Any Solution?
The reality of a final answer to the problem of one state, two state or whatever is currently highly intractable. With ongoing U.S. support, with ongoing Israeli influence in Congress through AIPAC, with ongoing U.S. intentions for geopolitical control over the Middle East, any solution, although perhaps easy to conceive would be very difficult to implement. That is not because the solution is difficult; it is because the humans that are dealing with the situation carry heavily weighted biases and strategic interests to render them (the humans, the government elites) intractable. Morris denies both the one state and the two state solution; his own solution is poorly developed and leaves the region clearly under the influence of a dominant Israeli nuclear power supported by the U.S.
This book then is essentially a standard apologia for the Israeli-centric view of its own goodness, its own justifications, and its own victim hood and vulnerability, the latter being myths created for public consumption wherever it would be accepted. So read the book, but also read it in conjunction with the following list of works that provide ample information to rebut much of what Morris writes.
Bibliography (author, title only – all books have been reviewed in Palestine Chronicle):
Abunimah, Ali : One Country
Baroud, Ramzy: The Second Palestinian Intifada
Cook, Jonathan: Blood and Religion
Cook, William : The Rape of Palestine
Dunsky, Marda: Pens and Swords
Friel and Falk: Israel-Palestine on Record
Gordon, Neve: Israel’s Occupation
Gregory, Derek: The Colonial Present
Haddad and Honig-Parmass: Between the Lines
Kanaaneh, Hatime: A Doctor in Galilee
Makdisi, Saree : Palestine Inside out
Mishal and Sela: The Palestinian Hamas
Pappe, Ilan: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine; A History of Modern Palestine; The Israel Palestine Question
Rabkin, Yakov M.: A Threat From Within
Reinhart, Tanya: The Roadmap to Nowhere; Israel/Palestine
Schanzer, Jonathan: Hamas vs Fatah
Simons, Geoffrey: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
Sorkin, Michael: Against the Wall
Tamimi, Azzam: Hamas – A History From Within
Thomas, Amelia: The Zoo on the Road to Nablus
Wolf, Robert: Violence in the Holy Land
Zertal and Eldar: Lords of the Land
For a Christian perspective:
Fleming, Eileen: Keep Hope Alive; Third Intifada Uprising
– Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular contributor/columnist of opinion pieces and book reviews for The Palestine Chronicle. Miles’ work is also presented globally through other alternative websites and news publications.
Notes:
[1] See “Arab Christians” National Geographic Magazine, June 2009; and also Eileen Fleming’s work at www.wearewideawake.org/ and her writings are on various alternate web media.
