historians have written. He goes into detail on issues such as Israel's exploitation of water rights.[1]

His book received praise from authors critical of Israel, including Noam Chomsky and William B. Quandt.[2] Supportive reviews appeared in publications such as Foreign Affairs, The Guardian and the London Review of Books. Critical reviews drawing problems with Finkelstein's historical work appeared in publications such as the Middle East Quarterly.

Reviews and reception

Noam Chomsky remarked in The Guardian that he found the book to be "the most revealing study of the historical background of the conflict"[3]

London Review of Books published a review stating that the book served as "both an impressive analysis of Zionist ideology and a searing but scholarly indictment of Israel's treatment of the Arabs since 1948."[3]

William B. Quandt, in a short review in Foreign Affairs, praised the book as "required reading in the continuing war of the historians."[4]

The Middle East Quarterly ran a highly critical review by Daniel Pipes, who stated that "Finkelstein hates the State of Israel with a venom" and provides nothing worth reading since Finkelstein "dwells obsessively with Israel's faults and shows no interest at all in Arabs". Pipes specifically pans how Finkelstein "time and again compares Israelis to Nazis, and on the most minor of pretexts", which Pipes sees as "the most noxious aspect of Image and Reality".[5]

Historian Avi Shlaim remarked that the "book makes a major contribution to the study of the Arab-Israeli conflict which deserves to be widely read, especially in the United States.”[3]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Finkelstein, Norman G. (2003). Image and reality of the Israel-Palestine conflict (2nd ed.). London: Verso. p. 174. ISBN 1-85984-442-1. Retrieved 15 August 2014. Although Israel does 'recognize Palestinian water rights in the West Bank', these rights do not include the 'ownership of the water', which will be the subject to the permanent status negotiations. Indeed, Israel already claims the legal title to most of the West Bank water on the basis of 'historic usage'. That is, having stolen Palestinian water for nearly three decades, Israelis now proclaim it is theirs.
  2. ↑ Bogdanor, Paul (2017-07-05). The Jewish Divide Over Israel: Accusers and Defenders. Routledge. ISBN 9781351480482.
  3. 1 2 3 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  4. ↑ Quandt, William B. "Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict -- Capsule Review". Foreign Affairs (May/June 1996).
  5. ↑ Review of Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

References

Finkelstein, Norman G. (2003): Image and Reality of the Israel–Palestine Conflict, Verso Books, ISBN 1-85984-442-1

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