Good reading / reference material

Israel & Palestine Forum

Anyone have any good links to reading / reference material, especially as pertains to the Israel regional history in terms of who occupied where, when, how it all started, etc.. (?) Just looking for some more background information in order to formulate an opinion on this topic..

I based my posts in the other thread on history books and I posted Israel's history during the 1936-1948 including the war of independence in this post: http://www.inreview.com/showthread....15&pagenumber=3 (last post on page 3 and a couple of posts on page 4)

But this link could be useful too and provide some information of other events such as The 1956 Sinai Campaign, The 1967 War, The 1973 Yom Kippur War, etc.

http://www.adl.org/ISRAEL/Record/conflicts.asp
(There's a menu on the left)

erm.. 1930, forward is rather "recent" history.. I was thinking more in terms of ~2100 years worth of history..

Thanks!

I can mention a book that one SHOULDN'T read.

I read 'the idiots guide to the middle east' - the kind of book one would expect to give a nice balanced overall introduction to the issue. I was very disappointed to find myself reading a thinly disguised pro-US/Israel rant.

Although I knew little about the history at the time of reading, it was plain that the book was one-sided simply from the way it was written. As a small example, rather than tell the reader about some massacre the Israeli army is supposed to have perpetrated, it simply has a small aside explaining how this massacre, which 'anti-semites' or whatever it called them often bring up, wasn't really so bad.

It is obvious reading the aside that if it wasn't for all these 'anti-semites' who bring up this massacre , the book wouldn't have even mentioned it (as the only purpose of mentioning it was to justify it), and the reader is left wondering how many other massacres etc the book is glossing over (just one of many examples i could give).

I find it sad that this is the kind of book that is most likely to be given to schools/kids etc looking to get an introduction to the issue. Especially considering how they're also not going to get a fair introduction from the press (it doesn't help when the US govt leaves Israel off the list of countries with nuclear weapons despite having hundreds etc etc).

Anyway, I've now ordered a book by Noam Chomsky on the issue to get the other side of the story (I have given up on finding an objective look so will just read both sides ).

okay then, don't forget to post your criticism on Chomsky's book as well in order to preserve your objective look on the conflict.

sure - but the point is, i don't expect an objective view from chomsky, and he never claims to be giving one. i could probably predict now what his book will be like - a powerful but one-sided look at the issue, presenting a lot of factually correct information, however all selectively chosen to get across his point of view, and reaching certain inevitable conclusions .