Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict

It's always great to go back to the original sources when reading a book and I have with many of the references included here. That's why, I can't really rate this book highly enough. It provides you with a wealth of Arab, Israeli, European and American source content. The references and research are excellent and the layout of the work makes it easy to read and digest. I found the appendixes including letters from Rabin and Arafat to be interesting as well as the HAMAS charter. Considering the current Palestinian elections, it interesting to read about HAMAS and their goals from their own words and charter. For anyone researching the middle east or interested in getting to know more about the historical roots of the Palestine-Israel conflict, this is a great starting point.

This book is brilliant. It sets out all the material that I have seen in reliable and consistent material for the main events in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in one resource.

This book is a veritable gold-mine of information on the Middle East.It is far, far more than a reference book. Granted, those who are looking for an extensive, in-depth study on the Middle East should look for a book that specifically deals with the particular subject in question. However, this book provides some 450 pages of incredibly valuable information and covers with remarkable and accurate detail a whole plethora of subjects. Stemming from the British Mandate period, to the re-birth of the Jewish state, the Arab-Israeli wars, the Palestinian issue, refugees, the Intifada, the UN, the Mid-East `Peace Process', Jews in Arab/Islamic countries, the media and most significant of all, Jerusalem.Each particular issue weighs the commonly held views on the matter together with the propaganda, against the factual and true data on every issue and the relevant references and sources pertaining to each. Maps and charts are plentifully provided.Sometimes I wonder how much the political and diplomatic `powers that be' actually know about this most relevant of issues. It certainly would not do most world leaders any harm to keep a copy of this book on their office desks. If the reader weighs up what they see on the television screens and what they read in their daily newspapers against what appears here, they cannot but be alarmed at how today's media is distorting the manner in which this conflict is being presented to the public.Recommended.

Unlike the days of WWII, we have resources like "Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict." Mitchell Geoffrey Bard brings us a well-organized, concise yet intelligent review and explanation of the complex issues surrounding what is happening in the Mideast. Journalists, clergy of all points of view, military people, pacifists and human rights people all would do well to know what Bard is teaching. Politicians too. Summing up the conflict to mere politics, or simple economics would be foolish, as would solely blaming this side or that. The religious aspect in the matter is strong from all sides. Each side, naturally, has a viewpoint, and these viewpoints many individuals are willing to die for. Why? Bard sorts it out. It is a bit academic, and the faint of mind might want to steer clear, but, at the same time, Bard keeps it as well-said as possible. It is a difficult topic, and in just a few hundred pages he puts into perspective what has taken hundreds of years... thousands, in the case of Israel, to unravel. A lot of malarkey is out there, built on propaganda, misinformation, prejudice and lack of research, but Bard brings it together, and helps the reader know the truth from the hooey. This is hardly the last word on the Arab-Israeli conflict, but it is a very rich start. I fully recommend, "Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict." Anthony Trendl editor, HungarianBookstore.com

This 461-page book is set up in 25 chapters that break the Arab-Israel conflict into bite-sized easily digestible pieces, loaded with facts. ...It runs right through the current low-grade war against Israel, which Yasser Arafat planned even as he and other top-level negotiators met with Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak at Camp David in July 2000. The volume throughout makes statements that are almost universally regarded as fact, and then proceeds to rebut them with data and history. (...)You may hear various complaints that is a one-sided pro-Israel account. It is unquestionably pro-Israel, but not one-sided. Take the 40-page chapter on refugees, one of the highlights of this superb volume. Its 80 footnotes run for almost three pages--and 25 Arab sources include nine original Arab newspaper articles, several Arab authors and studies by Bir Zeit University. The refugee chapter begins with the myth that one million Palestinians were expelled form Israel in 1947 through 1949, and then counters that myth with evidence including the 1949 Armistice agreement and United Nations reports of the day. In fact, the Arab census of 1945 found 1.2 million Arabs in all of Palestine, but only 809,100 within the boundaries of what became Israel. A 1949 Israeli census found 160,000 Arabs inside Israel, which meant that no more than 650,000 Palestinian Arabs could have become refugees. But the United Nations Mediator on Palestine at that time put the figure at only 472,000. Much similar material fills this rich reference.The volume's sourcing is impeccable; All those books sited that I own, I can report first hand, are irreproachable pieces of scholarship. In addition to the chapters on everything from Jewish settlements, Jerusalem and human rights in the territories to the arms balance, U.S. Middle East policy, the peace process and Holocaust denial, you will find complete copies of many of the major documents that govern Israel and its relationship with Arab states and the PLO entity. There is also a superb two-page list for further reading, and a full index.Altogether, this is one of the better references on the Arab-Israel conflict to emerge in recent years. It is dispassionate, accurate, complete and current. Alyssa A. Lappen