Arabs & Israel for Beginners (Writers and Readers Series) - Softcover

David, Ron; David, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0863161618 ISBN 13: 9780863161612

Publisher: Writers & Readers, 1993

Synopsis

The history of the Middle East goes back about 12,000 years, most of which was not marked by fighting between Arabs and Jews.
Documenting the Middle East from ancient times to present, Arabs & Israel for Beginners is one of few books cover the issues of both Jews and Arabs objectively, insightfully and in an easy-to-read style. Some of the provocative issues and topics that the book covers are the birth of "Western" civilization in the Middle East and Africa; the truth about ancient Israel from birth to destruction; the building of the "Walled" city of Jericho; the origin of Christianity; the real story of modern Israel's birth; Jewish history beginning with Abraham [c.2000 BC] & Moses [c. 1350 BC]; documented facts on the Arab-Israeli wars; the lowdown on the PLO, Intifada, US Money; Desert Storm and Terrorism; and the September 1993 PLO/Israel peace talks.
In the tradition characteristic of the "Beginners Series", Arabs & Israel for Beginners is written for two vastly different types of readers; those who are new to the Arab-Israel discussion and those submersed in it and perhaps confused by facts that just don't seem to add up.

About this title

About the Author

AUTHORBIO: Ron David was Editor-in-Chief of the Beginners Series for four years. During that time he commissioned and edited over 40 Beginners Books, including books on Chomsky, Sartre, Shakespeare, The Black Holocaust, The Jewish Holocaust, Derrida, Fanon, Domestic Violence, Jung…and a few dozen others. Ron is also the author of "Jazz for Beginners," "Opera for Beginners" and "Toni Morrison Explained: A Reader’s Road Map to the Novels."

More information on all of the above can be found on Ron’s web site, (www) rondavid.net.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

EXCERPT: THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE When WW-I ended, no one could reconcile the claims of Arabs, Zionists, British & French, so in 1919 Woodrow Wilson and his democracy-mad Americans "dispatched the King-Crane Commission to the former Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire to ascertain the wishes of their inhabitants regarding the postwar settlement of their territories." ["Britannica"] The King-Crane report stated: 1) 90% of Palestine's inhabitants were non-Jewish & did NOT want a Jewish state in Palestine. 2) If they were given Palestine, "Zionists looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the present non-Jewish inhabitants." 3) a Jewish state in Palestine would violate the Palestinian Arabs' right to self-determination. They recommended that Zionists respect the wishes of Palestine's inhabitants & find another place to plant the Jewish state. The Zionists were furious! (This is the part where I raise hell about highlighting the wrong events.) The usual versions of Israel's history either don't mention The King-Crane Report or they minimize its importance. In my opinion, any lover of Democracy must consider the King-Crane report a major event. The King-Crane report is definitive proof that: 1) The Zionists knew they were acting against the will of the people. 2) The Zionists knowingly subverted Democracy. 3) The Government of the United States confirmed the legitimacy of the claim that Palestinians make today. THE FORMER HEAD OF THE BOY SCOUTS VS THE FUTURE PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL On May 20 [1947], the United Nations appointed Count Folke Bernadotte as mediator between Israel and the Arabs. (Jews were pleased: Count Bernadotte, the head of the Swedish Red Cross, had risked his life to save thousands of Jews from concentration camps.) Count Bernadotte did everything in his power to stop the war between Zionists and Arabs.

I say "Zionists" because Bernadotte insisted that there was not yet any such country as Israel. He said that the November 1947 U.N. partition of Palestine was "provisional", temporary, intended only to see if partition was a feasible solution and, as any fool could now see, it was not feasible. Bernadotte reminded them that UN General Assembly resolutions were not binding. Bernadotte insisted that if the Zionists accepted the UN's authority, then they must return to the UN to establish where--and IF--Israel would be. If the Zionists rejected the UN's authority, then they must ALSO reject the UN's authority to partition Palestine in the first place. Therefore, in either case, as of this moment, there IS no Israel. (The logic is flawless: the only way to refute that argument is with a very large gun.) On September 15, in the "Bernadotte Plan," Count Bernadotte proposed that, IF Zionists were eventually given part of Palestine, in the interest of human decency, Palestinian refugees must be given two options: One, they should be allowed to return to their homes in Palestine at any time in the future; Two, if they chose not to return to Palestine, they should be compensated by Israel for all that was taken from them. In summary: ALL Palestinians, at ANY time, should have the choice of either Return or Compensation! With Count Bernadotte's war record, it would have been silly to accuse him of anti-Semitism. So the next day the Zionists murdered him. You think this is bad? It gets worse: Count Bernadotte, who had saved 20,000 Jews from Hitler, was killed on orders from Yitzhak Shamir, whose Stern Gang had offered to help the Nazis! (Doubting Thomases should consult the ugly January, 1983 article in HA'ARETZ, the Israeli N.Y. TIMES.) A 1941 Stern Gang proposal even offered to form a Jewish state "on a national and totalitarian basis, which will establish relations with the German Reich" and protect Nazi interests in the Middle East!)

Edition details

• Publisher: Writers & Readers
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0863161618
• ISBN 13: 9780863161612
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 210
• Illustrator: David Susan