Reclaiming Israel's History

the long version

There was a time when Israel could do no wrong in America's eyes. That time is long past, and justly so--no nation is absolutely perfect, particularly not one who is engaged in a conflict as long as the Arab-Israeli Conflict. But the myth of the perfect Israel has been supplanted by a far more deleterious myth: the myth of the evil Israel. This new myth has so pervaded contemporary culture that the history of Israel--as well documented as it is--has been recast and retold to fit a false narrative of Israel as violent occupier. "No history is so disputed as the history of Israel. Some see Israel's creation as a dramatic act of justice for the Jewish people. Others insist that it was a crime against Palestine's Arabs. Author David Brog untangles the facts from the myths to reveal the truth about the Arab-Israeli conflict. In Reclaiming Israel's History you'll learn: how the Jewish people have maintained a continual presence in the Land of Israel for over 3,000 years--despite centuries of Roman, Byzantine, and Muslim persecution; how the Romans invented the word 'Palestine' as a way to sever the connection between the Jewish people and their land (and how subsequent conquerors doubled down on this strategy); how modern Jewish immigration to Palestine did not displace Arabs but instead sparked an Arab population boom; and the largely untold story of how the leader of Palestine's Arabs collaborated with the Nazis to murder Jews in Europe before they could reach their ancestral homeland; why most of Palestine's Arabs never identified themselves as 'Palestinians' until after the 1967 War; the extraordinary lengths to which Israel's military goes to protect Palestinian civilians (and the high price Israel's soldiers pay for this morality); and how the Palestinians have on five separate occasions rejected Israel's offers of a Palestinian state in virtually all of the West Bank and Gaza. Brog frankly admits to Israel's 'sins both large and small,' but notes that in any fair-minded analysis these have been far outweighed by Israel's commitment to Western values, including freedom, democracy, and human rights. Honest, provocative, and timely, especially given rising anti-Semitism and the aggressive delegitimization of Israel, David Brog's Reclaiming Israel's History is the book for every reader who wants to understand what is really happening in the Middle East."--Jacket.