Representative Press Blog

The Palestinians: In Search of a Just Peace by Cheryl A. Rubenberg

Cheryl A. Rubenberg gives readers an accurate picture of the conflict in her 450 page paperback packed with information. The Palestinians: In Search of a Just Peace is a book of great research and logic. She points out the truth that "perceptions of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are so deeply imbued with biases and stereotypes-typically unrecognized as such-that we often do not grasp the fundamental issues." Simply put, if you get this book you will grasp the fundamental issues.

Her central focus is the so called Oslo "peace process" but she covers the whole of the conflict from the beginning to the present with powerful examples that go under-reported to unreported here in America and includes in her endnotes other startling facts that never get exposed in mainstream discussions. Her thesis is brutally honest: Israel never intended to withdraw from the Occupied Territories based on UN Security Council Resolution 242 and Israel never intended on permitting a genuinely independent Palestinian state.

Facts that pro-Israeli and some pro-Palestinian writers leave out she doesn't shy away from. Readers will learn things that might shock them if they have relied on the dishonest sources and media presentations that dominate public perceptions. With the book you will get the full picture. You will learn not only what Israel has been up to but also how the Palestinian Authority, with its corruption and repression, "has contributed significantly to the deterioration of Palestinian society."

It is important for Americans to learn the horrific examples of Zionist cruelty. This book is really well written and gives a good sampling of events PLUS the endnotes contain even more cases of barbarism that may just open the eyes of some willing to act like a human being and not a robotic apologist for the "Jewish State."

The examples of what one can find in her endnotes are really shocking and she exposes attempts to suppress it. Read about Irgun's savagery in details you may never have heard before, this is what Menachem Begin's Zionist terrorist group did at Deir Yassin: "... on April 9. 1948, Menachem Begin's Irgun massacred 254 people-mostly old men, women, and children-then mutilated, raped, disemboweled, and paraded their corpses through the streets of Jerusalem." (from endnote 51) She notes that this was not an isolated incident.

And she points out that Begin bragged about this "triumph" when he wrote about it in his book published in 1951 but he removed reference to it in a revised edition of his book in 1977.

For those who thought it was only the Palestinians who fled and were refused entry back into Israel that lost property and land without reparations, this book is a wake up call. In the first 8 years, the Jewish State took away a staggering 50% of all the land owned by Palestinians remaining in Israel. The shocking fact is some 39,000 Palestinians who never left were robbed anyway! "Israel seized property and land from some 39,000 Palestinians who escaped expulsion and remained in Israel. It was never retuned, and these individuals never received compensation although they are citizens of Israel." (from endnote 67)

If you want to know what you are talking about when it comes to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, this is the book for you. Rubenberg spells it out clearly, buy The Palestinians: In Search of a Just Peace today.