The following review was contributed by:  John Walsh: CLICK TO VIEW John Walsh's Reviews

There have been many approaches to the Middle East situation, with many people aiming to find ways in which the Palestinian and the Jewish people can live together without violence. The situation is complex and needs to take into account a variety of viewpoints. There are those on all sides of the conflict who favour outright confrontation and physical action to benefit one side at the expense of the other. One of these is Obadiah Shoher, who has written a book which details at length his beliefs about how the Jewish people can defeat the Muslim peoples who surround them. He roots his arguments in a reading of Machiavelli which he claims is a rational basis for deciding that, should warfare be necessary, it is appropriate to wage it in as efficacious manner as possible. Consequently, he favours pre-emptive strikes against the large cities around Israel, capturing and holding them, perhaps using mercenary infantry to assist the Israeli tank brigades. This would be supported by “blackmail,” “financial scams, phony banks and mutual funds” (p.89) and dispersing the Palestinian people by force. The offensive military actions would be accompanied by the suppression of democracy and free speech on the home front. These pronouncements are accompanied by a barrage of diatribes against Muslim people which are inherently racist in that they characterize all the people as being similar and having inferior beliefs or attributes. Here is a typical example: “People tend to respect and even enjoy those who defeat but do not oppress them. Israel should consider that as she insults the Arab world by oppressing Palestinians instead of defeating Arabs. To say that Arabs are totally different from Westerners is incorrect. Westerners show similar cruelty and treachery at times, but Arabs are cruel and treacherous now, and that makes the difference between the West’s current world-view and theirs (p.11).”

Among the welter of contentious statements, startling statistics and outrageous provocations, there are no proper attributions, although there are scores of endnotes. The intellectual basis of the whole book is, consequently, wholly flawed. Most readers will find the entire book deeply repellent. I do not wish to meet people who would not.