My Take | Now’s the time for some enlightening authors on Palestine
- Amid the intense information war over the Occupied Territories, turning to some profound books may help insulate ourselves from state propaganda and media manipulation
I have often wondered whether you take a position on a controversial subject from the books you have read or rather you read those books because you have taken a position.
The war on Gaza makes me think about that again. Here are some books I have read over the years which I find enlightening and perhaps you will find useful too in cutting through the (dis-)information war over Palestine.
Up until the 1980s but much less common now, it was generally accepted, especially in Anglo-American countries, that Israel had consistently sought peace but the Arab states and the Palestinians were all rejectionists committed to its destruction from the very beginning. A perfect example is Leon Uris’ Exodus: A Novel of Israel, which was made into a Hollywood hit movie starring Paul Newman.
Published in 1983, The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians by the famous linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky made quite a splash at the time. To this day, it is still my favourite political book of his; most of his other political books read like very long pamphlets or newspaper op-eds hastily put together. Here, though, he offers a coherent and at the time, somewhat original thesis, at least in the US.
The book debunked the whole myth about the Israeli search for peace and Arab rejectionism, and argued that it was the Israelis who consistently rejected or undermined peace overtures and many opportunities – with full US backing – from the Arabs and Palestinians. I was then a college student in the United States and I remember many respected American academics dismissed Chomsky’s claim as absurd.