Best books you've found about Israel/Middle East situation?

Question

I'd be interested to know the best books - both fiction and non fiction - that you've found about Israel and the Middle East conflict.

For fiction, I loved both 'Exodus' and 'The Haj' by Leon Uris.

As for non fiction; am still searching for my favourite... any suggestions?!

Answer 1

As a graduate student in the field of Middle Eastern studies, I have read numerous books about the Middle East and about the conflict. I have listed a few of my favorites in the non-fiction category, and only one in the fiction. I would advise you to ignore Noam Chomsky and his followers, but try to read from a multitude of perspectives in order to reach the truth, which is somewhere in the middle!

Non-Fiction:

Jerusalem by Karen Armstrong
Palestine: Peace not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter
The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz
The Case for Peace by Alan Dershowitz
Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries by Suad Amiry
The Other Side of Israel by Susan Nathan
People on the Streets by Linda Grant

Fiction:

The Illusion of Return by Samir el-Youssef

Good luck!

edit: I also agree that From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Freidman is an excellent read. It is dated, but nevertheless worth looking at.

Answer 2

I strongly second the above nominations of Fromkin's Peace to End All Peace and Peters' From Time Immemorial, two excellent books (and easily available from Amazon). Peters' book is a bit of a slow read but immense detail and research that no one else seems to have done.

I also recommend Dennis Ross's The Missing Peace, about negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in the '90s-2000, and in which Ross was an integral player.

If you have any interest in reading about the Arab Israeli wars, Michael Oren's Six Days of War is the best book on that, and Abraham Rabinovich's The Yom Kippur War is the best on that topic.

If you enjoy spy thrillers, I recommend the novels of Daniel Silva, featuring Mossad agent Gabriel Allon.

Answer 3

start up with the previous testomony. then you definately can go directly to the autobiographies of the contributors interior the Israeli warfare for self government, which includes David ben Gurion and Golda Meir. to understand the Holocaust isn't achieveable, yet a physically powerful e book by ability of a non Jew is "Anus Mundi," by ability of a Pole call Weislaw Keilar. He replaced right into a youthful guy in Bergen Belsen who comments as an eyewitness. there's a e book called "as quickly as there replaced right into a international" that shows how a single shtetl replaced into erased interior the homicide of a finished subculture, which will desire to offer help to recognize why Jews sense they want a place of their very own. i assume there would desire to be an impartial e book from the Palestinian perspective that may not easily propaganda, yet I even have by no ability chanced on one that tells the certainty. Even writers who're in any different case particularly perceptive seem arranged to excuse using terror and homicide by ability of the Palestinians from the outset, and average Palestinians who might paintings with the Jews are afraid to be heard via fact they are the 1st ones killed.

Answer 4

A book I read a number of years ago that I found that was really good (but once again its not current) was Thomas Friedman's "From Beruit to Jerusalem" http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780385413725&itm=6 which follows in observations and reporting on the Arab-Israel conflict. I didn't agree with all his conclusions but I have to say his reporting on events and people are very good. I would also suggest (although I have not read) this book "Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict" http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780312437367&pwb=1&z=y I am going to pick up a copy for myself.

Good Luck!!!

Answer 5

Non Fiction:

Jerusalem Countdown by John Hagee
Operation Desert Light by Brother Andrew

Jerusalem countdown is more about America and Bible prophecy but it talks about Iran and Israel and is a great book about the end times

Operation Desert Light is about a Christian who spreads the gospel to terrorists and Israelis and Lebanese people. It shows both sides of the conflict and it is one of my favorite books.

Fiction:

Though it doesn't have to do a lot with the current situation, the book 'Joshua in the Holy Land' is a great book. It is more about a person named Joshua who is like a modern day Jesus who spreads peace and love through the land of Israel.

I seriously recommend these books because they are easy to read but very informative and they shed light on both sides of the conflict.

Answer 6

The Complete Idiots Guide to... and the " ... for Dummies" guides series for specific topics. I have The Complete Idiots Guide to Iraq, but I've seen several other titles dealing with the Middle East. These titles are not for dummies and idiots, they are just clearly written and well organized.

Answer 7

The one book that is certainly not recommended is by former president Jimmy Carter, a paid propagandist for the Arabs. Carter has now come with a new bestselling book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

It's not clear what he means by using the loaded word "apartheid," since the book makes no attempt to explain it, but the only reasonable interpretation is that Carter is comparing Israel to the former white racist government of South Africa.

That is a foolish and unfair comparison, unworthy of the man who won - and deserved - the Nobel peace prize for bringing Israel and Egypt together in the Camp David Accords, and who has lent such lustre to the imaginary office of former president.

What's the parallel? Apartheid had a philosophical component and a practical one, both quite bizarre. Philosophically, it was committed to the notion of racial superiority. The official philosophy of the Israel government is quite the opposite, and sincere efforts are made to, for example, instill humanitarian and egalitarian attitudes in children.

That is not true, of course, in Arab countries, where hatred of Jews is a standard part of the curriculum.

The practical component of apartheid involved the creation of phoney nations called "Bantustans." Black South Africans would be stripped of their citizenship and assigned to far-away Bantustans where often they had never before set foot. The goal was a racially pure white South Africa, though the contradiction with the need for black labour was never resolved.

Here might be a parallel with Israel, which needs the labour of the Arabs it is currently trying to keep out.

But in other ways, the implied comparison is backward. To start, no one has yet thought to accuse Israel of creating a phony country in finally acquiescing to the creation of a Palestinian state. Palestine is no Bantustan. Or, if it is, it is the creation of Arabs, not Jews.

Furthermore, Israel has always had Arab citizens. They are Arabs who were living in what became Israel prior to 1948 and who didn't leave. No doubt they suffer discrimination. Nevertheless, they are citizens with the right to vote and so on. There used to be Jews living in Arab nations, but they also fled in 1948 and subsequent years - in numbers roughly equivalent to the Arabs who fled Israel. Now there are virtually no Jews in Arab countries - even in a moderate Arab country like Jordan. How many Jews do you think there will be in the new sovereign state of Palestine?

And the most tragic difference: apartheid ended peacefully. This is largely thanks to Nelson Mandela, who turned out to be miraculously forgiving. If Israel is white South Africa and the Palestinians are supposed to be the black population, where is their Mandela?


.

Answer 8

"From Time Immemorial" by Joan Peters.

She went into the project as a staunchly pro-Arab author but, once she did the historical research and personal interviews, she had the courage to admit her perspective had changed 180 degrees.

She is a concientious and honest historian . . . a rarity these days.

It's available from www.wnd.com as well as many on-line sources.

Read this and then come on back and discuss what you think about the Middle East conflict from this factual perspective.

Answer 9

This is the best one I have read in a long time:
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Israel-Alan-Dershowitz/dp/0471679526/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0781758-0267336?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184838012&sr=1-1

Answer 10

absolutely without a dobut " A Peace to End all Peace" David Fromkin, awwwwesome...very long, but never boring, FACTUAL yet understanding....Highly recommended.