At a time when the Middle East has come closer to achieving peace than ever before, eminent Israeli historian Benny Morris explodes the myths cherished by both sides to present an epic history of Zionist-Arab relations over the past 120 years. Tracing the roots of political Zionism back to the pogroms of Russia and the Dreyfus Affair, Morris describes the gradual influx of Jewish settlers into Palestine and the impact they had on the Arab population. Following the Holocaust, the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 resulted in the establishment of the State of Israel, but it also shattered Palestinian Arab society and gave rise to a massive refugee problem. Morris offers distinctive accounts of each of the subsequent Israeli-Arab wars and details the sporadic peace efforts in between, culminating in the peace process initiated by the Rabin Government. In a new afterword to the Vintage edition, he examines Ehud Barak's leadership, the death of President Assad of Syria, and Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon, and the recent renewed conflict with the Palestinians. Studded with illuminating portraits of the major protagonists, Righteous Victimsprovides an authoritative record of the middle east and its continuing struggle toward peace.
Making sense of any particular episode in the long and convoluted conflict between Arabs and Israelis can seem a Sisyphean task--engineering peace in the Middle East has become nearly clichéd in its complexity, with each individual dispute traceable back to years of anger, mistrust, and mutual misunderstanding fueled by cycles of violence and revenge. To add to this confusion, the historical record has been colored by "emphatic partisanship by commentators and historians from both sides, as well as by foreign observers," adds Middle East historian Benny Morris. So what Morris has undertaken in this volume--an inclusive, dispassionate, and rigorous history of the conflict, from Zionism's birth in the wake of the Russian pogroms through to the uncertain prospects for peace in 1999--is no mean feat.
A calm, balanced voice (although a controversial one among some who fear revisionism), Morris has previously proven his scholarship with such definitive titles as Israel's Border Wars and The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem. Righteous Victims likewise doesn't waver in its task, methodically unearthing the political and military roots of the struggle, from early friction between Zionist "colonizers" and native Arabs slowly through to the establishment of Israel and the bloody wars and terrorism that followed. --Paul Hughes
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Bias, dense and dull:
Not at all even handed. Morris makes sweeping statements about what an entire group of people were thinking or feeling based on antidotal evidence at best. Anyone looking to this book to educate themselves about the history of the region should also know that the author has since recanted much of the editorializing he did in these pages. Besides being misleading, it's dense, boring and long. I recommend it only in lieu of a sleeping pill. Look for my copy on the "used books" shelf.
An Excellent, Detailed History:
An excellent, detailed history. After reading this book of 700 pages, I have compared it to Dershowitz, Finkelstein, Neumann and others, and have perceived this detailed account to be rather objective in this revisionist history in both sides of the issues where the conflict exists today. I found this book very helpful in understanding the early pre-state intentions and the 1948, 1967, attrition and 1973 wars. It would be hard to simply follow the status quo and deny the deplorable conditions of the... more info
An objective history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
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.... more info
Broad, excellent overview, but will not please everyone:
Like every treatment of the Arab Israeli conflict, this book will not please everyone (or anyone?). The book is brisk. Fortunately, Morris has an even tone throughout and does not remain fixed on any one subject for too long. As anyone knows who has written on a broad topic, this is an exceptional accomplishment. Even at 600 plus pages, this book could have easily gotten bogged along the way on the wealth of detail about this well researched conflict. And this book shows that despite some of Morris' more... more info
