Understanding Palestine & Israel

by Phyllis Bennis

Genres: Nonfiction, History

240 pages, Paperback

Published February 25, 2025

Reviews

[Brett Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

Serves as a primer to understanding the Israel/Palestine conflict, basically laid out in a Q&A format explaining the ins and outs, the key players, the history of the conflict and how we got to where things are today. This includes October 7 and the all-out war on Gaza that followed.

This is about as up to date as a book can get. The book goes up until the end of 2024 so it ends during the transition period where Trump is poised to return to the presidency but is just before the ceasefire was reached in January 2025 (and now seems to have fallen apart as of recent).

This book is unabashedly pro-Palestine so the questions are all answered through that lens. Which is fine, but at the same time I wouldn’t have minded a perspective that attempted to explain the multitude of Palestinian and Israeli perspectives and leave it up to the reader to make up their mind. I’m on board with most of the arguments (and they are articulated quite well), but I also know when it comes to a long and complicated conflict like that I need as many sides and vantage points as possible to make sense of it all.

All the same, extremely informative and would recommend. To anyone seeking to well, understand Palestine and Israel.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is in question/answer format, so it's an excellent resource for quickly finding concise information for specific assumptions, headlines, concerns, and talking points surrounding Israel and Palestine - everything from history to the ongoing siege to protests to politics.

I read it cover to cover, so information was repeated.
But that was to be expected, and appreciated tbh, because each answer is comprehensive and doesn't assume the reader has read the all of the previous questions and answers.

Definitely recommend, especially as a primer, to get you thinking, or to use as reference.

[Sebastian Rothering · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re wanting to either educate yourself or enhance your knowledge of the Israel/Palestine/Gaza conflict, look no further than here. Dr Bennis is a fantastic communicator, writer and researcher making this an absolute must to understand the implications today from over eight decades of conflict along with the United States role in it. Can’t recommend it enough!

[Ali Amer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does a really good job at breaking down the history and critically examines the consequences of decisions made.