{"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":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","iawp_total_views":12,"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","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_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}]}}