Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State

Jonathan is a British freelance writer who lives in Nazareth and chooses to stay independent in order not to be constrained in his reporting content and by biased approach of the mainstream media towards Israel-Palestine conflict. I found that refreshing and unique!

This book talks in detail about the life of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in the occupied territories mainly after the second intifada, which started after the former Prime Minister Sharon visited the Temple Mount. In order to describe the roots of the problems, Jonathan goes back in history and reminds us the origins of the conflict. Jonathan has a couple of arguments that form the basis of this book.

The first argument is that Israel was formed as and is still a democratic state for Jewish citizens but a non-democratic state for non-Jewish citizens. The laws differ for Jews and non-Jews in the areas of citizenship, marriage, tax breaks, asset ownership, military service, public service, and state-citizen relationship. As all of us know, inequality between citizens has created everything but peace in many countries. If this argument is true, I find the approach of Israeli government racist!

The second argument is that the conflict is rooted in Israel's non-ending efforts for capturing more land and water sources as well as in winning the fight of numbers (demography). If this argument is true, I find the approach of Israeli government imperialistic!

The third argument is that the mainstream media, mainly in the US, positions the roots of the conflict as a religious fight between the Jews and the Muslims hence Israel's need for extreme security measures. Although these security measures are not the usual arguments in Israeli internal politics and although they usually end up with a land capture by Israel or displacement of Palestinian civilians, mainstream media conveniently continues to report that Israel's moves are due to the need for security. If this argument is true, I find the media's role in distorting the facts very disturbing!

The fourth argument is related to third argument and is that the Israeli-Palestine conflict can not be discussed in a complete free environment in Europe and the US due to the possibility of being labelled as anti-Semitic. Usually, the debates are poisoned with distorted data and end up with trivial conclusions. The Israel lobby globally, uses the threat of "anti-Semitism label" (sometimes rightly but mostly abusively) as a means to silence the liberal minds. If this argument is true, I find that approach of Israeli lobby unfair and limiting for the public's right to a meaningful debate!

The book ends up with an analysis of Israeli politics. Jonathan argues that Israel, according to strategic reasons, will work towards the creation of a Palestinian state in a unilateral way and the final borders of Palestine will look like the Norwegians fjords due to illegal Israeli settlements. He says that the reason for Israel's unilateralism is the faster population increase of Israeli Arabs and of Palestinians between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan Valley. If, in the future, non-Jewish population becomes more than the Jewish population, Israel's character as a Zionist state will become harder to defend. Jonathan argues that this reality was a wake up call for politicians like Ariel Sharon and hence the sudden change of policies among the right wingers.

Jonathan is definitely pro-Palestinian and his book reflects the same attitude. However, I did not get the feeling that his analysis and conclusions are one-sided and are poisoned with fanaticism. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the Middle Eastern politics.

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Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State

Jonathan Cook

Reader Reviews:

Review of Israeli policies from a non-jewish, non-arap journalist (29/33 people found this helpful)

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