Arabs And Israel For Beginners
Ron David
The real history of the conflict—from pre-Egyptian times right up to the Oslo Peace Accord.
Most of the literature on the Middle East is so distorted in favor of Israel that it bears virtually no relationship to the truth. Anyone who wants the truth must dig through daunting works by people like Chomsky, Lilienthal, Said and a handful of other scholarly writers. But when it comes to books written in plain English for regular people there is virtually nothing, just a huge gap. ARABS & ISRAEL FOR BEGINNERS, part of the 30-year running "Beginners Series," was written to fill that gap. The very identity of the series (which could be described in a word as "anti-footnote") is to communicate complex subjects with clarity and wit so that regular people can understand them. It is a concept perfectly suited to Democracy, especially when it is as painstakingly researched as this book

Beyond Chutzpah: On The Misuse Of Anti-Semitism And The Abuse Of History
Norman Finkelstein
In this long-awaited sequel to his international bestseller The Holocaust Industry, Norman G. Finkelstein moves from an iconoclastic interrogation of the new anti-Semitism to a meticulously researched expose of the corruption of scholarship on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Dishonest Broker: The US Role In Israel And Palestine
Naseer Aruri
In this fully revised and updated version of his highly acclaimed book The Obstruction Of Peace: The United States, Israel, And The Palestinians, Aruri dismantles the many myths about the failed Middle East "peace process." Aruri analyzes the evolving relationship between the United States and the two protagonists—the Palestinians and Israel—and argues that the US government, rather than serving as an "honest broker," has allowed Israel to use violence and violate international law to maintain its occupation. As a result of America's massive military, economic, and political support for Israel, Palestinians continue to be denied their fundamental right to self-determination and justice.

Israel/Palestine:How To End The War Of 1948
Tanya Reinhart
The noted Israeli journalist—who views the 1994 Oslo agreement as a painful deception of the Palestinian people—provides a primer on the current crisis. Drawing from maps and declassified Israeli sources, this provides a particularly prescient view of the charred history of past negotiations, expectations, shortcomings, misrepresentations, and deceptions. Indispensable. Now in a new edition, Reinhart extends her critique to the most recent chapter in this decades-old conflict.

Israel/Palestine: The Black Book
REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS
An authoritative account of human rights violations that have taken place on both sides of the conflict since the second Intifada began in September 2000. The reports—taken from groups including Amnesty International, The Palestinian Center For Human Rights, The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, Human Rights Watch, The Public Committee Against Torture In Israel, B'Tselem, and Reporters Sans Frontieres—have almost all remained unknown to the wider world and detail objective accounts of the degradation suffered by both Israelis and Palestinians.

Jewish History, Jewish Religion- The Weight of Three Thousand Years
Israel Shahak
A controversial account of Jewish history, which argues that the theological justifications for the State of Israel are bogus. Introduction by the irrepressible Gore Vidal. Shahak was a remarkable man. Born in the Warsaw ghetto and a survivor of Belsen, he arrived in Palestine in 1945. He lived in Jerusalem for 40 years, here he argued that the roots of Jewish chauvinism and religious fanaticism must be understood before it is too late.

The New Intifada: Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Robert Fisk (Contributor), Edward Said (Contributor), Noam Chomsky (Introduction by), and Roane Carey (Editor)
An incredible collection of scholars, experts, and those directly involved from the frontlines of the conflict trace the course of the uprising, its consequence for the Palestinian people and the Israeli State, and its likely impact on the future of peace in the Middle East. The big names you'll likely recognize include Noam Chomsky (who provides a lengthy foreword), Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Amira Hass, and prize-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif—but it's the contributors from the refugee camps and Palestinian schools that provide the searing testimony so very much needed.

The Origin Of The Palestine-Israel Conflict
JEWS FOR JUSTICE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Perhaps the best short, accessible introduction to the history, and prehistory, of the region, and the current war. From the Canaanites to the British Mandate, UN Partition, Statehood and expulsion, from 1967 and Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza to the 2000 Intifada. Mandatory reading for anyone remotely interested in what is actually going on.

The Politics Of Anti-Semitism
Edward Said (Contributor), Norman Finkelstein (Contributor), Jeffrey St. Clair (Editor), and Alexander Cockburn (Editor)
How did a term, once used accurately to describe the most virulent evil, become a charge flung at the mildest critic of Israel, particularly concerning its atrocious treatment of Palestinians? Edited by Cockburn and St. Clair, the print and online journal Counterpunch has become a must read for hundreds of thousands a month who no longer believe anything they read in the mainstream press beyond the sports scores. And on the subject of Israel and Palestine, of the Israel lobby in the US, the current Middle East crisis, and its ramifications at home and abroad, Counterpunch has been unrivaled. Herein you'll find 18 of the finest essays and articles (from nine Jews and nine Gentiles!). A lot of the names will be familiar—Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Norman Finkelstein, Lenni Brenner, Uri Avnery, plus the editors. Then, there's former CIA analysts Bill and Kathy Christison, the trenchant and witty philosopher Michael Neumann, seasoned Capitol Hill staffer "George Sutherland," Will Yeoman's path-breaking essay on Israel and divestment, Shaheed Alam—who became a target of the fanatical Daniel Pipes—and Israeli journalist Yigal Bronner. Plus Kurt Nimmo, Bruce Jackson, Jeffrey Blankfort, and more. This, the first in the new Counterpunch series from AK Press, is a timely anthology on how silence and complicity in crimes against a betrayed people has been enforced.

Peace Under Fire: Israel/Palestine And The International Solidarity Movement
Edward Said (Introduction by) and INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT (Editor)
This collection of accounts, drawn from the web-logs and diaries of ISM volunteers, news articles, press releases, writings from the Corrie and Hurndall families, Rachel Corries last e-mail home, and cover photograph by Tom Hurndall, reveals the real horror of life under occupation and describes the first signs of a new wave of international solidarity.
"What Rachel Corrie's work in Gaza recognized was the gravity and the density of the living history of the Palestinian people as a national community, and not merely as a collection of deprived refugees. That is what she was in solidarity with. And we need to remember that that kind of solidarity is no longer confined to a small number of intrepid souls here and there, but is recognized the world over." —Edward Said, from the foreword

The Road Map To Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003
Tanya Reinhart
The Roadmap to Nowhere is a devastating and timely book, essential to understanding the current state of the Israel/Palestine crisis and the propaganda that infects its coverage. Based on analysis of information in the mainstream Israeli media, it argues that the current road map has brought no real progress and that, under cover of diplomatic successes, Israel is using the road map to strengthen its grip on the remaining occupied territories. Exploring the Gaza pullout of 2005, the West Bank wall and the collapse of Israeli democracy, Reinhart examines the gap between myth — the Israeli leadership's public affairs achievement that has led the West to believe that a road map is in fact being implemented — and bitter reality. Not only has nothing fundamentally changed, she argues, but the Palestinians continue to lose more of their land and are pushed into smaller and smaller enclaves, surrounded by the new wall constructed by Sharon. "Tanya Reinhart's informative and chilling analysis could hardly be more timely. It should be read and considered with care, and taken very seriously." — Noam Chomsky

Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts Of The Israeli Invasion
Noam Chomsky (Introduction by) and Ramzy Baroud (Editor)
An incredible collection, largely based around the testimonies of residents and international observers. It includes a timeline, maps, numerous photographs, an excellent contextual introduction from the editor (himself born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp), and a preface from Noam Chomsky. Israel denies that anything much happened at all in 2002, regarding this square mile of densely packed refugees. Here's the grim rebuttal to that particular piece of black propaganda, from those that survived the massacre.