What do you think?
Rate this book
Why Blame Israel?: The Facts Behind the Headlines
This book examines the true history of the conflict and asks what could inspire such a caricature or whether any truth contributes to this. Should Israel shoulder the blame, or are the realities of the conflict far more complex?. And how can a geographically tiny state be thought to have such a profound effect on world politics?
276 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Neill Lochery
17 books33 followersNeill Lochery, PhD, is a world-renowned source on Israel, the Middle East, and Mediterranean history. He is the author of five books and countless newspaper and magazine articles. He regularly appears on television in the UK, the USA, and the Middle East. He is currently based at University College London and divides his time between London, Lisbon, and the Middle East.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 1, 2022
"Why Blame Israel" by Neil Lochery attempts to get to the bottom of some of the persistant prejudices and untruths about Israel , and it's war against Arab terror , and to explore the reality of the conflict and Israeli politics.
As Julie Burchill so aptly puts it : " There exists a quite striking bias against Israel. Neill Lochery's excellent , accesible book is a must read for anyone wanting a tonic to this persistent and illogical prejudice".
Lochery describes the battle over the existance of Israel as "the battle of the maps" from maps purporting to show the first Jewish settlements after the return to the Land of Israel , to attempts by the international powers to divide the land , to the maps dividing the Land of Israel today such as the "Oslo Redeployment" map.,
Lochery provides us with several maps in the middle of the book showing the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 for the partition of the Middle East of 1916 , the map of British Mandate Palestine , which includes all of modern Israel , the Disputed territories and Jordan folowed by a map showing how 78.2% of the Palestine Mandate was cut off by the British in 1922 to create the Arab Kingdom of Transjordan , leaving 22.8% for the Jewish homeland which included what today are the Disputed territories in the ancient Jewish homeland of Judea and Samaria. The "Palestinian" Arabs now had their State in most of what before 1922 was known as "Palestine".
Maps No 3 and 4 show British attempts to limit the Jewish presence to a fraction of "Western Palestine" : The Peel Commission recommendation for the partition of "Palestine" in 1937 an the Woodhead reccomendation for the partition of "Palestine" in 1938.
Map No 5 shows the United Nations partition plan , which divided the remaining 23% of Palestine into a Jewish State and a SECOND Arab Palestinian State (Trans-Jordan being the first) based upon population concentrations. The Jews accepted... the Arabs rejected. The Arabs still wanted ALL of Palestine... both east AND west of the Jordan River .
Other maps show Israel's borders after the War of Independence (1948) and the Six Day War (1967) , Israel's very strategic width as a result of the 1949 borders and the Oslo Redeployment map under which large parts of the Land of Israel were to be turned over to PLO control.
Lochery also reminds us how the deep rooted conflict is characterized by visual images , describing how two images have come to characterize the Arab-Israeli conflict : A burned out bus with only it's basic structure intact , symbolizing the grisly Arab strategy of sucide bombing in which hundreds of Israeli men , women and children have been murdered and maimed , which reduced life in Israel into a peverse game of Russian roulette were Israelis going about their ordinary life could never know if they would live or die.
The second image is of "an Israeli soldier firing on a Palestinian and the wounded Palestinian being carried onto a waiting ambulance". The latter image however is usually doctored by the media sources who hide the reality that the Israelis were only firing in self defence after having come under attack from the Arabs.
As Lochery puts it: " Sadly nowadays it would appear that most images are used in conjunction with largely ill informed reporting. The reports are shown by television companies dominated by a left-of-centre political culture to reinforce stereotypical perceptions such as the notion of the Israelis as opressors and the Palestinians as victims. Coverage of the alleged massacre of the Palestinians by the Israeli army in the refugee camp at Jenin in 2002 illustrates this in-built political correctness. Many television companies were quick to act as judge and jury and convict Israel of commiting a terible crime against the Palestinians , relying on accounts by local Palestinians and second hand accounts by aid workers in the area. As we now know , no such massacre took place and when the area was opened up to the international press , revised versions of events had to be put out by the news networks , who had in effect broken codes of practise in reporting such events. Once more the humanistic story with pieces to camera by clearly anti-Israel reporters had replaced hard facts"
The author points out how in the last few decades , there has been such a disproportionate amount of intrerest from the media , academics , diplomats and politicians (almost all of it prejudiced and hostile) that one has to be reminded that the population of Israel is only 6.5 million people , and that Israel takes up less than one percent of the land surface of the Middle East. Israel takes up more news hours than any other country in the world , with the exception of the United States.
The book traces the Oslo negotiations and the reasons for the failure of the Camp David talks in 2000 , when in a response to a generous offer by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to hand over almost all of the Disputed Territories (including most of East Jerusalem) to the Palestinian Authority , Arafat stormed out of the talk and launched a terror war against the Israeli people.
Lochery analyses the reasoning behind Arafat's actions, that the Israeli people would be unable to deal with being murdered in buses and on the streets , and would pressure their government to return to negotiations and give further concessions to the PA.
I believe that Arafat smelled weakness and believed that the time was ripe for the complete destruction of Israel and the genocide of her Jews. He may have underestimated the survival instinct of the Jewish people , but still the goal of the Palestinians , radical Arab/Islamic regimes and the international Hard Left remains the complete destruction of Israel.
The author explains that the Nazi holocaust , and the allied inaction in the face of this , tought Jews that only they alone can defend themselves , and that is why Israel will never agree to dismantle it's nuclear programme , which is for the purpose of defence only , preventing the genocide of Israel's Jews, unlike the nuclear weapons programme of Iran and other Islamic states , which is explicitly for the purpose of anihilating Israel.
Lochery then goes on to outline the history of the ancient Jewish link to the Land of Israel and the fact that over the millenia in exile , Jews never forgot their dream to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland.Lochery analyses the period of the British Mandate and the reason for the British , after having promised the Jews their support for the re-establishment of a State in "Palestine" , did all they could to circumvent this and help the Arabs against the Jews.
He outlines the re-birth of Israel in 1948 , the political history of Israel and it's struggle for a place among the nations , Israel's struggle for peace and the Arab refusal to accept Israel's existance , as well as the divisions within Israeli society. He also touches on the deep seated Jew-hatred and bloodlust against Israel that is such a deep rooted part of Arab and Islamic culture , such as the perfidious and absurd propaganda equating Zionism with Nazism by the Arab media (echoed by the prejudiced Leftist media and academia and hate-filled far-left politicians around the world) , and the labelling of Jews as sons of pigs and monkeys in the media in Moslem countries and in Islamic religious circles.
While he outlines the differences within the approaches of the "Left" and "Right" camps in Israel as to how peace can be brought about and Israel's survival secured , he points out how the Israeli "Right" have warned that the 1998 withdrawal from Lebanon and the offer of Barak to cede Gaza , and almost all of the West Bank (Judea-Samaria) and East Jerusalem far from bringing about peace , convinced the Arabs that the end was near , and spurred them on to further acts of terror. While the author urges the withdrawal by Israel from Gaza and parts of Judea-Samaria , the actual withdrawal from Gaza not long after the book's publication simply led to more terrorist attacks into Israel from Gaza and South Lebanon , leading to Israel's eventual retaliation and the subsequent usual world anti-Israel blood-hysteria.
The author explores the so-called Road Map , backed by the USA , Russia and the UN , and poses the question as to whether this can bring peace. I believe that no moves can be made towards peace before the Arabs and their fellow travellers on the international left accept Israel's existance and right to be here[...].
Merged review:
"Why Blame Israel" by Neil Lochery attempts to get to the bottom of some of the persistant prejudices and untruths about Israel , and it's war against Arab terror , and to explore the reality of the conflict and Israeli politics.
As Julie Burchill so aptly puts it : " There exists a quite striking bias against Israel. Neill Lochery's excellent , accesible book is a must read for anyone wanting a tonic to this persistent and illogical prejudice".
Lochery describes the battle over the existance of Israel as "the battle of the maps" from maps purporting to show the first Jewish settlements after the return to the Land of Israel , to attempts by the international powers to divide the land , to the maps dividing the Land of Israel today such as the "Oslo Redeployment" map.,
Lochery provides us with several maps in the middle of the book showing the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 for the partition of the Middle East of 1916 , the map of British Mandate Palestine , which includes all of modern Israel , the Disputed territories and Jordan folowed by a map showing how 78.2% of the Palestine Mandate was cut off by the British in 1922 to create the Arab Kingdom of Transjordan , leaving 22.8% for the Jewish homeland which included what today are the Disputed territories in the ancient Jewish homeland of Judea and Samaria. The "Palestinian" Arabs now had their State in most of what before 1922 was known as "Palestine".
Maps No 3 and 4 show British attempts to limit the Jewish presence to a fraction of "Western Palestine" : The Peel Commission recommendation for the partition of "Palestine" in 1937 an the Woodhead reccomendation for the partition of "Palestine" in 1938.
Map No 5 shows the United Nations partition plan , which divided the remaining 23% of Palestine into a Jewish State and a SECOND Arab Palestinian State (Trans-Jordan being the first) based upon population concentrations. The Jews accepted... the Arabs rejected. The Arabs still wanted ALL of Palestine... both east AND west of the Jordan River .
Other maps show Israel's borders after the War of Independence (1948) and the Six Day War (1967) , Israel's very strategic width as a result of the 1949 borders and the Oslo Redeployment map under which large parts of the Land of Israel were to be turned over to PLO control.
Lochery also reminds us how the deep rooted conflict is characterized by visual images , describing how two images have come to characterize the Arab-Israeli conflict : A burned out bus with only it's basic structure intact , symbolizing the grisly Arab strategy of sucide bombing in which hundreds of Israeli men , women and children have been murdered and maimed , which reduced life in Israel into a peverse game of Russian roulette were Israelis going about their ordinary life could never know if they would live or die.
The second image is of "an Israeli soldier firing on a Palestinian and the wounded Palestinian being carried onto a waiting ambulance". The latter image however is usually doctored by the media sources who hide the reality that the Israelis were only firing in self defence after having come under attack from the Arabs.
As Lochery puts it: " Sadly nowadays it would appear that most images are used in conjunction with largely ill informed reporting. The reports are shown by television companies dominated by a left-of-centre political culture to reinforce stereotypical perceptions such as the notion of the Israelis as opressors and the Palestinians as victims. Coverage of the alleged massacre of the Palestinians by the Israeli army in the refugee camp at Jenin in 2002 illustrates this in-built political correctness. Many television companies were quick to act as judge and jury and convict Israel of commiting a terible crime against the Palestinians , relying on accounts by local Palestinians and second hand accounts by aid workers in the area. As we now know , no such massacre took place and when the area was opened up to the international press , revised versions of events had to be put out by the news networks , who had in effect broken codes of practise in reporting such events. Once more the humanistic story with pieces to camera by clearly anti-Israel reporters had replaced hard facts"
The author points out how in the last few decades , there has been such a disproportionate amount of intrerest from the media , academics , diplomats and politicians (almost all of it prejudiced and hostile) that one has to be reminded that the population of Israel is only 6.5 million people , and that Israel takes up less than one percent of the land surface of the Middle East. Israel takes up more news hours than any other country in the world , with the exception of the United States.
The book traces the Oslo negotiations and the reasons for the failure of the Camp David talks in 2000 , when in a response to a generous offer by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to hand over almost all of the Disputed Territories (including most of East Jerusalem) to the Palestinian Authority , Arafat stormed out of the talk and launched a terror war against the Israeli people.
Lochery analyses the reasoning behind Arafat's actions, that the Israeli people would be unable to deal with being murdered in buses and on the streets , and would pressure their government to return to negotiations and give further concessions to the PA.
I believe that Arafat smelled weakness and believed that the time was ripe for the complete destruction of Israel and the genocide of her Jews. He may have underestimated the survival instinct of the Jewish people , but still the goal of the Palestinians , radical Arab/Islamic regimes and the international Hard Left remains the complete destruction of Israel.
The author explains that the Nazi holocaust , and the allied inaction in the face of this , tought Jews that only they alone can defend themselves , and that is why Israel will never agree to dismantle it's nuclear programme , which is for the purpose of defence only , preventing the genocide of Israel's Jews, unlike the nuclear weapons programme of Iran and other Islamic states , which is explicitly for the purpose of anihilating Israel.
Lochery then goes on to outline the history of the ancient Jewish link to the Land of Israel and the fact that over the millenia in exile , Jews never forgot their dream to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland.Lochery analyses the period of the British Mandate and the reason for the British , after having promised the Jews their support for the re-establishment of a State in "Palestine" , did all they could to circumvent this and help the Arabs against the Jews.
He outlines the re-birth of Israel in 1948 , the political history of Israel and it's struggle for a place among the nations , Israel's struggle for peace and the Arab refusal to accept Israel's existance , as well as the divisions within Israeli society. He also touches on the deep seated Jew-hatred and bloodlust against Israel that is such a deep rooted part of Arab and Islamic culture , such as the perfidious and absurd propaganda equating Zionism with Nazism by the Arab media (echoed by the prejudiced Leftist media and academia and hate-filled far-left politicians around the world) , and the labelling of Jews as sons of pigs and monkeys in the media in Moslem countries and in Islamic religious circles.
While he outlines the differences within the approaches of the "Left" and "Right" camps in Israel as to how peace can be brought about and Israel's survival secured , he points out how the Israeli "Right" have warned that the 1998 withdrawal from Lebanon and the offer of Barak to cede Gaza , and almost all of the West Bank (Judea-Samaria) and East Jerusalem far from bringing about peace , convinced the Arabs that the end was near , and spurred them on to further acts of terror. While the author urges the withdrawal by Israel from Gaza and parts of Judea-Samaria , the actual withdrawal from Gaza not long after the book's publication simply led to more terrorist attacks into Israel from Gaza and South Lebanon , leading to Israel's eventual retaliation and the subsequent usual world anti-Israel blood-hysteria.
The author explores the so-called Road Map , backed by the USA , Russia and the UN , and poses the question as to whether this can bring peace. I believe that no moves can be made towards peace before the Arabs and their fellow travellers on the international left accept Israel's existance and right to be here[
As Julie Burchill so aptly puts it : " There exists a quite striking bias against Israel. Neill Lochery's excellent , accesible book is a must read for anyone wanting a tonic to this persistent and illogical prejudice".
Lochery describes the battle over the existance of Israel as "the battle of the maps" from maps purporting to show the first Jewish settlements after the return to the Land of Israel , to attempts by the international powers to divide the land , to the maps dividing the Land of Israel today such as the "Oslo Redeployment" map.,
Lochery provides us with several maps in the middle of the book showing the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 for the partition of the Middle East of 1916 , the map of British Mandate Palestine , which includes all of modern Israel , the Disputed territories and Jordan folowed by a map showing how 78.2% of the Palestine Mandate was cut off by the British in 1922 to create the Arab Kingdom of Transjordan , leaving 22.8% for the Jewish homeland which included what today are the Disputed territories in the ancient Jewish homeland of Judea and Samaria. The "Palestinian" Arabs now had their State in most of what before 1922 was known as "Palestine".
Maps No 3 and 4 show British attempts to limit the Jewish presence to a fraction of "Western Palestine" : The Peel Commission recommendation for the partition of "Palestine" in 1937 an the Woodhead reccomendation for the partition of "Palestine" in 1938.
Map No 5 shows the United Nations partition plan , which divided the remaining 23% of Palestine into a Jewish State and a SECOND Arab Palestinian State (Trans-Jordan being the first) based upon population concentrations. The Jews accepted... the Arabs rejected. The Arabs still wanted ALL of Palestine... both east AND west of the Jordan River .
Other maps show Israel's borders after the War of Independence (1948) and the Six Day War (1967) , Israel's very strategic width as a result of the 1949 borders and the Oslo Redeployment map under which large parts of the Land of Israel were to be turned over to PLO control.
Lochery also reminds us how the deep rooted conflict is characterized by visual images , describing how two images have come to characterize the Arab-Israeli conflict : A burned out bus with only it's basic structure intact , symbolizing the grisly Arab strategy of sucide bombing in which hundreds of Israeli men , women and children have been murdered and maimed , which reduced life in Israel into a peverse game of Russian roulette were Israelis going about their ordinary life could never know if they would live or die.
The second image is of "an Israeli soldier firing on a Palestinian and the wounded Palestinian being carried onto a waiting ambulance". The latter image however is usually doctored by the media sources who hide the reality that the Israelis were only firing in self defence after having come under attack from the Arabs.
As Lochery puts it: " Sadly nowadays it would appear that most images are used in conjunction with largely ill informed reporting. The reports are shown by television companies dominated by a left-of-centre political culture to reinforce stereotypical perceptions such as the notion of the Israelis as opressors and the Palestinians as victims. Coverage of the alleged massacre of the Palestinians by the Israeli army in the refugee camp at Jenin in 2002 illustrates this in-built political correctness. Many television companies were quick to act as judge and jury and convict Israel of commiting a terible crime against the Palestinians , relying on accounts by local Palestinians and second hand accounts by aid workers in the area. As we now know , no such massacre took place and when the area was opened up to the international press , revised versions of events had to be put out by the news networks , who had in effect broken codes of practise in reporting such events. Once more the humanistic story with pieces to camera by clearly anti-Israel reporters had replaced hard facts"
The author points out how in the last few decades , there has been such a disproportionate amount of intrerest from the media , academics , diplomats and politicians (almost all of it prejudiced and hostile) that one has to be reminded that the population of Israel is only 6.5 million people , and that Israel takes up less than one percent of the land surface of the Middle East. Israel takes up more news hours than any other country in the world , with the exception of the United States.
The book traces the Oslo negotiations and the reasons for the failure of the Camp David talks in 2000 , when in a response to a generous offer by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to hand over almost all of the Disputed Territories (including most of East Jerusalem) to the Palestinian Authority , Arafat stormed out of the talk and launched a terror war against the Israeli people.
Lochery analyses the reasoning behind Arafat's actions, that the Israeli people would be unable to deal with being murdered in buses and on the streets , and would pressure their government to return to negotiations and give further concessions to the PA.
I believe that Arafat smelled weakness and believed that the time was ripe for the complete destruction of Israel and the genocide of her Jews. He may have underestimated the survival instinct of the Jewish people , but still the goal of the Palestinians , radical Arab/Islamic regimes and the international Hard Left remains the complete destruction of Israel.
The author explains that the Nazi holocaust , and the allied inaction in the face of this , tought Jews that only they alone can defend themselves , and that is why Israel will never agree to dismantle it's nuclear programme , which is for the purpose of defence only , preventing the genocide of Israel's Jews, unlike the nuclear weapons programme of Iran and other Islamic states , which is explicitly for the purpose of anihilating Israel.
Lochery then goes on to outline the history of the ancient Jewish link to the Land of Israel and the fact that over the millenia in exile , Jews never forgot their dream to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland.Lochery analyses the period of the British Mandate and the reason for the British , after having promised the Jews their support for the re-establishment of a State in "Palestine" , did all they could to circumvent this and help the Arabs against the Jews.
He outlines the re-birth of Israel in 1948 , the political history of Israel and it's struggle for a place among the nations , Israel's struggle for peace and the Arab refusal to accept Israel's existance , as well as the divisions within Israeli society. He also touches on the deep seated Jew-hatred and bloodlust against Israel that is such a deep rooted part of Arab and Islamic culture , such as the perfidious and absurd propaganda equating Zionism with Nazism by the Arab media (echoed by the prejudiced Leftist media and academia and hate-filled far-left politicians around the world) , and the labelling of Jews as sons of pigs and monkeys in the media in Moslem countries and in Islamic religious circles.
While he outlines the differences within the approaches of the "Left" and "Right" camps in Israel as to how peace can be brought about and Israel's survival secured , he points out how the Israeli "Right" have warned that the 1998 withdrawal from Lebanon and the offer of Barak to cede Gaza , and almost all of the West Bank (Judea-Samaria) and East Jerusalem far from bringing about peace , convinced the Arabs that the end was near , and spurred them on to further acts of terror. While the author urges the withdrawal by Israel from Gaza and parts of Judea-Samaria , the actual withdrawal from Gaza not long after the book's publication simply led to more terrorist attacks into Israel from Gaza and South Lebanon , leading to Israel's eventual retaliation and the subsequent usual world anti-Israel blood-hysteria.
The author explores the so-called Road Map , backed by the USA , Russia and the UN , and poses the question as to whether this can bring peace. I believe that no moves can be made towards peace before the Arabs and their fellow travellers on the international left accept Israel's existance and right to be here[...].
Merged review:
"Why Blame Israel" by Neil Lochery attempts to get to the bottom of some of the persistant prejudices and untruths about Israel , and it's war against Arab terror , and to explore the reality of the conflict and Israeli politics.
As Julie Burchill so aptly puts it : " There exists a quite striking bias against Israel. Neill Lochery's excellent , accesible book is a must read for anyone wanting a tonic to this persistent and illogical prejudice".
Lochery describes the battle over the existance of Israel as "the battle of the maps" from maps purporting to show the first Jewish settlements after the return to the Land of Israel , to attempts by the international powers to divide the land , to the maps dividing the Land of Israel today such as the "Oslo Redeployment" map.,
Lochery provides us with several maps in the middle of the book showing the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 for the partition of the Middle East of 1916 , the map of British Mandate Palestine , which includes all of modern Israel , the Disputed territories and Jordan folowed by a map showing how 78.2% of the Palestine Mandate was cut off by the British in 1922 to create the Arab Kingdom of Transjordan , leaving 22.8% for the Jewish homeland which included what today are the Disputed territories in the ancient Jewish homeland of Judea and Samaria. The "Palestinian" Arabs now had their State in most of what before 1922 was known as "Palestine".
Maps No 3 and 4 show British attempts to limit the Jewish presence to a fraction of "Western Palestine" : The Peel Commission recommendation for the partition of "Palestine" in 1937 an the Woodhead reccomendation for the partition of "Palestine" in 1938.
Map No 5 shows the United Nations partition plan , which divided the remaining 23% of Palestine into a Jewish State and a SECOND Arab Palestinian State (Trans-Jordan being the first) based upon population concentrations. The Jews accepted... the Arabs rejected. The Arabs still wanted ALL of Palestine... both east AND west of the Jordan River .
Other maps show Israel's borders after the War of Independence (1948) and the Six Day War (1967) , Israel's very strategic width as a result of the 1949 borders and the Oslo Redeployment map under which large parts of the Land of Israel were to be turned over to PLO control.
Lochery also reminds us how the deep rooted conflict is characterized by visual images , describing how two images have come to characterize the Arab-Israeli conflict : A burned out bus with only it's basic structure intact , symbolizing the grisly Arab strategy of sucide bombing in which hundreds of Israeli men , women and children have been murdered and maimed , which reduced life in Israel into a peverse game of Russian roulette were Israelis going about their ordinary life could never know if they would live or die.
The second image is of "an Israeli soldier firing on a Palestinian and the wounded Palestinian being carried onto a waiting ambulance". The latter image however is usually doctored by the media sources who hide the reality that the Israelis were only firing in self defence after having come under attack from the Arabs.
As Lochery puts it: " Sadly nowadays it would appear that most images are used in conjunction with largely ill informed reporting. The reports are shown by television companies dominated by a left-of-centre political culture to reinforce stereotypical perceptions such as the notion of the Israelis as opressors and the Palestinians as victims. Coverage of the alleged massacre of the Palestinians by the Israeli army in the refugee camp at Jenin in 2002 illustrates this in-built political correctness. Many television companies were quick to act as judge and jury and convict Israel of commiting a terible crime against the Palestinians , relying on accounts by local Palestinians and second hand accounts by aid workers in the area. As we now know , no such massacre took place and when the area was opened up to the international press , revised versions of events had to be put out by the news networks , who had in effect broken codes of practise in reporting such events. Once more the humanistic story with pieces to camera by clearly anti-Israel reporters had replaced hard facts"
The author points out how in the last few decades , there has been such a disproportionate amount of intrerest from the media , academics , diplomats and politicians (almost all of it prejudiced and hostile) that one has to be reminded that the population of Israel is only 6.5 million people , and that Israel takes up less than one percent of the land surface of the Middle East. Israel takes up more news hours than any other country in the world , with the exception of the United States.
The book traces the Oslo negotiations and the reasons for the failure of the Camp David talks in 2000 , when in a response to a generous offer by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to hand over almost all of the Disputed Territories (including most of East Jerusalem) to the Palestinian Authority , Arafat stormed out of the talk and launched a terror war against the Israeli people.
Lochery analyses the reasoning behind Arafat's actions, that the Israeli people would be unable to deal with being murdered in buses and on the streets , and would pressure their government to return to negotiations and give further concessions to the PA.
I believe that Arafat smelled weakness and believed that the time was ripe for the complete destruction of Israel and the genocide of her Jews. He may have underestimated the survival instinct of the Jewish people , but still the goal of the Palestinians , radical Arab/Islamic regimes and the international Hard Left remains the complete destruction of Israel.
The author explains that the Nazi holocaust , and the allied inaction in the face of this , tought Jews that only they alone can defend themselves , and that is why Israel will never agree to dismantle it's nuclear programme , which is for the purpose of defence only , preventing the genocide of Israel's Jews, unlike the nuclear weapons programme of Iran and other Islamic states , which is explicitly for the purpose of anihilating Israel.
Lochery then goes on to outline the history of the ancient Jewish link to the Land of Israel and the fact that over the millenia in exile , Jews never forgot their dream to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland.Lochery analyses the period of the British Mandate and the reason for the British , after having promised the Jews their support for the re-establishment of a State in "Palestine" , did all they could to circumvent this and help the Arabs against the Jews.
He outlines the re-birth of Israel in 1948 , the political history of Israel and it's struggle for a place among the nations , Israel's struggle for peace and the Arab refusal to accept Israel's existance , as well as the divisions within Israeli society. He also touches on the deep seated Jew-hatred and bloodlust against Israel that is such a deep rooted part of Arab and Islamic culture , such as the perfidious and absurd propaganda equating Zionism with Nazism by the Arab media (echoed by the prejudiced Leftist media and academia and hate-filled far-left politicians around the world) , and the labelling of Jews as sons of pigs and monkeys in the media in Moslem countries and in Islamic religious circles.
While he outlines the differences within the approaches of the "Left" and "Right" camps in Israel as to how peace can be brought about and Israel's survival secured , he points out how the Israeli "Right" have warned that the 1998 withdrawal from Lebanon and the offer of Barak to cede Gaza , and almost all of the West Bank (Judea-Samaria) and East Jerusalem far from bringing about peace , convinced the Arabs that the end was near , and spurred them on to further acts of terror. While the author urges the withdrawal by Israel from Gaza and parts of Judea-Samaria , the actual withdrawal from Gaza not long after the book's publication simply led to more terrorist attacks into Israel from Gaza and South Lebanon , leading to Israel's eventual retaliation and the subsequent usual world anti-Israel blood-hysteria.
The author explores the so-called Road Map , backed by the USA , Russia and the UN , and poses the question as to whether this can bring peace. I believe that no moves can be made towards peace before the Arabs and their fellow travellers on the international left accept Israel's existance and right to be here[
December 14, 2016
Great book
July 30, 2019
A Solid Backgrounder to the Conflict
A Solid Backgrounder to the Conflict, March 1, 2016
This review is from: Why Blame Israel (Paperback)
Although published in 2004 in the midst of the 2nd intifadeh, a year before Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, not much in principle has changed. Arafat has been replaced by Abbas, now in his 13th year of a 4 year term, Sharon's Kadima has been replaced by Netanyahu's Likud, there have been 3 Gaza wars, there's now a 3rd intifadeh brewing, the Oslo process has gone into deep freeze this comparatively low level conflict, compared to the horror of the failed Arab Spring, simmers along with exactly the same points of contention.
Locherly's coverage of the various wars and the roles of both Israeli and Arab politicians outside of Israel is excellent, though I'd consider his internal coverage of Palestinian politics weak as it is mostly confined to Arafat. The portraits of Nasser and Sadat are particularly good, yet he ignores Syria's role as a spoiler. He's very good at pinpointing media bias, particularly noting that while Palestinian-Israeli clashes are often covered, internal conflict and the outright murder of moderates by Hamas and the PLO are not. He lists several of Israel's problems, including the tendency of military leaders to jump into politics and argues that Rabin's biggest mistake was to continue to offer concessions without regard to performance on the other side. As such Arafat correctly gauged that he could increase violence and be rewarded for it. He largely blames the Arab leadership who consciously decided not to let the refugee camps develop a permanent infrastructure and did not wish to integrate the refugees into their own societies for fear that it would destabilize them, which is what nearly happened in Jordan and did happen in Lebanon.
Where I disagree with the author is on two minor points and one major. To keep the review short and readable, I've moved this discussion to a footnote. (1)
I like maps, and the 11 that appear in the middle of the book are very germane to the author's argumentation and are a good reason to have this book on one's shelf. I'm also quite grateful that he clears up one of the details of the 1956 war, which was that Israel was invited by the French to join the campaign, it was not initiated by the Israelis but by France and Britain. Only 3 copies of the Sevres Protocol agreement were made, and Lochery mentions that Prime Minister Eden was so worried about the potential diplomatic embarrassment that he ordered that the British copy be destroyed.
A Solid Backgrounder to the Conflict, March 1, 2016
This review is from: Why Blame Israel (Paperback)
Although published in 2004 in the midst of the 2nd intifadeh, a year before Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, not much in principle has changed. Arafat has been replaced by Abbas, now in his 13th year of a 4 year term, Sharon's Kadima has been replaced by Netanyahu's Likud, there have been 3 Gaza wars, there's now a 3rd intifadeh brewing, the Oslo process has gone into deep freeze this comparatively low level conflict, compared to the horror of the failed Arab Spring, simmers along with exactly the same points of contention.
Locherly's coverage of the various wars and the roles of both Israeli and Arab politicians outside of Israel is excellent, though I'd consider his internal coverage of Palestinian politics weak as it is mostly confined to Arafat. The portraits of Nasser and Sadat are particularly good, yet he ignores Syria's role as a spoiler. He's very good at pinpointing media bias, particularly noting that while Palestinian-Israeli clashes are often covered, internal conflict and the outright murder of moderates by Hamas and the PLO are not. He lists several of Israel's problems, including the tendency of military leaders to jump into politics and argues that Rabin's biggest mistake was to continue to offer concessions without regard to performance on the other side. As such Arafat correctly gauged that he could increase violence and be rewarded for it. He largely blames the Arab leadership who consciously decided not to let the refugee camps develop a permanent infrastructure and did not wish to integrate the refugees into their own societies for fear that it would destabilize them, which is what nearly happened in Jordan and did happen in Lebanon.
Where I disagree with the author is on two minor points and one major. To keep the review short and readable, I've moved this discussion to a footnote. (1)
I like maps, and the 11 that appear in the middle of the book are very germane to the author's argumentation and are a good reason to have this book on one's shelf. I'm also quite grateful that he clears up one of the details of the 1956 war, which was that Israel was invited by the French to join the campaign, it was not initiated by the Israelis but by France and Britain. Only 3 copies of the Sevres Protocol agreement were made, and Lochery mentions that Prime Minister Eden was so worried about the potential diplomatic embarrassment that he ordered that the British copy be destroyed.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews