The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East

Rating:
Summary: Taunts, not facts
Review: Any resemblence between what is stated in this book and what's actually going on in the Middle East is purely coincidental. What the reader gets instead is some amazing fascist propaganda that won't truly serve anyone.

Hirst writes for the Guardian, a rather famous British newspaper that took decades to establish a fine reputation for its journalism. It is staggering to realize just how much damage the Guardian has done to this reputation in just a short while by permitting such nonsense to invade its pages. And I think we need to ask ourselves how and why this has happened.

The staff of the Guardian has to be professional. One would think that they would hesitate to destroy their paper in such a manner. After all, it would cost the paper money. It might ruin the paper entirely, and put them out of jobs. One might suppose it unlikely that they would want to violate any semblence of good journalistic practice just to hurt a few Jews or Israelis.

However, the experience of reading this book and seeing some of the reviews has led me to a hypothesis of what has happened. The destruction of the Guardian's reputation as a conduit of good journalism has not put it out of business at all. Just as this book has brought money to its author, the ghastly articles in the Guardian bring money to the newspaper, if only by appearing sensational and controversial.

I think we readers have a duty to try to reverse this trend. Just as dedicated people have made great progress in the campaign against cigarette smoking, the same can be done in the campaign against bad journalism. We can warn our friends about books such as this one. And we ought to do just that.

Rating:
Summary: An antidote to ignorance
Review: David Hirst has a bias, which is often evident in which events or views he will or will not emphasize in this eminently readable book. (A bias which is understandable to anyone who is familiar with the horrendous misinformation that the Israeli and United States propaganda machines have pumped out for almost 60 years.) Ironically, despite his great knowledge of the historical facts and his extensive research, at times his focus is too narrow, such as, for instance, where he largely ignores the impact and forces set in motion by the holocaust and the unwillingness of the victorious nations to deal with its aftermath. To anyone who wants to know more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than the misleading garbage that has passed for scholarly discussion over the years, this work in its newest edition is a must read. For those who fear that it may be too one-sided in its views, it will be reassuring to know that in its conclusions it relies to a considerable degree on scholarly research of more recent vintage done by Israeli historians.

Rating:
Summary: Anyone Believe Yasser Arafat is a Hero?
Review: David Hirst, a writer for the notoriously anti-Israel Guardian newspaper, here presents a work that can only be described as off the mark. Hirst pulls out all of the old canards about the Arab-Israeli conflict, turning the Jews into the perfect aggressors and the Arabs into the perfect victim. Sadly, the reality of the situation to any interested observer is far from so black and white.

Hirst wants to argue that the Palestinians want to live in peace with Israel. He even goes so far as to try to paint Yasser Arafat, a man who continues to urge young boys and girls to strap bombs to themselves and go blow up buses, as a peace maker. The problem of course is that even most Arabs these days will admit that Arafat is more of a hindrance to peace than a help. His corrupt regime lines his pockets and those of his cronies while he cynically maintains the conflict so that he has an excuse for his failed autocratic rule.

Moreover, Hirst's historic review is intentionally drawn to paint more than Israel, but Jews as well in a bad light. For example, the massacre of almost a hundred Jews living in Hebron in the 1920s, whose families could be traced back over a two thousand year continual presence is basically ignored. When discussing "historic Palestine" Hirst ignores that this originally included Jordan until the British created the Hashemite kingdom. Thus far from his overblown and misleading numbers, the Jewish state represents less than 25% of historic Palestine. Indeed, if Arafat accepted the Camp David Accords and became the President of Palestine, Arabs would control over 75% of historic Palestine.

Even in its own time Hirst's work was woefully out of date. Shortly after its publication in 1977, Israel returned the Sinai representing more than 2/3 of the territory under its control, to Egypt in exchange for a peace treaty. This is hardly the work of the nation bent on conquest that Hirst wants to paint.

Even in 1977 Hirst's work was shameful to the degree that he apologized for every act of terror. Kosher restaurants blown up in Paris by Yasser Arafat? Hirst blames the Jews. An airport attacked and dozens of tourists killed by the PLO? Hirst blames the Jews. The Israeli Olympic Team is massacred at Munich? Why even give it much of a mention? His forward to this edition just makes matters worse, basically claiming that Israel has no right to exist.

Hirst's thinly veiled piece of propaganda would almost be laughable if its protagonists did not have hands so drenched in innocent blood. In any case, thoughtful and interested readers should look elsewhere if they want to understand the ongoing conflict.

Rating:
Summary: maybe the best objective portrayal on the market
Review: I imagined that all writers need to make a living, therefore, They have to be "Creative" about the subject matter to penetrate an already saturated Palestinian_Israeli book market. Since, it is very intellectually fashionable to be pro_Palestinian now this book no doubt has been "packaged" to sell to this "new" audience.

Rating:
Summary: negative - short on facts, long on editorial + conspiracies
Review: I want the Occupation to end, and quickly, but this book is too much even for me!

Outright distortion and mis-statement of facts abound. Note how throughout Arafat (the corupt and brutal authoritarian who has murdered tens of thousands of Arabs) is consistantly portrayed as a moderate lover of peace. Invents peace conferences in 1971 and 1988 (not recorded anywhere else!).

Conspiracy-theory silliness like claims that Israeli secret agents performed acts of terrorism to scare Arab Jews (800,000 Jewish Arabs went to Israel after 1948) into their mass-exodus from every Arab nation are given prominence. There are others given prominence in this book.

David Hirst is a well known Arabist and fact-challenged apologist. There is a difference between criticism and racism, and his recent editorial in the Guardian 'Don't Blame Arafat', July 17, 2004, is borderline. He declaims the 'Jewish control' of media and government and suggests even Barak was a victim of a deeper radical Israeli disinformation plot at Camp David 2000.

If this conspiracy-theory afficianado is the best apologist for the Arabs that the Guardian has to offer, then the Guardian needs to revise its hiring process. There are better and more truthful writers out there. This is just not history.

Rating:
Summary: Yes, there really is a Zionist Conspiracy!
Review: If you believe that Palestine belongs to the Jews because God gave it to them, or that there should be a Jewish state in Palestine to compensate them for the Holocaust, or that the Jews must return to Palestine as a precondition for the second coming of Christ, then you are a Zionist, and you will not like this book.

However, if you are not a Zionist, this book will convince you that there is actually a Zionist conspiracy, and that our government should not support it.

The book thoroughly documents the fact that the Zionists have been taking Palestine away from the Arabs a little bit at a time for about one hundred years, and they are still doing it. This is the principal source of violence in Palestine.

To say that the Arabs have a legitimate grievance against the state of Israel is not to be anti-Semitic, because the Arabs are Semites. It is not anti-Jewish, because many Jews in Israel and in the USA are not Zionists, and many Zionists in the USA are Christian. However, I agree that it is definitely anti-Zionist!

Rating:
Summary: Israeli Intransigence Exposed
Review: The Gun and the Olive Branch is one of the most outstanding and important works of non-fiction ever written. Hirst's book is an invaluable contribution to an area of study too often deliberately muddied and confused by Israeli apologists intent on obfuscation. He presents an honest, scholarly look into the Middle East conflict beginning when Jews essentially started to migrate to Palestine during the late 19th Century. This latest updated edition covers events through the recent Palestinian Intifada and the 2001 September 11th attacks against the United States.

Hirst does a fabulous job in demolishing three often heard myths:
Myth number 1.) Palestine was 'a land without a people, waiting for a people without a land.'
Myth number 2.) Palestinians fled their country on the orders of Arab leaders.
Myth number 3.) Jewish soldiers committed no willful attrocities.
Of course Palestinians fled because of the deliberate terror, violence and massacres perpetrated against them by Jewish militias (Irgun, Stern). In fact Herzl, one of Israel's founding fathers, openly admitted that immigration (Jewish) into an already populated country (Palestine) would soon turn the natives against the newcomers. As Hirst points out: the proponents of a Jewish state were the original aggressors in the Middle East; Arab violence was an inevitable reaction to theirs.

The Gun and the Olive Branch gives a poignant analysis of the 1948 War documenting how the Jewish community was never in danger of annihilation and that Israel was the true aggressor and instigator, both in 1948 and in the 1967 Six Day War, the remnants of which are obviously still being felt.

Hirst fills the book with fascinating pieces of information detailing how Palestinian suicide bombings come in the service of what the world regards as a legitimate purpose - ending Israel's illegal occupation. Also he broaches the topic of Israel's nuclear weapons and how Noam Chomsky, in his excellent work The Fateful Triangle, argues that the real target of Israel's nuclear arsenal is the United States. It puts America in a 'do what we say and give us what we want, or else' quandary.

This latest edition, put out by the publishing house of the fantastic Nation magazine, is updated giving the reader a glimpse into activities the Israeli soldiers are involved in currently. According to Hirst's incredibly well sourced book Israeli occupation authorities have been rampaging through Palestinian agencies of health, education or agriculture - destroying computers and important files, ransacking businesses and banks looting public buildings and defecating and urinating on floors, carpets, children's paintings, in drawers and flowerpots; and also of course they have busied themselves killing scores of innocent Palestinian civilians. This is the United States tax dollar at work given that America subsidizes Israel to the tune of approximately $4 billion annually!

Hirst astutely points out that during this most recent Palestinian uprising - CBS, ABC, and NBC aired 99 reports covering Gaza and the West Bank, but in only four out of the 99 reports were viewers informed that Gaza and the West Bank are Israeli occupied territories. The Gun and the Olive Branch goes on to document how myriad journalists privately admit they fear the retribution of pro-Israeli publishers and editors and generally understand that critical words about Israel can be hazardous to careers.

This is the definitive account of the entire history of the Israeli Palestinian conflict and is probably the most crucial non-fiction book of the last sixty years. It should be studied by every American citizen since only the United States can save the Zionists from themselves. Given the potentially cataclysmic consequences a knowledgeable citizenry may be our only hope. Hirst's marvelous book goes as far as possible in advancing this cause.

Rating:
Summary: A complete history of the conflict
Review: Whether you've just started to read about the history behind the violence in the Middle East or you've read hundreds of books on the topic, David Hirst's account is essential.

He begins with a 130-page introduction, a small book in itself, which brings the current conflict up to date. If you don't get any farther than this, you'll still learn a lot. By the end of this introduction --- which covers Palestian agreements to accept the loss of 78% of their homeland, the influence of the Israeli lobby in Washington, the Joan Peters' fraud, and nuclear blackmail --- you'll understand the basic thesis of Hirst's book: The Zionist plan to remove Palestinians from the Occupied Territories is the principle cause of conflict in the Middle East.

At that point, you'll either throw the book in the garbage and write an angry review, or you'll continue. If you continue, you'll read about the origins of the conflict, starting in 1882. Hirst quickly moves forward in time, hitting each major development (such as the Balfour Declaration) briefly but carefully. I liked this approach because I want an overview built on key facts, not an encyclopedic book that gets lost in the details.

Hirst continues, up to the early 1980s, where the previous edition of the book came to an end. The result is a 100-year history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, fully documented from a wide range of sources. Although you might disagree with one or two sources (such as Arab newspapers), he never relies on a single source. It's an impressive exercise in honest scholarship.