ebook_em's Reviews (960)

Really good and I intend to finish later -- just wasn't in the right headspace.

4 stars bumped up to 4.5 because I think this is a good primer for people who are new to the issue or who are just starting to unpack Zionist propaganda. This is succinct yet detailed and well-organized. As an Israeli Jewish historian and political scientist, Ilan Pappe focuses on an audience of Israelis and Jewish people questioning Zionism, and that focus makes sense but it means you won't get the full picture of Western powers' complicity if this is the only nonfiction book on Palestine that you read.

I really appreciated watching @judeshimer's chapter summary videos on TikTok while reading (they curated the series as an affinity space for current and future Jews, with non-Jewish folks invited to comment and boost -- please follow their rules for engagement if you watch). Since the book was published in 2017, I also recommend pairing the chapter on Gaza with Pappe's recent editorial about the Oct 7, 2023 attack by Hamas: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/11/5/why-israel-wants-to-erase-context-and-history-in-the-war-on-gaza 

The last two chapters clearly lay out why the two-state solution is not viable, and it's worth reading for that alone. 

I adored the premise and this is such a sweet take on friends-to-lovers. But I do think this could've been 100 pages shorter.