{"product_id":"birth-of-israel","title":"Birth of Israel","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this ground-breaking and controversial history of the founding of Israel, originally published in 1987, noted Israeli scholar and peace activist Simha Flapan gives a candid account of one of the most momentous political events of the 20th century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe official story is well known: the Zionists welcomed the partition of Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state; the Arabs rejected partition and launched a war to drive the Jews into the sea; the Palestinians fled Israel despite the efforts of Jewish leaders to get them to stay; after Israel’s victory in 1948 its hand was extended in peace, but not a single Arab leader responded. \u003ci\u003eThe Birth of Israel \u003c\/i\u003eexposes these ‘historical truths’ as propaganda myths that have misguided Israel policy for decades.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on declassified material – from Ben-Gurion’s war diaries to the minutes of secret meetings – Flapan reconstructs the real events of that critical time. He demonstrates that the Zionist leadership accepted partition purely as a tactical strategy, that their intention was always to establish a homogenous Jewish homeland in most, if not all, of Palestine. Flapan shows, furthermore, how these objectives shaped Israeli actions: their expulsion of the Palestinians, their exploitation of the 1948 war for territorial gain and their refusal to make any concessions that might have brought about accommodation. Flapan’s lucid analysis sheds new light on the figures and events of that time: Ben-Gurion emerges as Menachem Begin’s forerunner, the ‘just’ war of 1948 as the precursor of the debacle in Lebanon. Full of unsettling revelations, \u003ci\u003eThe Birth of Israel\u003c\/i\u003e is a seminal work for understanding the tragic Arab-Israeli stalemate which persists to this day.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Taylor \u0026 Francis Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56108302106968,"sku":"9781041248521","price":107.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781041248521.jpg?v=1780032661","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/birth-of-israel","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}