The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

Informative to a fault. Lots of names, places, and dates where I just became utterly lost and confused. Lots of rereading and Google searching required.

Eye-opening! Information for the uninformed! There is so much history that surrounds this war on humanity (my own term). I'm going to have to listen to this again, and frankly, study it. The whole situation is much more complex than I had ever imagined. But it also goes back to British colonialism again... it makes me angry as a person, that the Palestines have been put through what they have been put through, and then the situation that the Jews were put in, and how decisions were made surrounding the people of this region of the world, and their diaspora as well!

I have to listen to this again.
I have to read this again.
I have to study this!
And I realize this was written from one perspective, and that there are others, and I plan to find and research those as well.

Quotes from the conclusion of the book:

“Establishing the colonial nature of the conflict has proven exceedingly hard given the biblical dimension of Zionism, which casts the new arrivals as indigenous and as the historic proprietors of the land they colonized. In this light, the original population of Palestine appears extraneous to the post-Holocaust resurgence of a Jewish nation-state with its roots in the kingdom of David and Solomon: they are no more than undesirable interlopers in this uplifting scenario. Challenging this epic myth is especially difficult in the United States, which is steeped in an evangelical Protestantism that makes it particularly susceptible to such an evocative Bible-based appeal and which also prides itself on its colonial past. The word “colonial” has a valence in the United States that is deeply different from its associations in the former European imperial metropoles and the countries that were once part of their empires.”

“Similarly, the terms “settler” and “pioneer” have positive connotations in American history, arising from the heroic tale of the conquest of the West at the expense of its indigenous population as projected in movies, literature, and television. Indeed, there are striking parallels between these portrayals of the resistance of Native Americans to their dispossession and that of the Palestinians. Both groups are cast as backward and uncivilized, a violent, murderous, and irrational obstacle to progress and modernity. While many Americans have begun to contest this strand of their national narrative, Israeli society and its supporters still celebrate—indeed, depend on—its foundational version. Moreover, comparisons between Palestine and the Native American or African American experiences are fraught because the United States has yet to fully acknowledge these dark chapters of its past or to address their toxic effects in the present. There is still a long way to go to change Americans' consciousness of their nation's history, let alone that of Palestine and Israel, in which the United States has played such a supportive role.”

“the Zionist movement was almost always on the offensive in its effort to achieve mastery over an Arab land. [...] In reality, the Zionist movement and then the state of Israel always had the big battalions on their side, whether this was the British army before 1939, US and Soviet support in 1947–48, France and Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, or the situation from the 1970s until today, where besides receiving unlimited US support, Israel's armed might dwarfs that of the Palestinians, and indeed that of all the Arabs put together.”

“That inequality is the central moral question posed by Zionism, and that it goes to the root of the legitimacy of the entire enterprise is a view that is shared by some distinguished Israelis. Imagining scholars looking back one hundred years from now, historian Zeev Sternhell asked,
“When exactly did the Israelis understand that their cruelty towards the non-Jews in their grip in the Occupied Territories, their determination to break the Palestinians' hopes for independence, or their refusal to offer asylum to African refugees began to undermine the moral legitimacy of their national existence?”

I wanted to talk about two of the many things that makes this a great book.
One, I think it's great at acknowledging and calling out the failures of Palestinian leadership throughout the decades. Even if you're staunchly pro-Palestine independence, it is important and useful to asses the diplomatic and political failures, so that we can improve upon them.
Two, the author is, like, the Forrest Gump of Palestine. He or his family members have been involved in almost every major event in Palestinian history since the early 20th century. Not only does this give a much-needed perspective on Palestine, but it also adds a lot of engaging details for the reader. Saying that Israel bombed Beirut is one thing; telling the story of how someone has to drive through a city in the middle of an invasion to pick up his daughters from school before they killed is quite another.

Mr. Khalidi is an excellent narrator, honestly, I'd probably listen to him read just about anything. I think the information was well presented from someone who doesn't shy away from their relationship to the participants so it was sometimes very hard to listen to. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a 101 on Palestine from a Palestinian perspective.