Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001

Benny Morris, the author of "Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001," has been counted as one of the Israeli "revisionist" historians, that group of Israelis that have debunked some of the myths that have surrounded the birth of Israel. In an earlier book, "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949," Morris examined one such myth: that Palestinian Arabs left the nascent Israeli state in 1948 of their own volition or under the direction of their own leaders. Although that occurred in a small number of instances, there were many more cases in which the Israeli army drove Arabs out at gunpoint. Such revelations have not endeared him to many of his countrymen. In "Righteous Victims," first published in 1999, Morris also describes many instances of Arab antisemitism, venality, and brutality directed against Jewish settlements in Palestine. He provides many fascinating details in the early years of the interaction of the Zionist organization in Europe, British and French colonial policy, and the moribund Ottoman empire. For example, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 in which Great Britain promised the Jews of Palestine a national homeland was seen to be a completely self serving act by Britain to further its own military-political aims in World War I. This nearly 700 page book, as its title indicates, covers the entire history of the conflict from the origins of the Zionist movement including the birth of Israel and all of the subsequent Arab-Israeli wars as well as political considerations and attempts by Arab and Israeli leaders at achieving peace. Objectivity is Morris's aim, and he achieves it quite well.

Benny Morris has tackled a difficult subject with flair. He has avoided the extremes that an emotionally provocative subject as this usually inspires in some people. He has presented both sides of the conflict, or at least done so as good as anyone could expect, as well as pointing out the failures on both sides that have conspired to leave us with a seemingly hopeless situation today. For anyone looking for a broad introduction into the history, causes, contributing factors and personalities of the Arab-Zionist conflict, this book is hard to go past. It is comprehensive, well-written, well-referenced and very balanced in its presentation. Morris is a lively writer, and has struck a happy medium between detail and the need to keep on track in what is a complex subject.

For me, Righteous Victims was an introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I had relatively little background to the conflict, and so I feel like I am able to evaluate the book somewhat objectively without reading through the lens of a prior bias in favor of either side. That said, I think Morris does a superb job in objectively recording the roots of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, and I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to gain extensive knowledge about the roots of this tragic situation.Naturally, one can find instances in this book that suggest either an Arab or an Israeli bias... There are rare instances within the text suggest a hint of bias one way or the other. But on the whole Morris gives a balanced history that is not tainted with extreme and devaluing bias. Unbiased writing on this subject seems to be a rarity, and Morris succeeds in that respect.My main objection to Righteous Victims is that Morris relies primarily on sources from the Zionist perspective. As a result, Righteous Victims goes into much clearer detail about the Zionist side of the struggle, while leaving some parts of the Arab point of view somewhat vague. While predominantly using sources written by Zionists, about Zionists, from the Zionist perspective runs the risk of creating an unfair and unbalanced work, I don't blame Morris. In the introduction, he explains (rightly so) that there simply is not many sources from the Arab point of view open to researchers. Morris did as well as anyone could with the available resources, and one should not be highly critical of his sources, because it is unavoidable to use mostly Zionist sources. I will not... make arguments for either the Israelis or the Palestinians. That is not the point of a book review. But I will say that this book gives a very good reference from which you can formulate your own opinions on the matter. Sure, there are probably other "comprehensive" histories out there that are clearly slanted one way or another. But they do a lousy job of allowing the reader to develop their thoughts and ideas. Righteous Victims was a comprehensive, complete, fair, and meticulously detailed account of the conflict which helped me develop my own opinions. The reading is quite dense and slow-going, but please don't let that deter you. This is a valuable work that I highly recommend for anyone with an interest in the subject.

I recently finished my master's thesis, writing about the debate between Israel's "New historians" and the traditional accepted version of the events surrounding the establishment of the State of Israel. I've read a lot of books in the past year (from both sides of the argument) but I think that Morris's "Righteous Victims" did the best job of examining ALL the evidence--even the parts that were hard to accept--and writing a conclusion that was well thought out and highly accurate. This book is easy to read and provides a solid background from Herzl through the events of last year. It is the most comprehensive of the new historians' works, and probably also the most tame. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to understand the background of the conflict in the Middle East.