I just went to my mailbox and by some miracle the January 2017 copy of Publisher’s Weekly was there. It often arrives early, but this is nuts! The cover says, “Fearless Authors Take on Israel/Palestine Conflict,” and the article says that 2017 is going to be a huge year for books on the conflict–
“A host of prominent writers will put career on the line this year with courageous books that dance on the third rail of US politics and are sure to change the US view of the conflict forever.”
Wow wow wow is all I have to say!
What are the books? Well, according to the 2017 Publisher’s Weekly–
Goliath: Fear and Loathing in Greater Israel, by Ari Shavit. Soulful Israeli journalist describes the frightening tilt toward religious fascism in his society and the destruction of Israel’s incredible promise for global leadership. First serial, The New Yorker.
Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, by Samantha Power. The former secretary of state returns to her original subject, arguing that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians has elements of “cultural genocide” and parallels South Africa under apartheid. Now more than ever we need a two-state solution. Preface by America’s rabbi, Shmuley Boteach.
Brokers of Deceit, by Aaron David Miller and Martin Indyk. Peace processors for 15 American presidents between them reveal the hows, whys and who’s of the U.S.’s deepseated inability to be fair in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, by Jeffrey Goldberg. A warning label should accompany this shocking expose of a “loose coalition” of pro-Israel groups that has a “hammerlock” on US policy in the Middle East and has pushed the US again and again toward war, often by manipulating charges of anti-Semitism. The author relates his own journey from Long Island boyhood drenched in Jew hatred to serving as an Israeli corporal in a Palestinian prison and later as a conduit for Israeli intelligence that made the case for the Iraq war to a shattering epiphany during a panel at the Aspen Institute. First serial, Mondoweiss.net.
All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, by Gershom Gorenberg. The tireless scholar-journalist has burrowed into the archives and produced the definitive volume on the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from 400-plus villages in 1948.
The Invention of the Jewish People, by Todd Gitlin and Leil Leibovich. Leading scholars of Jewishness explore the transformation of a religion into a “nation,” and find that Zionists performed this sleight-of-hand to further their colonial ambitions.
One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israel-Palestinian Impasse, by Peter Beinart. The prophet without honor in the American Jewish community puts forward an astonishing vision for peace that came to him after he witnessed a Palestinian father dragged away by soldiers for taking back his water from settlers. “My ideas are based on principles familiar to any American schoolchild: one person, one vote regardless of race, one democratic country between the river and the sea, Amen.” Exclusive appearances, Oprah Winfrey, 60 Minutes, Al Jazeera.
Mornings in Jenin, by Brooke Gladstone. Debut fiction from the brainy/empathetic NPR host: a girl travels between a former Palestinian village now a Jewish artists’ colony over the Green Line to the refugee camp where many of the village’s former residents live, relating a heartrending tale of Israel’s systematic suppression of Palestinian rights…
Image and Reality in the Israel-Palestine Conflict, by Alan Dershowitz. The greatest name in defense puts his former client in the dock and finds it wanting. Dershowitz anatomizes myths and lies his own family, friends, and colleagues peddled about Israel in books and media, taking on the foundational narratives of a settler-colonialist society. Fifty-state author tour. Exclusive appearances on Shalom TV, Howard Stern show, Brian Lehrer show, Fresh Air, Mike & Mike in the Morning.
Yasser Arafat: Elusive Hero, by Chris Matthews. The famously independent television host has thoroughly researched his charismatic subject, from exile in Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon and Tunisia right up to his assassination. A historical/political tale that will send chills up your leg.
Fast Times in Palestine, by Scarlett Johansson (as told to Jodi Rudoren). The actress, who is half-Jewish, tells of her dramatic adventures meeting Palestinians in refugee camps and around settlements across the West Bank. Soon to the screen.
Orientalism, by Thomas Friedman. The New York Times columnist revolutionizes our understanding of the “clash of civilizations” in a stunning assessment of the discursive roots of the Middle East conflict– and the romantic need of western writers to project their exotic view of the Arab world on the natives.
The Case for Israel, by Eric Alterman. The Weekly Standard columnist has put together the ultimate handbook for all who want to defend Israel from a growing chorus of hateful criticism and selective boycott.
Apologies to Max Blumenthal, Jimmy Carter, Rashid Khalidi, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, Walid Khalidi, Shlomo Sand, Ali Abunimah, Susan Abulhawa, Norman Finkelstein, Chris Matthews, Pamela Olson, the late Edward Said, and Alan Dershowitz.
I suspect plagiarism in Dershowitz’s Image and Reality in the Israel-Palestine Conflict.
Drip by drip wearing away at the stone cold heart of the Zionist Federation’s colonization enterprise!
“Fearless” Not really. The winds have shifted and now it is ok for the better late than never crowd to jump on the topic.
Well not all of them “better late than never” some of them behind the scenes guys involved for quite some time always making sure Israel is not pushed hard enough to really make a deal
The “fearless” were/ are Edward Said, Ilan Pappe, Jimmy Carter, Vanessa Regrave, Barghouti, Carter, Mearsheimer, Walt. But how fantastic these folks are jumping on. Some of them for the second time in the last five years like Beinart.
Cannot believe they would actually call them “fearless” Let’s you know how absent the Publisher’s Weekly has been on this issue for decades. Do you think they promoted Said’s, Fiinkelstein, Carters, Walt and Mearsheimer’s books? Where have they been?
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The Obama Complex
Feb 10, 2014,
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/obama-complex_775998.html?page=1
will someone please go around to Philip Weiss home and check that there is no contaminates in his drinking water.
This is satire, but it’s sort of confusing. Phil has taken the names of some real books (and maybe some he just made up) and assigned different (and highly unlikely) authors to them. Not entirely sure what the point is.