Israel vs Palestine - The Eternal War

Former Member

These discussions about the conflict had made me dwell more into it's history, basically I wanted to learn more about it's origins in the 19th Century.

Amongst my searches today I found the following text..
See what you think.

http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Eng.pdf

Skive

I did the conflict in GCSE at school.
I've always had a bit of sympathy for the Palestinians, simply because they've been fucked over by any country that's taken an intrest in the slice of land that is now Israel. No wonder they're pissed off.

I think the Israelis could could learn some valuable lessons from the NI conflict - which isn't so very different from the situation in Israel.
If a decade ago the IRA kidnapped a couple of British soldiers, I'm pretty damn sure the British wouldn't have retaliated by firing missiles into the Bogside.

Somebody's got to be take responsibility to break the circle of violence and I think Israel should be the one to do it.

Former Member

For the sake of balance I will post a similarly biased analysis from the other side...

If you're serious about wanting to learn more about the actual history of the Arab-Israeli conflict there are some good historians around; I would recommend Benny Morris and Avi Shlaim who are 'New Historians' - Israeli historians who've rejected traditional Zionist interpretations - and Efraim Karsh who has critiqued the New Historians. (Churchill's biographer Martin Gilbert also brought out a fantastic general history of Israel a few years ago). If you're less interested in the actual history and just want a summary of the pro-Israeli view read 'Myths and Facts: a Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict' and for the anti-Israeli view anything by Norman Finkelstein.