Israel and Palestine

Both Jews and Arabs claim thousands of years of heritage as attached to Palestine/ Israel. The history in this book goes back to those thousand years and is sympathetic to both a Jews and Arabs , yet doesn’t take any side. It calls the violent acts of both sides by their names and in the process you get a picture of a land where tragedy is an ever day occurrence. The book is clear as to how both sides have lost moral ascendancy due to their eye-for-eye policies. Fairly neutral view of a complex issue.

Was very good at just saying what happened within the timeline. Very neutral, doesn’t take sides. Starts from thousands of years ago until 2019. Easy to understand and digest. Great for if you want to talk about the topic and bring the authority of having read a neutral book.

This is a revelation of a read. It explains the background of the Israeli and Palestinian wars of occupation, settlement, intifada and the devastating cycle of war, generation after generation as the cycle of hopelessness for young people leading them to rise up against their occupiers.It's a difficult read in places but leads to a conclusion that without talking this cycle will just continue its destructive path first started in 1207 BC !A brilliant read if you need to get real context around where we are right now in the Middle East Crisis.

If readers are looking for a mostly unbiased assessment of which side has a valid historical claim to what is now the State of Israel this book is probably as good as you'll get. The author is a gentile Englishman with no axe to grind. He's neither a Jew, or Muslim, and doesn't take sides.You'll see other comments here from readers who claim the author is biased to the Palestinian side and I don't agree. I think those commenters are biased. The author makes 2 significant errors however imo.He writes as if Jesus was a real historical person when, of course, there is no valid historical evidence for this. Readers need only read other Amazon listed books on the historicity of Jesus to confirm that. His 2nd error is doing similar for the Quran. Both Bible and Quran are equally non historically inaccurate.This book gave enough info for me to decide which side has a valid historical right to claim Palestine as their rightful homeland. I have no background with either side and am an atheist.In Australia, and other countries that have indigenous people, the basic premise behind all their First Nations Land Rights Acts is that the indigenous group must prove an ongoing, and unbroken, physical/spiritual connection and occupation of the subject lands. Applying this same concept to the current State of Israel the only group who can validly claim this are the Palestinians. It matters not why/how physical occupation is broken.Facts are the Jews were 1st forced out of Palestine starting 2600 BC. They returned, were forced out several more times and returned again with gaps of several 100 years between each leaving event. They were scattered all over Europe for 2000 years with no homeland. They were only finally returned to Palestine in 1947 by a UN decision. They were given 55% of what is now the State of Israel in 1947 and proceeded to annex a further 25% through through aggressive warfare. Therefore, only group with an ongoing, unbroken physical connection, and occupation, throughout all of known history are the Palestinians.

This is a highly informative factual account at about the right data density for intelligent readers who lack in-depth knowledge of the issues and events. I would rate it as a 5 based on content and readability, but there are places where opinions are stated as fact. There is a bias favorable to the Palestinians, but it does not influence the factual descriptions, nor does it cause the author to ignore cases where Palestinian actions were causes of troubles. His descriptions of Yasser Arafat and his actions are illuminating. Reading this book gave me a far better understanding of historical events and their bearing on subsequent events. Prior to reading this work, I also read about the geography of the region, which helped in understanding this work. Like the vast majority of Americans, I strongly support Israel but recognize there are at least two sides to every story. This book gave me a better understanding of the Palestinian viewpoint.

To understand the Palestine Israel conflictand form my own opinion instead of being media led in all it’s different formsGood read without being over elaborated.