The Question of Palestine (Vintage) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

There seems no reason to me that his analysis should include only the suffering of the Palestinians and not the Jews. That being said, Jewish suffering under the British and the Arabs is well-covered, and Said does a service to readers to present this viewpoint.

Its one-sidedness, in all probability, is for expediency's sake since a balance of injustices would result in -- well, the same decion the UN reached on Nov 47. The reader will have to decide if organized zionism or 11 oil-producing arab nations held the cards during that vote. If sympathy after the holocaust were that high, why was the vote so close the first time, and why was Jewish immigration to Israel either limited or stopped? The British, as always, only cared about their empire, and Said avoids this point in exaggerating Jewish international connections without exploring the power that OPEC oil yielded.

Said also fails to sufficiently cover the injustices which the Palestinians suffered at the hands of agressive and underhanded Arab governments. Jordan, Egypt and Syria all used the Palestinians to fight a war which the Palestinians did not care about, and then expoited the refuge crisis for their political gains. Finally, as Said points out, the Camp Daivid accord put the question of the refugees on a seering back-burner. Yet this should fall on Egypt's shoulders as well, should it not?

This book is one sided. But most strikingly is that in such books about the Palestine question the historic facts are neglected.
Certain Arabs, who only within the last 40 years began to call themselves "Palestinians" claim the land of Israel as the surviving descendants of its original inhabitants. That assertion is the basis for their intended displacement of Israel and causes the conflict in the Middle East.
These Arabs claim that they are descendent from Ismael, Abraham`s first born son, and that therefore the Promised Land belongs to them. But Ismael was not a Palestinian. His mother was Hagar, the maid from Egypt (Genesis 16,1), his father was Abraham, who was from Ur of the Chaldees (Genesis 11,31) - neither of them were Palestinians! When Abraham moved into the Promised land, he did so because God had ordered him to do so. He said he would give this land to him and his heirs by an everlasting covenant (Genesis 13,15; 17,7). The land was called Canaan and was inhabited by Canaanites who were from European descendants. This land became Israel. God promised it to be the home for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whereas Jacob was named also Israel (Geneis 12,7; 13,15; 15,7.18-21; 17,7-8; 19,21; 26,3-5;2813; Exodus 6,4.8, 1 Chronicles 16,16-18).
God called himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob "this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations" (Exodus 3,6.15) In the Bible God calls himself 203 times the God of Israel.
The land of Canaan became Israel and the Jewish people lived as a nation there more than 1500 years after they were brought back from Egypt. A historical fact that is still hold in memory by Jews in their Passover feast.
There was not such a place called "Palestine" or people called Palestinians before the year 135 AD when the Romans renamed Israel in "Provincia Syria-Palestinia" after the chief enemies of the Israelites the Philistines. But the Philistines, also from European descendance had long since vanished from the land of Israel. It was not until the 1960s that certain Arabs began to claim that they were the true "Palestinians" and that the Jews were occupying the land they inherited from ancient ancestors.
But the earliest verses of the Quran support the writings of the books of Genesis and Exodus as true. To escape the logic consequences of that embarrassing fact (the fact also that Muhammed did not foresee the trouble his followers would have for that matter), Islam claims that the Bible was subsequently corrupted. But for this claim no evidence can be presented. In fact, we have Bible manuscripts both before and after Muhammed and they are identical! No corruptions! The Quran itself declares repeatedly that Allah brought the Jews out of slavery in Egypt,destroyed Pharao`s pursuing army, gave Israelthe Promised Land and brought them into it (Surah 5,70; 10,91.94; 17,103-104; 44,30-32; 45,16; 95,20-21...).
The Jews would welcome if the muslims and arabs would respect the writings of the Quran in this case more consequent. And the Muslims can think over whether it is wise to contradict the writings of Muhammad.
That since the 19th. century more and more Jews returned to their homeland which was a very thinly populated desert like area and transformed it to a land in which milk and honey flow whereas the Palestinians arabs grew in number only as descendants of refugee camp dwellers is another story.

Edward Said brilliantly covers the origins of the conflict and the motives behind the active Jewish settlement in Palestine. Said provides details of events that seem to be ignored by our selectively amnesiac news outlets. He shows that the "terrorism" in the conflict was not initiated by the Palestinians.