Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

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Verso Books, May 17, 2003 - History - 336 pages
“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 assumed the bankruptcy of liberal democracy. He goes on to look at the demographic origins of the Palestinians, with particular reference to the work of Joan Peters, and develops critiques of the influential studies of both Benny Morris and Anita Shapira.

Reviewing the diplomatic history with Aban Eban‘s oeuvre as his foil, Finkelstein closes by demonstrating that the casting of Israel as the innocent victim of Arab aggression in the June 1967 and October 1973 wars is not supported by the documentary record.

This new edition critically reexamines dominant popular and scholarly images in the light of the current failures of the peace process.

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Contents

Zionist Orientations
7
A Land Without a People
21
Born of War Not by Design
63
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Norman G. Finkelstein is the author of A Nation on Trial (with Ruth Bettina Birn), named a notable book for 1998 by the New York Times Book Review, and Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.

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