{"id":3550,"date":"2020-05-01T15:33:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T12:33:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-04-01T22:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T20:38:07","slug":"palestinian-refugees-israels-achilles-heel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/2020\/05\/palestinian-refugees-israels-achilles-heel\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian refugees are Israel\u2019s Achilles heel [Book Review]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Book Review of The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace<\/em> by Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What do you get when a disillusioned Israeli politician from the political \u201cLeft\u201d links up with a veteran Israeli journalist, also from the political \u201cLeft,\u201d to take on the issue of Palestinian refugees, a key element for Middle East peace? Answer: Israeli Hasbara<\/em> (public diplomacy propaganda) on steroids, with about one-third more words than necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was my immediate reaction while reading the newly released book\u00a0The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I try to not judge a book by its cover, but its back cover is a different story. Having now read the book, I can confidently claim that this book can be judged by its three back cover endorsements\u2014Ben Shapiro, Yossi Klein Halevi, and Benny Morris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full review<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On Medium<\/a> or Mondoweiss<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The book is a long-winded frontal attack on Palestinian refugees and reads more as a commissioned assignment from the Hasbara-hub called the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs than a truly deep analysis of the issue of Palestinian refugees. What is missing from the book is as important as what is in it\u2014all the other references that Palestinians\u2019 Right of Return is based on, above and beyond the single one, UN General Assembly 194, that the authors pin their entire argument around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[948,942],"tags":[1262,1272,1264,1266,1289,1248,126,1263,378,977,319,678,531,1274,978,1286,362,1283,1281,1267,1277,1279,1271,1270,1282,1269,179,1284,1288,269,1293,470,1273,810,1240,1261,1165,1268,1170,1287,154,1285,688,1278,1280,1103,1104,1265,1275],"ppma_author":[936],"class_list":["post-3550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-sams-writings","tag-adi-schwartz","tag-bar-ilan-university","tag-ben-shapiro","tag-benny-morris","tag-biram-village","tag-cambridge-university","tag-donald-trump","tag-einat-wilf","tag-green-line","tag-haaretz","tag-hasbara","tag-ikrit-village","tag-ilan-pappe","tag-insead","tag-international-court-of-justice-icj","tag-international-covenant-on-civil-and-political-rights-1966","tag-israeli-knesset","tag-jaber-suleiman","tag-jewish-diaspora","tag-jonathan-ofir","tag-lives-in-common-arabs-and-jews-in-jerusalem-jaffa-and-hebron-book","tag-menachem-klein","tag-middle-east-policy-council","tag-natasha-gill","tag-noa-limone","tag-ottoman-empire","tag-palestinian-refugees","tag-plo-negotiation-affairs-department-nad","tag-principles-on-housing-and-property-restitution-for-refugees-and-displaced-persons-the-pinheiro-principles-2005","tag-right-of-return","tag-sanctions-bds-movement","tag-separation-wall","tag-shimon-peres","tag-tedxramallah","tag-the-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestine-book","tag-the-war-of-return-how-western-indulgence-of-the-palestinian-dream-has-obstructed-the-path-to-peace-book","tag-united-nations-general-assembly-resolution-181-1947","tag-un-general-assembly-resolution-194-1948","tag-un-security-council-resolution-242-1967","tag-un-sub-commission-on-the-promotion-and-protection-of-human-rights","tag-unrwa","tag-universal-declaration-of-human-rights-1948","tag-walid-khalidi","tag-what-is-modern-israel-book","tag-yakov-m-rabkin","tag-yigal-amir","tag-yitzhak-rabin","tag-yossi-klein-halevi","tag-zionism-zionists"],"authors":[{"term_id":936,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sambahour","display_name":"Sam Bahour","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bca109c333bf6d8ae807746dd512adde46265d37c923f6cd0fc4aab437f8e9aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"1","first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Bahour","user_url":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour","job_title":"","description":"

Sam Bahour<\/strong> is a Palestinian-American business consultant, writer, and commentator based in Al-Bireh\/Ramallah, Palestine. He is the principal of Applied Information Management (AIM)<\/a>, a consultancy specializing in business development and startup advisory services.<\/p>\r\n

Bahour played a foundational role in establishing two of Palestine\u2019s publicly traded companies: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (APSC). He co-founded Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (A4VPE), of which he is now an emeritus member, and served as an independent director on the board of Arab Islamic Bank P.L.C. from 2004 to 2025. He currently serves on the board of Just Vision<\/a> and The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS)<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

He frequently gives talks to delegations visiting Palestine on the subjects of Palestine\u2019s political economy, Palestinian Politics 101, and a general orientation to the state of affairs under Israeli military occupation.<\/p>\r\n

A prolific writer on Palestinian affairs, Bahour has been published in major international outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, Haaretz, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera America, Le Monde diplomatique, Al-Monitor, +972 Magazine, The Hill, and Arab News. He has appeared as a commentator on NPR, CNN, BBC, and other broadcast media.<\/p>\r\n

Bahour is the co-editor of Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians<\/a><\/em> (Olive Branch Press, 1993) and was profiled in the bestselling anthology Kingdom of Olives and Ash<\/a><\/em>, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, in a chapter authored by Chabon titled \u201cThe Tallest Man in Ramallah<\/a>.\u201d He holds an Associate\u2019s and Bachelor\u2019s degree in Computer Technology from Youngstown State University, and a Kellogg-Recanati International Executive MBA \u2014 a joint program of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.<\/p>\r\n

He tweets at @SamBahour<\/a>, blogs at www.epalestine.ps<\/a>, and may be reached at sbahour[AT]gmail[DOT]com.<\/p>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3550"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6930,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions\/6930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3550"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}