Rating: 
Summary: Essential for every library
Review: As a scholar and teacher of Middle Eastern studie, I can confidently say that no library is complete without this excellent, well-researched and reliable book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Quick Read!
Review: Bard has done an excellent job coallating the information out there regarding the Middle East/ Israel conflict. He makes extensive use of quotes from historical documents and persons.
His organization of the text around common uninformed questions and statements that are often heard in contemporary American society is very helpful.The text of this book can be found online, but the website tends to be slow. That makes this book necessary if you want a quick reference. I recommend getting this book as a great starter into the whole issue. It will point you onward to many other more exhaustive resources if you take time to meander through the extensive footnotes. I also highly recommend his "Complete Idiot's Guide to the Middle East" for it's slightly more in depth treatment of the issue and entertaining presentment.
Rating:
Summary: This is an Outstanding Resource
Review: Bard has written a concise and accurate analysis of many of the most important issues both current and historic relating to the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. The book presents fair assessments of each issue. Facts are substantiated with well documented references. This is *essential reading* for anyone who is sincerely interested in Mideast conflict resolution and policy analysis. An excellent synopsis is given of each major war with maps showing a thumbnail sketch of the troop movements and battles. Basic tables of statistics on Arab and Israeli population changes, finance and military assets are provided. Excerpts are given of historic documents such as U. N. Security Council resolution 242, letters from Rabin and Arafat regarding the Oslo process, translated comments on Israel from the Arab media and the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS). Also included is a set of recommended Internet Resources.
Rating:
Summary: Myth Buster
Review: Bard offers a concise guide to the reality of the Arab-Israeli conflict, with particular focus on things often left out of the propanganda. Here are a smatering of facts offered and myths dismissed: *Israel continues to be the only country where Arab men and women are allowed to speak freely and vote in free and fair elections for candidates of thier own choice. *The Arabs insist Israel give up the territory won in the 1967 war for a Palestinian State, without ever mentioning that Jordan and Egypt controlled these territories from '48-'67 without making a single move to give the Palestinians a country. *Syria and Lebannon herd Palestinians into camps, denying them citizenship or the right to own property in order to win propaganda points. *The Palestinians continue to reject Israel's offers to abandon the Gaza Strip and 95% of the West Bank in exchange for peace. *The Arab war on Israel predates the ocupation of the west bank and gaza by almost two decades. *During the 19 years of Jordanian rule of Jerusalem not a single Arab leader took the time to visit this so-called holy city. *Unlike Israel, which defends all holy sites, the Jordanians detroyed 2000 year old Jewish cemeteries in Jerusalem, and the Palestinian Authority continues to destroy Jewish holy sites like Jacob's Tomb. Everyone interested in the Middle East should first become aware of these facts. Bards book cuts through the porpaganda giving the reader a view of the reality of the region and its history.
Rating:
Summary: Myth Buster
Review: Bard offers a concise guide to the reality of the Arab-Israeli conflict, with particular focus on things often left out of the propanganda. Here are a smatering of facts offered and myths dismissed: *Israel continues to be the only country where Arab men and women are allowed to speak freely and vote in free and fair elections for candidates of thier own choice. *The Arabs insist Israel give up the territory won in the 1967 war for a Palestinian State, without ever mentioning that Jordan and Egypt controlled these territories from '48-'67 without making a single move to give the Palestinians a country. *Syria and Lebannon herd Palestinians into camps, denying them citizenship or the right to own property in order to win propaganda points. *The Palestinians continue to reject Israel's offers to abandon the Gaza Strip and 95% of the West Bank in exchange for peace. *The Arab war on Israel predates the ocupation of the west bank and gaza by almost two decades. *During the 19 years of Jordanian rule of Jerusalem not a single Arab leader took the time to visit this so-called holy city. *Unlike Israel, which defends all holy sites, the Jordanians detroyed 2000 year old Jewish cemeteries in Jerusalem, and the Palestinian Authority continues to destroy Jewish holy sites like Jacob's Tomb. Everyone interested in the Middle East should first become aware of these facts. Bards book cuts through the porpaganda giving the reader a view of the reality of the region and its history.
Rating:
Summary: Great Israel Book
Review: Dont buy this book thinking you're getting a balanced perspective. This book tells the pro-Israel side of the story, but it does so very well. The research is meticulous and accurate, the facts overwhelming. It is not propagandish, and not hateful, rather very factual. You will be hard pressed to find a book this good representing the Arab perspective, namely one that is not hateful or filled with propaganda. Maybe you strongly support or strongly condemn Israel, or maybe you know nothing about the Middle East, but either way if you want to know why supporters of Israel feel so strongly about what they fight for, read this book. There is so much negative PR surrounding Israel in the media, and this book will put it in perspective, and let you know why the region has fallen into its current state of affairs. Bottom line: Even though it's not balanced, and doesnt try to be, it's still incredibly enlightening.
Rating:
Summary: Provides plenty of facts, a prerequisite for peace
Review: For many centuries, the more numerous and militarily stronger Arabs oppressed Jews in Arab lands and kept most of them out of what is now Israel. However, in the past one or two centuries, the Western world was no longer willing to accept the Arab argument that oppressing Jews was a Divine Right of all Arabs.
On the other hand, the Arabs have plenty of oil which the West wants. That put enormous pressure on Arabs to tell lies about the Middle East. All sorts of arbitrary lies, no matter how absurd! The idea was to say that the Jews are the oppressors, or that the Jews don't want to live in the Middle East, or that there are no Jews, or that there were never any Jews in the Middle East in the past, or that Jerusalem wasn't Jewish, or that the Arabs never oppressed Jews. Or that there is a special Levantine Arab people that can live only on Jewish land and nowhere else. Anything, anything, just to get Western support. And many in the West are begging the Arabs to tell these lies, just so that they can thereby have an excuse to support the Arabs against Israel and get more Arab oil.
That's why there are so many non-stop Arab lies about the Middle East, and why so many of these lies are propagated by the United Nations, not just by the Arabs. And that's why there aren't anywhere near as many Israeli lies. As a matter of fact, given that the Arabs are lying so much, many Israelis are simply settling for the truth.
But there can't be any genuine peace built on a foundation of these malicious lies.
That's what makes this book so valuable. If we want peace, we need to start with some truth. And this book lists many "popular" arbitrary lies about the Arab war on Israel and simply states the facts that these lies need to be replaced with. If you aren't aware of some of these facts, you ought to get the book. And if you are aware of them, you still ought to read it so that you can recommend it to others.
Rating: 
Summary: A Valuable Tool for Defenders of Israel
Review: How many times have you heard enemies of Israel spout aburdities you know to be false? How many times have you wanted to refute these lies but lacked the knowledge or skill to do so? This is the book for you. In organized chapters that covers every aspect of the Israeli-Arab conflict from the Mandate period through the beginning of the Palestinian violence in September 2000, this book presents well organized and well documented facts that prove the truth and refute the lies. Bard's style is to present a myth and then below it print the facts refuting the myth. For example, in the chapter dealing with Israel's relationship with the United States, Bard lists the myth that the United States always supplied Israel with arms. Below that, he prints the truth which is that the United States actually refused to sell Israel arms until the sixties. The facts are presented clearly, simply and coherently and are documented by footnotes. In sections dealing with Arab intentions, he quotes Arab sources themselves. This book is not ideological. It does not justify Israel's actions on biblical or religious grounds. It simply presents the truth in a clear unvarnished way. A further, and very important thing Bard does is to place events and actions in historical perspective. The loss of historical perspective is the single greatest source of prevailing myth. So, for example, in a section dealing with myths relating to the Palestinian refugees, Bard not only points out the gross exagerations of their numbers and Israel's willingness to resolve the problem, but also that no other group of refugees in human history has remained unsettled for three generations. For those knowledgeable about the history of Israel, this book is valuable because it will enable the reader to quickly find the factual information disproving a particular myth. For those without a background who might be succeptible to many of the refuted myths, this book will be a simple and brief yet fully documented recitation of the real facts. Enemies of Israel of course, have no reason to read it. For everyone else, I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Unbiased, well researched
Review: I am so impressed with this book that I have cancelled other orders on the subject. This book is made of the right stuff in the sense that this author did his job correctly by researching. It is difficult to get the facts right on this conflict, however Bard proves his work with the most finest of details drowning out the lies and myths. Both sides are extensively researched and tediously picked apart by what has actually taken place over many years. To get a future look at the Arab Israeli conflict based on these facts read SB 1 or God by Karl Maddox
Rating:
Summary: A good, factual account
Review: I found the book very useful for beginners and novices to the moderately well educated on Israeli and Middle eastern affairs. It has many citations that a researcher can use to cite check and verify that the author's account of history and facts are true and correct. It is also very good for people who want to help defend Israel against the myths, lies and propaganda that many are trying to use, wrongly, to deligitimize the Jewish state.
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