It is very easy to only see the issue from the perspective of supporting the Palestinians, but it is also useful to get inside the mind of Israelis. The first few books help get inside their heads
Avraham Burg: The Holocaust is over - we must rise from its ashes
Review by electronic intifada
Modern-day Israel, and the Jewish community, are strongly influenced by the memory and horrors of Hitler and the Holocaust. Burg, a former Speaker of the Knesset, argues that the Jewish nation has been traumatized and has lost the ability to trust itself, its neighbours or the world around it. He shows that this is one of the causes for the growing nationalism and violence that are plaguing Israeli society and reverberating through Jewish communities worldwide. Burg uses his own family history--his parents were Holocaust survivors--to inform his innovative views on what the Jewish people need to do to move on and eventually live in peace with their Arab neighbours and feel comfortable in the world at large. Thought-provoking, compelling, and original, this book is bound to spark a heated debate around the world.
Review by electronic intifada
Modern-day Israel, and the Jewish community, are strongly influenced by the memory and horrors of Hitler and the Holocaust. Burg, a former Speaker of the Knesset, argues that the Jewish nation has been traumatized and has lost the ability to trust itself, its neighbours or the world around it. He shows that this is one of the causes for the growing nationalism and violence that are plaguing Israeli society and reverberating through Jewish communities worldwide. Burg uses his own family history--his parents were Holocaust survivors--to inform his innovative views on what the Jewish people need to do to move on and eventually live in peace with their Arab neighbours and feel comfortable in the world at large. Thought-provoking, compelling, and original, this book is bound to spark a heated debate around the world.
Anthony Lerman: The Making and Unmaking of a Zionist (a personal and political journey)
Review by middle east monitor
Antony Lerman traces his five-decade personal and political journey from idealistic socialist Zionist to controversial critic of Zionism and Israeli policies towards the Palestinians. As head of an influential UK Jewish think tank, he operated at the highest levels of international Jewish political and intellectual life.
He recalls his 1960s Zionist activism, two years spent on kibbutz and service in the IDF, followed by the gradual onset of doubts about Israel on returning to England. Assailed for his growing public criticism of Israeli policy and Zionism, he details his ostracism by the Jewish establishment.
Through his insider’s critique of Zionism, critical assessment of Jewish politics and analysis of the Israel-Palestine conflict Lerman presents a powerful, human rights-based argument about how a just peace can be achieved.
Review by middle east monitor
Antony Lerman traces his five-decade personal and political journey from idealistic socialist Zionist to controversial critic of Zionism and Israeli policies towards the Palestinians. As head of an influential UK Jewish think tank, he operated at the highest levels of international Jewish political and intellectual life.
He recalls his 1960s Zionist activism, two years spent on kibbutz and service in the IDF, followed by the gradual onset of doubts about Israel on returning to England. Assailed for his growing public criticism of Israeli policy and Zionism, he details his ostracism by the Jewish establishment.
Through his insider’s critique of Zionism, critical assessment of Jewish politics and analysis of the Israel-Palestine conflict Lerman presents a powerful, human rights-based argument about how a just peace can be achieved.
Miko Peled: The Generals Son
Review by electronic intifada
Miko Peled is an Israeli peace activist who spends his time between Jerusalem and San Diego, CA. Born into a strongly Zionist family in Jerusalem, as a young man he witnessed the transformation of his well-known father, Gen. Matti Peled, from a leader in Israel's military to a courageous peace activist. Later, he followed a somewhat similar path of his own, as traced in "The General's Son.""The General's Son" has been translated into numerous other languages, and Peled has lectured around the world in his campaign to promote justice, democracy, and equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis."
Review by electronic intifada
Miko Peled is an Israeli peace activist who spends his time between Jerusalem and San Diego, CA. Born into a strongly Zionist family in Jerusalem, as a young man he witnessed the transformation of his well-known father, Gen. Matti Peled, from a leader in Israel's military to a courageous peace activist. Later, he followed a somewhat similar path of his own, as traced in "The General's Son.""The General's Son" has been translated into numerous other languages, and Peled has lectured around the world in his campaign to promote justice, democracy, and equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis."
Beyond Tribal Loyalties, edited by Avigail Abarbanel
Review by palestine chronicle
Personal stories of Jewish Peace Activists.
Avigail Abarbane served in the IDF during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982; now a psychotherapist. Highly readable.
Review by palestine chronicle
Personal stories of Jewish Peace Activists.
Avigail Abarbane served in the IDF during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982; now a psychotherapist. Highly readable.
S. Yizhar: Khirbet Khizeh
Review by the Guardian
Long considered a classic, Khirbet Khizeh—also spelled Hirbet Hizeh (Arabic: The Ruins of Hizeh)—was first published in Israel in 1949, some months after the end of the 1948–49 war. On the surface, this novella is about a clean-up operation in the last months of the war.
Review by the Guardian
Long considered a classic, Khirbet Khizeh—also spelled Hirbet Hizeh (Arabic: The Ruins of Hizeh)—was first published in Israel in 1949, some months after the end of the 1948–49 war. On the surface, this novella is about a clean-up operation in the last months of the war.
Ilan Pappe: The biggest Prison on Earth
In this comprehensive survey of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappe exposes the history of one of the world's most prolonged and tragic conflicts. Locating the occupation within a wider historical context that stretches back to 1948, Pappe dismisses the conventional view that the 1967 war emerged out of the blue, 'forcing' Israel to occupy the contentious territories. Using recently declassified archival material, Pappe analyzes the establishment of legal and security infrastructures that were put in place to control the population, revealing harsh oppression that was never advertised in international headlines, and which passed without any substantial Palestinian resistance for the first twenty years of its existence. Then turning to the years that have passed since the resistance began in 1987, Pappe offers hopeful visions of a future of reconciliation and peace. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
In this comprehensive survey of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappe exposes the history of one of the world's most prolonged and tragic conflicts. Locating the occupation within a wider historical context that stretches back to 1948, Pappe dismisses the conventional view that the 1967 war emerged out of the blue, 'forcing' Israel to occupy the contentious territories. Using recently declassified archival material, Pappe analyzes the establishment of legal and security infrastructures that were put in place to control the population, revealing harsh oppression that was never advertised in international headlines, and which passed without any substantial Palestinian resistance for the first twenty years of its existence. Then turning to the years that have passed since the resistance began in 1987, Pappe offers hopeful visions of a future of reconciliation and peace. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Rashid Khalidi: The hundred years' War on Palestine
Review by the Guardian
A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history
In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.
Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.
Review by the Guardian
A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history
In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.
Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.
