Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001

Best read alongside The Iron Wall by Avi Shlaim.

Year after year, decade after decade, the conflict in the Middle East becomes more and more complex and apparently more and more intractable. Benny Morris offers an extraordinary piece of scholarship which will be of consuming interest to anyone concerned to understand the politics and psychology of the situation: Morris takes a complex subject and delivers a highly readable analysis. He demonstrates that the roots of the present Arab-Israeli wars and social unrest stretch back to the 19th century. Morris analyses the tensions which underlay the creation of Israel, and achieves the seemingly impossible - a balanced narrative of the politics and warfare of the region. Morris is cutting in his remarks: the outbreak of the Six Day War was a mistake - the politicians posed and postured and pushed one another... until the situation was beyond their control. Morris's analysis of the strategies and military successes of the protagonists is compelling. This is an indispensable work for anyone interested in the Middle East - and it is impossible for anyone to dismiss that conflict as too remote or as limited in its importance to the rest of the world. Here is a major flash point for world politics and economics - and an enduring nightmare for people caught up in the horrors which beset their lands. Rich in detail and analysis, written with pace and style, this is a thought provoking work.

I think judgment on this book has to be split in two; what is it like to read, and what it says. On the first count, this book is not easy. It's very long, it's very detailed, and there are not many huge surprises in the plot, because everyone already knows the end of the story. And it's definitely a book that needs to be read sequentially, from the front cover on; although it's divided in chapters, the material in each of them is so intimately linked with the content of the previous pages that reading piecemeal is going to be very hard. The font is small, and there only a handful of not very detailed maps, which is quite frustrating, especially when reading about military battles. To give a comparison, Schneer's book on the Balfour Declaration felt easier work (although not by much). What keeps the reader awake is the way details, characters and actions mesh into each other, how facts decades old keep re-emerging to shape later actions. Overall, it's a book that requires commitment, but rewards with a veritable panoply of facts and data. Which takes us neatly on the second part of the judgment: how accurate and unbiased are the facts and data presented in the book? Clearly, I have no way of knowing for sure, I cannot check every fact and document quoted. My overall impression though is that the book is as fair, and as unbiased, as the sources used in it permitted. This comes from the fact that, throughout the book, the overall impression is that one of the two sides carries greater responsibility (greater, not total) for the developments that took place in Palestine since the middle of the XIX century, and the author never seems to hide or mollify the facts that drive that impression. In a sense, Morris is presenting facts that put more blame on his own side (that's my impression anyway); he never points his finger of course, but he leaves his material there, and it's material that overall shifts the balance of blame more on one side than the other. I think this is enough to deem the author's effort as honest. Editing issues, lack of maps, and a times overly stodgy style stop me from giving five stars (clearly, I am not giving any star judgment on the actual content).

Excellent view

This book, written by Benny Morris, a well known Israeli Professor of History, is a must have for everyone interested in that topic. Digging deep into the Israeli archives, he uncovers the history of Israel with all it's ups & downs. He is not afraid of telling the truth but never takes sides. Praised by the New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times and many more, this is arguably the most comprehensive and objective book every written on the history of the Middle East conflict. If you are interested in this topic or even studying in that field, you won't be able to ignore it.

New Historianの一人であるBenny Morrisによるパレスチナ紛争史で、定番書のひとつだと思います。Morrisはイスラエルではパレスチナ人寄りとされますが、パレスチナ人から見ればイスラエル寄りといった立場の学者です。戦史に近い部分もありますが、個々の紛争の原因や背景にも重点がおかれていますので、パレスチナ紛争を概観するのに大変良い本だと思います。ちょっと大著ですが、Morrisの英語は読みやすく、内容もわかりやすいのでお薦めです。ただ、パレスチナの地理に疎い日本人が読むには地図が足りないと思いますので、 The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Routledge Historical Atlases) や、あとできれば The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East (Vintage) に入っている地図を参照しながら読まないと途中で挫折してしまうかもしれません。ペーパーバック版で一章追加されていて、2001年初頭まで（クリントン大統領によるキャンプ・デービット会談が沈没するまで）がカバーされています。

Very good read. It is a lengthy and highly detailed account of a complex history. Of course, given the availability of sources and archives, there is more information on the Zionist perspective. But overall it is as well balanced as can be, given the circumstances. This is a well researched academic resource for those begining to learn about the conflict and those who have been learning about if got years. Highly recommended.

A single book cannot provide a proper and full accounting of a conflict. "Righteous Victims" does a fantastic job of providing a nuanced and clear-eyed overview of the Israeli-Arab conflict from an Israeli point of view.

Na een uitvoerige inleiding (20% van het boek) met de voorgeschiedenis een overzicht van alle oorlogen en vredesinitiatieven tussen Israël, de Palestijnen en de andere Arabische buren. Zoals Morris steeds schrijft: Best wel kritisch op Israël maar altijd op basis van feiten. Ondanks begrip voor de Palestijnse kant spaart Morris hen ook zeker niet, en al helemaal niet als het gaat over de gemiste kansen om vrede te bereiken.