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Title: Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians by Noam Chomsky, Edward W. Said ISBN: 0-89608-601-1 Publisher: South End Press Pub. Date: October, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.77 (48 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: the confirmation bias at work?
Comment: I have to admit that I find it frustrating how many people seem to have their biases confirmed by Chomsky's writings, and then to treat his writings as though they were a definitive source for that very reason. What is valuable in this text is that it challenges many widespread assumptions about, and interpretations of, the Arab-Israeli conflict. However, it is a mistake to think that all of those traditional assumptions and interpretations are false simply because they have been challenged. Admittedly, Chomsky's tone is persuasive, but I counted well over a hundred points in the book at which he suppressed information required for an informed assessment of his claims. These are pitfalls for the unwary reader.
To take one example--raised by the previous reviewer--there is Chomsky's treatment of the 1967 war. Chomsky attributes to Moshe Dayan the claim that Israel was never existentially threatened by the forces gathered on its border. As Mr. Abbot correctly points out, the question of how serious a threat Israel was under is important for a thorough understanding of this war and its origins. But, notably, Chomsky is hardly one to attempt such an understanding. True to style, he merely tosses out the Dayan attribution as though it were somehow a damning indictment of Israel's motivations. Yet careful thinkers will ask: so what if Dayan believed this? This is, after all, the same Moshe Dayan who disastrously underestimated the threat of an Arab attack in 1973. More importantly, even if it's true that Israel's military leaders never perceived a genuine existential threat, why should this matter? The fact remains that Egyptian troops were massed on the Israeli border (officially, an act of war), Egypt illegally re-closed the Straits of Tiran (officially, an act of war), and Nasser had expressly vowed to annihilate Israel in the impending war. (True to style, Chomsky conveniently omits all of these details.) Faced with this situation, what country wouldn't try to ensure that the impending war would begin on terms favorable to it?--What exactly was Israel supposed to do? This is a question to which every fair critic owes an answer.
Perhaps Chomsky was trying to make the point that Israel cynically exploited a legitimate defense situation for territorial gain? If so, this needs to be said explicitly, and that would require, at a minimum, acknowledging the reality of the threat, existential or not. (It should be remembered that threats can be serious even when they are not existential.)
The fact that even this fairly obvious level of analysis is consistently lacking makes it hard to understand why anyone would see this as an intellectually serious contribution to the subject.
A related case in point (noticed by another reviewer), is that Chomsky takes Begin's description of the highly successful 1967 war as a "war of choice," in plumping for an invasion of Lebanon, at face value. That is, instead of seeing this as a cynical exploit on Begin's part, to drum up support for a dubious adventure in Lebanon, Chomsky treats this as a sincere histroical commentary on the earlier war. Since it is hard to believe that anyone is that naive, it seems that he is being deliberately manipulative.
Finally, at that time of the 1967 war, we should keep in mind that Egypt, not Israel, was occupying Palestinian land, and (especially during the 50's) dispatching bloody terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Somehow, the question of what entitled Egypt to indulge in such bloody provocation escapes Chomsky's attention.
Rating: 5
Summary: detailed, a great reference
Comment: noam chomsky's "the fateful triangle" is justifiably one of the standard references on the israel/palestinian conflict. it is not an extensive survey of the israel-palestine conflict, but a look at the relations between the important political players in the US, israel and palestine, and their relationships with each other. the author has been a zionist since before the establishment of the state of israel, but is a staunch supporter of palestinian rights and sovereignty. in addition, he an exemplary writer on world events, bringing depth of knowledge and analysis to clear expositions of american foreign policy. he may therefore have been the most appropriate person to write a book on the US's relation to israel and the palestinians. the book succeeds admirably.
the book starts from the "accommodationist" position that both jews and palestinians are entitled to states in historic palestine, and analyses in detail israel's rejectionism - its opposition to a palestinian state - and US support for it.
the book was originally written during israel's war on lebanon. it explores israel-US relations mostly as they pertain to the israeli occupation of palestine following its conquest in 1967. chomsky makes a persuasive case that as israel intensified its occupation, palestinians moved closer to accommodation, creating a "political threat" to israel that resulted in israel's successive invasions of lebanon, for the purpose of eliminating the PLO as a political threat.
one of the strengths of the book is that it goes beyond the standard analysis of US-israel relations through state policy, and examines in great detail the attitudes of american media and intellectuals towards israel, the palestinians and arabs more generally. chomsky finds that the american intellectual establishment - liberal and conservative alike - adopts an almost worshipful attitude towards the jewish state, dismissing or ignoring the viewpoints and concerns of palestinians, arabs, pro-peace israelis and humanitarian opinion more generally. in this respect, chomsky argues, the attitudes of the american intellectual establishment at the time of his writing mirrors the attitudes of the american intelligentsia towards soviet russia in the 1930's. the media's reporting is found to be similarly biased. the great detail in which this is documented makes the book a good reference on this subject, though an update would be welcome. (another good book on the subject is "blaming the victims", edited by edward said and christopher hitchens.)
similarly, chomsky doesn't just analyze US-israel relations in terms of the israeli state, but also discusses israeli intellectuals, the peace camp and other social sectors.
the discussion of the US state's backing of israel is the part of the analysis most up for challenge, in my opinion. chomsky attributes the backing mostly to america's geopolitical interest in middle eastern oil. this point of view has been challenged by others who have written about the power of the pro-israel lobby. given that the focus of the book is on U.S.-israel relations, chomsky might have spent some more time addressing this point of view.
an important feature of "the fateful triangle" is its incredibly density. this means that it's rich in material, but also that it's a tough slog. i wouldn't necessarily recommend a thorough reading of this book, unless you are interested in all the details. instead, read the parts that interest you most, and familiarize yourself with its contents by skimming the rest of the books. its main value is as a reference.
Rating: 1
Summary: chomsky's rantings deceive only those who want to be deceive
Comment: chomsky's books all share the same defining characterisic: rant. his arguments are irrational, his logic arcane, and his conclusions so far afield of history and sociology that one must conclude that he is quite literally trapped inside of his own ideology.
He effectively ignores facts that undermine or countervail his pre-conceived notions, he cherry-picks those facts that fit his ideology, no matter how few and far between they may be, and he de-contextualizes those facts so that he can interpret them any way he wants.
even the most cursory and superficial review of his book leads the reader to conclude that either he is psychotic, or a truly evil person.
david Meir-Levi
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Title: The Question of Palestine by Edward W. Said ISBN: 0679739882 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 07 April, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, New and Revised Edition by Norman G. Finkelstein, Norman Finkelstein ISBN: 1859844421 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Orientalism by Edward W. Said ISBN: 039474067X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 October, 1979 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project) by Noam Chomsky ISBN: 0805074007 Publisher: Metropolitan Books Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Middle East Illusions: Including Peace in the Middle East?: Reflections on Justice and Nationhood by Noam Chomsky ISBN: 0742526992 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing (via NBN) Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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