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Myths And Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict

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"Too many people are unfamiliar with the basic history of the conflict or simply don't have concise, fact-based replies to falsehoods propagated about Middle East issues," say author Dr. Mitchell Bard, one of the country's leading experts on U.S. Middle East policy. "This book offers documented historical facts about all aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict and has been updated to include the latest information about Israel's security fence, disengagment from Gaza, the road map and more.

374 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

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About the author

Mitchell G. Bard

32 books18 followers
Mitchell Bard is the Executive Director of the nonprofit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) and one of the leading authorities on U.S.-Middle East policy. Dr. Bard is also the director of the Jewish Virtual Library (www.JewishVirtualLibrary.org). Bard holds a Ph.D. in political science from UCLA. He has appeared on local, national, and international media outlets and written and edited 23 books, including After Anatevka - Tevye Goes to Palestine, Will Israel Survive? 48 Hours of Kristallnacht and The Arab Lobby.

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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
Profile Image for Gary.
1,034 reviews255 followers
August 3, 2022
This is an essential resource for the bookshelf of anyone who wants to work out the truth behind the decades old conflict between Israel and the Arab/Islamic world.
Bard examines every falsehood about the conflict and shows what utter trash it is, giving us a starting explanation of the true state of affairs.
Bard begins by dispelling the lie that there was no Jewish presence in the Land of Israel between the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the re-birth of the modern Zionist movement.

There has always been a Jewish presence in the Holy Land for the last 3000 years.
Bard outlines how large communities were re-established in Jerusalem and Safed in the ninth century and thrived in other towns and cities in Palestine during the Middle Ages.
By the early 19th century-before the rebirth of the modern Zionist movement- more than 10 000 Jews throughout the Holy Land.

He deals with the evil lies that "Zionism is racism" pointing out that Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which holds that Jews, like any other people are entitled to a homeland.

The presence of hundreds of thousands of dark skinned Jews from Ethiopia, Yemen, Iran and India, among other countries is the best refutation of this wicked calumny.
Furthermore the 1 million Christian and Muslim Arabs, Druze, Baha'is, Circassians and other ethnic groups have full civil and political rights in Israel.

Furthermore Bard deals with the other evil lie that equates Zionism with colonialism pointing out that colonialism means the exploitation of others, but that nothing could be further from colonialism than a people returning to their own land and doing all their own labour as the Zionists did. Emir Faisal of Syria welcomed the Zionist movement and in 1919 wrote that "Zionism is nationalistic and not imperialistic".
Furthermore the British colonial masters of Palestine did all they could to frustrate the Zionist return, leading the underground Jewish movements in Palestine to lead an anti-colonial war against the British. The Arabs on the other hand were concerned primarily with destroying the Jews rather than resisting the British imperialists. The British facilitated massive Arab immigration from neighbouring Arab countries into Palestine, while blocking Jewish immigration into the Holy Land. Millions of Jews could have been saved from Hitler's Holocaust had they been allowed to enter Palestine during World War II. During the War of Independence the British handed over bases and weapons to the Arabs, and British soldiers served with the Arab forces. In 1922 the British stripped 77% of historic Palestine, which had been promised as the Jewish National Home by the Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations, and awarded it to the Hashemites, thus creating an Arab state. Which puts to rest the idea that Israel rules over most of 'Palestine', and a peace settlement would give the Arabs only 22% of historic 'Palestine'. On the contrary, this would mean that the Jews control only 22% of historic Palestine, which is after all the cradle of the Jewish people.
The author deals with the seven wars Israel of survival fought after independence, starting with the attack by seven Arab armies in 1948 on the fledgling Jewish state during which the Secretary-General of the Arab league Azzam Pasha thundered "There will be war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the crusades."

The author debunks the anti-Semitic myth that Israel staged an unprovoked attack on the Arabs that sparked the Six Day War, outlining the terrorists attacks into Israeli territory organized by Egypt and Syria which intensified in the year prior to the war. The Syrians used the Golan Heights to shell Israeli farms and villages in the Galilee.
Syrian and Egyptian troops massed on the Israeli borders in an open preparation for attack, and Nasser made clear his intentions: "We shall not enter Palestine with it's soil covered in sand" he said on March, 8, 1965 "We shall enter it with it's soil saturated in blood."
A month before the Six Day War, the then Syrian Minister of Defence, Hafez Assad threatened : "Our forces are now entirely ready not only to repulse the aggression, but to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland. The Syrian army, with it's finger on the trigger, is united...I, as a military man, believe that the time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation."
Faced with Arab armies openly massed on her border for an invasion and the illegal blocking of the Straights of Tiran to Israeli shipping (an open act of war) Israel had no choice but to strike at the Egyptian forces.
Israel begged Jordan not to enter the war, but after Jordan attacked Israel, only then did Israel take control of the 'West Bank'. Israel's ancient heartland of Judea and Samaria.

The author decribes the massive territorial concessions the Israelis have been willing to give to the Arabs. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, offered in 2000 to withdraw from 97% of the West Bank and 100 % of the
Gaza strip, as well as offering the Arabs large parts of Jerusalem. Arafat rejected this offer and launched a five year war of terror against the Israeli people, without making a counter offer.

In August 205, Israel withdrew from all of Gaza, and Northern Samaria, expelling thousands of Jews from their homes there.
In response the Arabs used these lands to launch thousands of rockets at Israeli civilian centers.
Hamas arch-terrorist boss Mahmoud Al Zahar stated in an interview with Yediot Aharanot on June 24, 2005 that 'Hamas would 'definitely not be prepared for coexistence with Israel should the IDF retreat to it's 1967 borders. "It can be a temporary solution for five to ten years. But in the end Palestine must return to become Muslim, and in the long term Israel must disappear from the face of the earth.
Other facts and situations covered in this book include how the media distorts facts by repeating that most of the casualties in the 2000-2005 Palestinian War were of Arabs. most of he Arabs killed were men and boys of fighting age. While most of the Israelis killed were females, including many children.
This is a direct indictment of the Palestinian strategy of primarily targeting Israeli women and children. Furthermore this book deals with the demand by many Muslims and Left Wing fanatics that the solution to thew conflict must be 1 unitary 'Palestine'. This would take place after millions of Arabs had been brought into Israel under the so-called 'right of return' i.e those who claim descent from Arabs who fled Israel during the hostilities that the Arabs started during the 1948 War of Independence. Together wit the West Bank and Gaza Arabs, the Arabs would constitute a majority and the Jews an unprotected minority.The Jewish control of the one tiny safe haven for Jews would erode and the Jews would be a threatened minority- the very fate that the establishment of Israel sought to end. We know that minorities are most often persecuted and in many cases subjected to genocide in Arab countries. The most likely outcome of the "1 state solution" would be a Rwanda style genocide of the Jews in Israel, i.e a second holocaust.
If this happened those who howl about the rights of the Palestinians would simply turn on CNN and enjoy the show.
The author also explores the hatred and determination to kill instilled in Palestinian children through the Palestinian education system and Hamas run programmes as well as how the much maligned security fence has saved thousands of innocent lives, which is why it's opponents want it torn down- they want terrorists to get into Israel to kill Israeli men, women and children. The Israel-haters, Islamic, left wing or Buchananite enjoy the murder of Jewish women and children in Israel, who they believe deserve to die just for being Israeli, just as Hitler believed Jews deserved to die just for being Jews.

It is impossible to mention in the review all of the worthy points brought up and dealt with by the author, but this book provides a fine beginning for an education into the truth behind the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Do not let anti-Israel hatemongers try to discredit this book by saying one should read propagandist liars like Chomsky, Said, Finkelstein, Neumann and Brenner. It is their lies that this book dissipates.
Profile Image for Khari.
3,130 reviews77 followers
December 24, 2021
This book took forever to read.

I didn't particularly like it. It falls into the same trap as most history text books fall into, it has a bunch of facts arranged in a basically chronological order with no narrative and nothing to make it stick in your brain.

This inherent problem was compounded by the structure of the book. A myth is presented, and then you have a short essay that follows demonstrating the objective facts which illustrate the erroneous nature of the myth. Each of those essays is constructed like a history text book: a bunch of facts arranged in a basically chronological order with no narrative structure.

It was beyond boring.

Also, I feel like each and every myth that was presented deserved a book in and of itself!

I would say that this book is a primer? If you know nothing about the Arab-Israeli conflict this can be a broad overview of it. But at the same time, I fell like it's a terrible primer because it's not interesting, it's highly political, and it's superficial. Maybe it would be better to say that it's a good summary? I suppose 'A Guide' is a good way of putting it because it's just like a cultural guidebook, it pulls out notable things and explains very little and ignores all the interesting stuff.

I did learn a lot from reading this. I learned that humans are humans and that we are constantly doing things without thinking through the consequences. Take for instance the boycotting of Israeli corporations that operate in the West Bank. They are removed, and all of their employees, that were Palestinian, are now out of a job. A job that paid nearly double what a normal person makes in Palestine, that included health care and pension benefits. If I were in one of those worker positions, I would be pretty ticked at someone who pushed for that company to be boycotted 'for the good of the Palestinians' when it did measurably harm to me, a Palestinian! But that's what people do, everywhere, we are possessed by our ideas and we cling to them without thought, even if clinging to them results in negative outcomes. We really need to be more empirically data-oriented.

That is one area that I can't complain about this book: It's full of data.

It was just really boring to only read data. I wouldn't recommend this as a primer.
Profile Image for JMarryott23.
299 reviews7 followers
October 11, 2023
4.5 Stars… My heart breaks for the families who suffered tragedies from the Hamas attack on Israel last weekend (October 2023). The evil that exists in this world is unimaginable, and it’s also unimaginable that anyone could find ways to justify it (I’ve seen far too many awful takes on Twitter and elsewhere). With those events invading my mind, I felt it would benefit me to learn more about the situation and try to become more informed.

Finding something that doesn’t have a bias is difficult, and finding something that portrays both sides equally might be impossible. Neither side is perfect, but it turns out treating both sides equally is impossible because there is a right and wrong side here (as is the case with Russia / Ukraine and many other conflicts). That isn’t to cast aspersions on all Palestinians. But as this book shows, there is massive support for Hamas and terrorism against Israel among Palestinians.

This is ridiculously well sourced and explains the history of the region in great detail. I learned so much from this book and have 142 highlights. The layout is super easy to digest despite the amount of information being thrown at us. And if a “Myth” doesn’t interest you then it’s not a problem, a section can easily be skipped. I found so many sections interesting that I hardly skipped anything.

If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be peace. If the Jews put ‎down their weapons ‎today, Israel would cease to exist.

*Available on Kindle Unlimited*
Profile Image for Josiah Hepler.
17 reviews
October 6, 2025
Myths and Facts is an in-depth guide to the common lies that are spread about the state of Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. However, a guide on a conflict that goes back a thousand-plus years is obligated to contain a wealth of information, as this title does. At times, it felt like drinking from a fire hydrant of knowledge. I believe this book warrants at least two full reads. Although it was published some time ago in reference to an ever-evolving conflict, the information still holds true today, as you cannot change the facts that we live with.
Profile Image for Thomas Blake.
31 reviews3 followers
January 4, 2010
A great guide to the Israeli-Arab Conflict with historical documentation; easy to read small independent sections. Online version updated and available for free.
28 reviews2 followers
May 8, 2018
Really helpful introduction to the myths and facts of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - the myths and reality which is not shown in the media.

Recommend!!!
Profile Image for Ján Kapusňak.
80 reviews1 follower
November 27, 2019
One of the best books on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict! It explains in a simple way (almost) all myths related to this conflict. A must read.
Profile Image for bunny ᥫ᭡.
199 reviews8 followers
October 24, 2020
still waiting for the facts... this is prime time bias
Profile Image for Chris.
108 reviews3 followers
December 13, 2023
The Skinny: Table stakes for understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially from an Israeli perspective.

The Good: This is a seemingly under the radar book that provides a ton of information on a range of the core issues. Nearly everything is cited to a primary source so you can verify that the information is not made up. The version I read was from 2019 and it is astounding how much of the same issues are once again palpable across the world since 10/7. I'd expect a new version to come out in the wake of it and I will re-read it then for sure.

The Bad: This is not a year by year overview of the conflict and definitely not the best for trying to understand high level issues and timelines. It is not very linear, but it is quite dense with a lot of information thrown at you. It will probably take at least 2 reads to grasp everything properly. It also leans meaningfully towards Israel which is fine, as this book should be just one part of a range of books to study in the search for some understanding of this extremely heavy topic.
538 reviews1 follower
September 22, 2021
The quick style and myth vs fact in quick hitting fashion is easy to read and helps provide a lot of info quickly. While this book is probably viewed as right leaning it was interesting how frequently former Democratic Presidents are quoted and their policies supported Israel from Truman, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and even Obama (however a whole chapter is dedicated to how the Iran Nuclear deal was a wrong headed effort to build a legacy over creating peace.)

Masterfully summarizes the history of the Main conflicts, the UN resolutions, and the double standard Israel is held to in defending itself. He addresses the green line, settlements, all of it. While This book pulls no punches it is highly favorable of Israel it does acknowledge flaws in its policies.

I hope it is updated to include analysis of Trumps presidency and his support of Israel. Great book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for John Minster.
187 reviews1 follower
December 27, 2017
A very useful outline to a lot of the issues in the conflict. The format lends itself to being a resource one returns to often and Bard addresses the problems with clarity and brevity, though there were times where I felt somewhat shortchanged on some of the issues. With that, the book requires some background knowledge to be fully understood. That said, I learned quite a bit and got what I wanted out of it.
Profile Image for Trish.
1,424 reviews2,719 followers
Read
March 15, 2009
Counterbalance to other things I have been reading. To tell the truth, the more I read, the more I just come down to the place I was before. Reasonable people will disagree. Let's not talk about how we got to this place. Let's just take a snapshot of where we've gotten to and say, "does this look right to you?"

I think Israel must be bigger than it's perceived "enemies." In every way: humanitarian, generosity, leadership, forward-thinking-ness. It is already ahead in the power equation. With power comes responsiblity. At some point there has to be the realization that trying to control everything only places greater demands on them and creates expectations that they have not been able to fulfill.
Profile Image for Dovofthegalilee.
204 reviews
July 28, 2011
If you love Israel and you feel you lack the facts to preset to someone who opposes her right to exist than this book is for you. This one book has many books worth of knowledge condensed into one with easy topical references.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews

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