bookishkitkat's review
4.0
Super necessary book of you want to understand what the state of Israel and the Zionism project is really about. It is not about safety for Jewish people (as proved by the providing of weapons by Israeli defense companies to the anti Jewish government of Argentina). It is about occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and as we’re seeing in full scale today, the genocide of the indigenous Palestinian people. While so much of this book is important, I want to share two quotes that especially stood out to me.
“Every Palestinian is defined as a threat, and civil society actors are arguably seen by Israel as the most threatening because they could mobilize international support against the occupation.”
According to Israel, there are no innocent Palestinians. It is this logic that allows for Israeli lobbyists to campaign for the active silencing of Palestinian voices on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. (A silencing campaign that unfortunately seems to be working). Any Palestinian voice simply documenting injustice could be framed as ‘inciting terrorism.’ The hate speech and genocidal language coming from Israel’s government and it’s citizens? Unchecked.
This same logic is also what allows Israel’s government today to refer to innocent Palestinians in Gaza as simply ‘human shields’ and ‘collateral damage.’ They would never dare refer to Israeli citizens the same way, proving that Palestinians aren’t humans in their eye. The first step to genocide isn’t the killing, it’s the dehumanization, and we all let it happen.
“A catastrophic war between Israel, Iran, or Hizbollah could trigger an overwhelming argument within Israel that Palestinians, potentially protesting in support of their Arab brethren, are undermining the state’s integrity. An Israeli military operation might then be undertaken to ensure a mass exodus, with the prospect of Palestinians returning to their homes a remote possibility”
This book was published before October 7th, and it’s shockingly relevant today. For people who think that self defense is ethnic cleansing and genocide, you need to take a real look inside yourself.
“Every Palestinian is defined as a threat, and civil society actors are arguably seen by Israel as the most threatening because they could mobilize international support against the occupation.”
According to Israel, there are no innocent Palestinians. It is this logic that allows for Israeli lobbyists to campaign for the active silencing of Palestinian voices on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. (A silencing campaign that unfortunately seems to be working). Any Palestinian voice simply documenting injustice could be framed as ‘inciting terrorism.’ The hate speech and genocidal language coming from Israel’s government and it’s citizens? Unchecked.
This same logic is also what allows Israel’s government today to refer to innocent Palestinians in Gaza as simply ‘human shields’ and ‘collateral damage.’ They would never dare refer to Israeli citizens the same way, proving that Palestinians aren’t humans in their eye. The first step to genocide isn’t the killing, it’s the dehumanization, and we all let it happen.
“A catastrophic war between Israel, Iran, or Hizbollah could trigger an overwhelming argument within Israel that Palestinians, potentially protesting in support of their Arab brethren, are undermining the state’s integrity. An Israeli military operation might then be undertaken to ensure a mass exodus, with the prospect of Palestinians returning to their homes a remote possibility”
This book was published before October 7th, and it’s shockingly relevant today. For people who think that self defense is ethnic cleansing and genocide, you need to take a real look inside yourself.
wyliem's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
caidyn's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.25
This was an enlightening read on Israel's policies and how they help dictators around the world suppress minorities.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Genocide, and War
beautyisterror's review against another edition
3.5
I’ve never read about Israel’s role as a cog in the war machine in such an extensive way. This book explores Israel’s role in most world conflicts, from arms dealing to state of the art intelligence spyware, and how its importance came to be at the expense of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories of the West Bank as theyre used as lab rats. When all of Israeli weapons come recommended as battle tested this is what they mean,
Loewenstein goes in detail about Intelligence projects and secret military programs, also thanks to anonymous sources that used to be part of the IOF, and how these programs and the knowledge garnered from them shapes the world now that they’re used against drug cartels in Mexico, or government Modi’s opposition’s in India and Kashmir, or in Israel as well when the Israeli citizens saw these programs being used against them during Covid - while they accepted it when they were used on Palestinians up until then.
It’s a bit of a tough read, first of all because the horror of violence on innocent people is undeniable, but also because it’s a very dense list of war crimes to cram in about three hundred pages.
It’s an incredible resource, up to date until late 2022/early 2023 (it was published in May of this year), but if I have to voice a complaint - the chapters are way too long. There are few paragraph breaks, there are no subsections, and as I said they are chock-full of information: they’re dense, and a bit difficult to read when you don’t know when you can stop. Of course, nonfiction shouldn’t be read like a novel, but I saw myself putting off reading because sometimes I came to dread it a bit knowing it would take a long while for me to finish.
Regardless, this finds an easy solution in learning to pace yourself while reading, so not all hope is lost! It’s still deserving of acclamation.
Access to the ARC acquired thanks to NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
whataboutzana's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0