<p>This is worth watching the entire film.<br>
It is very powerful footage and an excellent review of the history of the middle east.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/[/url]”>http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/</a></p>
<p>Watch this video!!!</p>
<p>Will do…thanks blucroo!</p>
<p>I liked this video quite a lot, it’s very well structured and easy to understand.</p>
<p>Should be seen by some of the reporters covering the Middle East situation. Some of them apparently fell off the turnip truck yesterday and have no idea what is going on there or why.</p>
<p>This video is very well done. Mommusic, I agree that many of today’s reporters have no clue about the region’s history.</p>
<p>Having known a few U.S. reporters based in Israel, I can guarantee you that they knew a lot more about the region’s history than you, I, or David Horowitz. Personally, I have stopped listening to anything that talks in terms of “the Arabs”. I would think the U.S. experience in Iraq should have convinced all of us long ago that “the Arabs” are not a monolithic group who act in unison.</p>
<p>I agree with JHS, that “the Arabs” are not a monolithic group, but they are united in their hatred of Israel. Oh, and add the Persians in, and it is quite a large group, who may hate each other, but still hate Jews more.</p>
<p>JHS: Can you name one “Arab” nation that rises to the DEFENSE of Israel? They may not all act as a monolith, but they also do not speak out or act out against the atrocities committed by their closely related neighbors.</p>
<p>
Because you know a few who understand the region’s history, do you therefore assume they all do? LOL!!!</p>
<p>I liked the video because it chose the main lines of propaganda/rhetoric/invective fostered against Israel, not only by some Arabs but also now by some in universities. </p>
<p>Point by point, the video negates each familiar area of anti-Israel propaganda with historic facts. It’s a response piece. After 50 years of hateful propaganda against Israel, it is refreshing and helpful. </p>
<p>If you want to be able to counter propaganda – the kind you might hear at a workplace or on campus-- then watch this video so you, too, have some talking points from history. You’ll be able to reply better.</p>
<p>Over time, there has been a pretty big difference among Arab nations in their position towards Israel. Egypt and Jordan made formal peace agreements with Israel, something for which Anwar Sadat effectively sacrificed his life. While the relationships haven’t exactly been lovefests, both have held up pretty well given the stresses. And remember, long before it made peace with Israel Jordan waged virtual war against the PLO. The American allies in the Gulf (Saudi, Kuwait, Trucial States) all are pretty neutral – anti-Israel rhetoric (and, in the case of Saudi, a lot of funds to Palestinian groups), but much less action than they might take, and in general a force towards peace. Iraq in the 80s had fairly extensive covert cooperation with Israel. </p>
<p>Right now, of course, it’s safe to say that Israel does not enjoy much support in the Arab world. But that’s largely because the situation with the Palestinians is intolerable to everyone – including the Israelis.</p>
<p>I hated the video. It’s a rehash of what has been the official Israeli line since independence. There was practically nothing in it that I didn’t learn as a child. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t lots of truth in it – there is – but it doesn’t really address any of the current issues that make the Palestinians’ cause sympathetic to most of the world, and its narrow historical focus on the 1940s doesn’t deal with legitimate questions like why and by what right the British carved up a heterogenous region into a democratic Jewish state and a Bedouin monarchy, and how Israel has been governing the occupied territories for the past 40 years (and what it plans to do in the future).</p>
<p>Let me be clear about something: I very much want Israel to survive and to thrive. I just don’t think there’s any way for that to happen except alongside a real, independent, strong Palestinian state. Most people in Israel probably agree, but as a nation it has done a crummy job of moving in that direction. (Not that the Palestinians have done such a great job, either.)</p>
<p>But can Palestine exist as a bifurcated state?</p>
<p>b umping so I can watch it later at home</p>
<p>Historical Arab relations with Jews is completely different from that with Israel.</p>
<p>JHS: I considered this propaganda and interesting to watch, but not something I would take as gospel truth. I am not going to rely on one source, especially via a glossy and simplistic presentation as that in this film, to inform me of the relative rights and wrongs between the Israeli and Palestinian positions regarding the conflict. It’s obvious that the creators of this piece have a big axe to grind.</p>
<p>Does anybody have a good history of that part of the world and the founding of Israel that they would recommend? Or a couple? I am interested in learning more. I want to read authoritative pieces that purport to be neutral or unbiased, as well as pieces that may make a particular claim.</p>
<p>A very readable starting point is James Michener, The Source.</p>
<p>Here’s some text about the book, quoted from Amazon.com:</p>
<p>"In his signature style of grand storytelling, James Michener sweeps us back through time to the Holy Land, thousands of years ago. By exploring the lives and discoveries of modern archaeologists excavating the site of Tell Makor, Michener vividly re-creates life in and around an ancient city during critical periods of its existence, and traces the profound history of the Jews, including that of the early Hebrews and their persecution, the impact of Christianity on the Jewish world, the Crusades, and the Spanish Inquisition. Michener weaves his epic tale of love, strength, and faith until at last he arrives at the founding of Israel and the modern conflict in the Middle East. </p>
<p>The Source is not only a compelling history of the Holy Land and its people but a richly written saga that encompasses the development of Western civilization and the great religious and cultural ideas that have shaped our world."</p>
<ol>
<li>If you like DVD’s, there’s
Israel: A Nation Is Born by Abba Eban (DVD - Jun 24, 2003)</li>
</ol>
<p>and a PBS show, Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs (2006)</p>
<p>(details on Amazon.com)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you want something from the Israeli perspective, the great historian is Abba Eban. </p></li>
<li><p>I recognize you are seeking many perspectives.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Timed out, so am adding on just this:</p>
<p>Abba Eban wrote a book that became a DVD series called Heritage: Civilization and the Jews. I think Volume 4 (check carefully) might be the episode that covers the time period you’re interested in; look for dates around 1917-1948, to cover the founding of the modern State of Israel.</p>
<p>A book from a different perspective is by American journalist Tom Friedman, called From Beirut to Jerusalem; was a NYTimes bestseller for more than a year, I think. </p>
<p>Good luck in your quest, BedHead. Learn…and then learn more!! Be wary of facile answers.</p>
<p>Bed Head:</p>
<p>I don’t know that there IS anything authoritative that purports to be neutral or unbiased. More than in almost any other area, anything a historian does here has immediate and obvious political implications, and every side has a different definition of what “neutral” means, so that even being neutral winds up being a political position. (For example, I’m sure Jimmy Carter considers himself a neutral, for which he gets attacked constantly as an apologist for terrorism.)</p>
<p>A couple of interesting places to go for alternatives to the the conventional narratives on both sides: </p>
<p>There are a number of left-wing Israeli historians who have been critical of the core Israeli accounts of the 1948 war and the conflict with the Palestinians: Benny Morris (seminal work on the origin of the refugee issue), Avi Shlaim (an Oxford professor who has written a history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the Oslo Accords), Tom Segev (a journalist who wrote a well-regarded book on Palestine in the pre-WWII period).</p>
<p>There are not a lot of great books on the Palestinian side, but Hanan Ashrawi and Edward Said are both intelligent, Western-oriented scholar/activists who do a good job of presenting the Palestinian case without failing to acknowledge Palestinian faults.</p>
<p>And Thomas Friedman made his bones as a NYT reporter in the Middle East. A couple of his books address the conflict and its history.</p>
<p>Be careful about putting one group of people above another group. That is never a good idea.</p>