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Since the 1948 war which drove them from their heartland, the Palestinian people have consistently been denied the most basic democratic rights. Blaming the Victims shows how the historical fate of the Palestinians has been justified by spurious academic attempts to dismiss their claim to a home within the boundaries of historical Palestine and even to deny their very existence. Beginning with a thorough expos of the fraudulent assertions of Joan Peters concerning the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine prior to 1948, the book then turns to similar instances in Middle East research where the truth about the Palestinians has been systematically suppressed: from the bogus-though still widely believed-explanations of why so many Palestinians fled their homes in 1948, to today's distorted propaganda about PLO terrorism. The volume also includes sharp critiques of the wide consensus in the USA which supports Israel and its territorial ambitions while maintaining total silence about the competing reality of the Palestinians.
Nearly all empirical work in political science is fundamentally historical, yet very little attention has been given to the problem of grounding claims to historical knowledge. In Writing the Arab-Israeli Conflict Jonathan B. Isacoff constructs the nature of historical knowledge by deftly examining the multiple histories of the Arab-Israeli conflict written by generations of Israeli scholars. He also undertakes briefer analysis of literature, drawn from both historians and political scientists of the Vietnam War, demonstrating that historical revisionism is not unique to the study of the Middle East. Focusing on different schools of historical interpretation Writing the Arab-Israeli Conflict argues for a pragmatist approach in the tradition of John Dewey. Most importantly, this exceptional work suggests a number of practical methodological measures that can be taken to produce more sophisticated and nuanced political science scholarship.
Historically, terrorism has generally failed as a means to reach a political objective. Most often, terrorist incidents have brought fear to the civilian sector, but only served to harden the attitudes of governments. Despite this, indiscriminate, anticivilian violence steadily increased in the last half century, particularly in the Middle East. This work provides an historical overview of terrorism in the region, focusing on specific guerrilla actions. The hijackings of the 1960s, the Black September attack during the 1972 Munich Olympics, and the rise of Abu Nidal are all covered thoroughly, as are many other groups and incidents in the Middle East. The ineffectiveness of counter-terrorism, showing how it often precipitates the rise of small terrorist cliques, is also covered. Particular attention is given to Israel's response to terrorism and the effect of terrorism on the country's development and national psyche.
The main goal of this book is to record as much of the Palestinian refugees' political history as possible. The author is becoming increasingly aware of the ebb and flow of general interest in the refugee issue and the strong possibility of subsuming that chapter in the larger Palestinian story. As the PLO itself moved further and further away from the refugee constituency, it became necessary to examine and define the impact of the refugee issue on the larger Palestinian political picture, for indeed, as it turned out, they were always a tremendous influence on the course of Palestinian and Arab history. Although they lost their leadership positions within the PLO, as the latter became incr...
Vague references to the 'war on terror' and the 'threat to national security' are frequently used by venal politicians to cover-up criminal associations and covert illegal activity, ranging from money-laundering, narcotics trafficking, abduction and murder to the wholesale slaughter of non-combatant civilians - glibly dismissed as 'collateral damage' in mainstream media coverage of state terror, from the Caucuses to the Middle East and the streets of European capitals, while locally, in towns and villages that never make headlines, predatory Catholic clergy and radical Islamic academics and imams abuse trust to accommodate their personal agendas of greed, lust and revenge. The issues in Unde...
The Arab-Israeli conflict is one of the greatest threats to world peace today. Yet for all the importance and passion of this conflict very little is actually known about the story behind the headlines. Behind each confrontation and each act of terrorism is a long and deep story. This primer on the Arab-Israeli conflict, first published in 1989, examines the real stories behind the conflict and separates fact from fable. By carefully documenting, each claim and counter-claim, many widely-held beliefs are unmasked as myths.
The year 2000 showed that terrorism continues to pose a clear and present danger to the international community. Terrorism is becoming a strategy that has a long history, but one that took on a particularly deadly caste beginning in the 21th century. The leaders of some of the most dangerous terrorist groups to emerge in the past decade have headquarters or major offices in Afghanistan, and their associates threaten stability in many real and potential trouble spots around the globe - from Indonesia to the Balkans, Central Asia to the Persian Gulf, Western China to Somalia, and Western Europe to South Asia. Terrorists attempt not only to sow panic but also to undermine confidence in the gove...