The Fateful Triangle: United States, Israel and the Palestinians

I still remember when I bought this. A few days after 9/11 I saw this in a bookshop; for years I had noticed the blatant double standards regarding Israel in the media, and I'd taken note of some of Israel's critics but, due to mainstream media's idea of balance ( giving equal, in fact greater, space to totally false propaganda), I vacillated between anger at injustice and wondering if I was guilty of an unconscious antisemitism. This book made up my mind, and how! Like most people I think twice about laying out on an expensive book, but I'd just come into some money, 9/11 had just happened, and Israel had just blatantly taken advantage of 9/11 by declaring ' war on terrorism' and assassinating 14 Palestinian 'activists'; I'd heard of Noam Chomsky (though I knew little about him then) and the blurb on the jacket looked impressive, so I took the plunge. But it took me about 9 months to get through it, mainly because I had to find other books to fill in the gaps in my memory and knowledge - and that's the point of the qualification in my heading: this is not a narrative history of the problem; it is a discussion of the way it is propagandised in the West's media, so, while it discusses much of the history, and the core of the book (about 150 pages) includes an account of the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath, most newcomers will need some preparatory reading to approach it. If you've never read this, you don't know how little you know. And, to anyone under about 35, how could you know unless you're a history student? The first edition of this was written in 1984 in the wake of the first invasion of Lebanon, but it was updated with a new chapter in 1999.
Don't be put off! Let me recommend 2 short, cheap (especially on Amazon), easily digested books that will give you the necessary background: the first is ' War and Peace in the Middle East' by Oxford University's Avi Shlaim (author of 'the Iron Wall) - this book is under 100 pages and gives you the story of all the Mid E. states from the beginning of European imperialist intervention, through WWII, the creation of Israel, the 6-day war, up to the present.
The second is 'Bad News from Israel' by the Glasgow University media group (Greg Philo et al) which is another (short but very systematic) account of the media presentation, but starts with an 80 page history of the Palestine/Israel conflict, pointing out where the story is contested - this is the most easily digested (accurate too) summary of the history I know of.
Then read 'Fateful Triangle'. There are many other good books, but many of them, while well meaning, unconsciously (to be generous) make some of the assumptions and repeat the mistakes which Chomsky's laser-like mind exposes here. And that is why I say that this is THE book! This will set your mind right for further reading; bearing that in mind, David Hirst's 'the Gun and the Olive branch ' is a comprehensive narrative, and Edward Said's collected essays,' from Oslo to Iraq and the road map', is essential for a discussion of the inadequacies and corruption of Arafat and the PLO.

But be warned: ' the Fateful Triangle' is the angriest book I've ever read - parts of his description of the invasion of the war in Lebanon made me feel like banging my head off a wall, or weeping. Not for the faint-hearted!

Black is white- prepare to be re-educated (13/14 people found this helpful)

This book is a forensic work of scholarship.

The more the reader thinks oneself to know about the conflict, the greater the re-education that awaits. To take a single example, the Arab/PLO alliance is popularly perceived to have been the rejectionist party in its dealings with Israel. If you accord with this view, this book will force you to think again.

Chomsky approaches this subject through his favoured lenses; scepticism for Western media and criticism of US government policy. The book's basic thesis is that the US bears responsiblity for human rights abuses committed against the Palastinians by the Israeli state and its clients. The media is also complicit.

To make it through this book you must be prepared to submit to (admittedly convincing) diatribe. I think I can remember seeing a single piece of balancing comment; it appears about 400 pages in. Permit Chomsky this indulgence, and your perceptions of where blame should be attributed for problems in the Middle East will be fundamentally altered.

This reader would have liked to learn more of the pre-1948 period.

Standard Chomsky Brilliance (20/22 people found this helpful)

This is an excellent book. Chomsky carefully lays out the traditional picture of the Israel/Palestine picture, and then demolishes it piece by piece, drawing on newspaper reports, diaries, memoirs and government planning documents.

Thoroughly documented, easy to read and loaded with Chomsky's usual amusing sarcasm, this book simply tells the reader how the situation in Israel/Palestine came about, and specifically what the US is (and isn't) doing about it. If all you know about Israel/Palestine is from the BBC news, you're in for a shock.

Rubbish (45/65 people found this helpful)

Chomsky unabashedly writes about the facts of the US-Israeli-Palestinian relationship and undermines every prejudice that we as westerners use to justify our villification of the Palestinians - It is therefore our responsibility to label Chomsky with empty rhetoric as "anti-American", a supporter of Nazi theorists who deny the holocaust because Chomsky, a Jew himself, wrote a preface to a book by a mad French writer who denied the holocaust, ONLY after the French tried the theorist. Chomsky wrote the preface as a quickly penned defence of the democratic value 'freedom of speech' (which is not in support of the text - but in support of free speech) the same claim made by the majority of the West when Iran issued a Fatwa condemning Rushdie. OOOPs I accidentally revealed one aspect of western hypocrisy and I didn't even think of burning my bra, or trashing my local Macdonalds.

All Chomsky asks is to look at the historical record, the historical facts, for example how many people were murdered, how much financial and military support US gave to repressive regimes, declassified documents, historical individuals central to the events etc - I would say facts,

for example - page 182 in a footnote Chomsky quotes from David Ben Gurion's (surely a pretty important primary piece of evidence) independence war diary from January 1st 1948 explicitly condoning the military doctrine of attacking defenceless civilians. Chomsky tells us exactly where we ourselves can find all this information unlike the majority of generalised Israeli propaganda Chomsky gives us reams of notes / supporting evidence of his sources - obviously not hiding anything then.

Ben Gurion states "What is necessary is cruel and strong reactions. We need precision in time, place and casualties. If we know the family - [we must] strike mercilessly. women and children included. Otherwise the reaction is inefficient."

The reaction of course is towards an occupied people fighting for their freedom and rights.

- and yes a lot of Chomsky's work focuses on how the media failed to represent in the mainstream various atrocities that US and UK governments supported various totalitarian terrorist regimes like Suharto in Indonesia and the Contras in Nicaragua, Saddam in Iraq and Israel full stop etc etc the list is very long. Being aware of propaganda - which we are - is not the same as knowing exactly what that propaganda is. Chomsky demonstrates successfully what that propaganda is and the sytems whereby it works. Its application to Israel is one of the crowning achievments of US propaganda.

If you hate morality, justice, truth, international law, human rights then please do not waste money on this book because it is rubbish.

Chomsky disgustingly writes a factual, evidence based, thouroughly researched history in which the Palestinians are human beings in the US-Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Therefore he must be a self-loathing Jew and anti-American because he opposes a US government policy where the massacare of tens of thousands of women and children is acceptable.

A disappointing rant (14/108 people found this helpful)

The book's back cover provides a deliciously ambigious description of its author: 'Noam Chomsky is a world-renowned linguist, scholar, and political analyst.' Chomsky is certainly a world-class linguist, but after reading this book, I cannot take him seriously as a political analyst.

The Fateful Triangle contains no original research - almost all Chomsky's sources are journalistic (Christian Science Monitor is a particular favourite for some reason). Yet somehow having apparently done little more than read newspaper articles, Chomsky has managed to uncover a conspiracy that takes in not only the usual suspects (CIA, Mossad, etc.) but also the trade unions, US liberals, US conservatives, the New York Times, CNN, South American dictators... you get the idea. Do you remember the scene in A Beautiful Mind where Russell Crowe pastes newspapers onto his wall and decodes hidden messages with a Magic Marker? Chomsky appears to have mastered the technique.

Two quotes provide a flavour of the book: 1. 'US culture compares with Iran in its religious fundamentalism.' 2. 'We have to understand [geopolitical] "stability" to mean maintenance of specific forms of domination and control, and easy access to resources and profits... And the phrase "fundamentalist religious zealotry,"... is a code word for a particular form of "radical nationalism" that threatens "stability".'

Now, if you find yourself nodding vigorously to the above statements then you will LOVE this book. If you relish the burning of US flags, bras and MacDonalds restaurants then this book will surely drive you into paroxysms of paranoic frenzy. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a dispassionate and fact-based review of US-Israeli-Palestinian relations... Don't waste £15, buddy!

The Fateful Triangle: United States, Israel and the Palestinians

Noam Chomsky

Reader Reviews:

Maybe THE book on Israel/Palestine but not a FIRST book. (1/1 people found this helpful)

Black is white- prepare to be re-educated (13/14 people found this helpful)

Standard Chomsky Brilliance (20/22 people found this helpful)

Rubbish (45/65 people found this helpful)

A disappointing rant (14/108 people found this helpful)

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