Understanding Palestine & Israel

“This invaluable tour de force by Phyllis Bennis offers readers the most comprehensive, lucid, readable, and reliably informed and evidence-based guide available … While objective in its use of data and interpretative commentary, the book is impressively clear about the distinction between oppressor and oppressed.” – Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton University“With stunning clarity and an unwavering commitment to speaking truth in an age of official lies, Phyllis Bennis tears back the curtain of government and corporate disinformation to reveal the truth of a one-hundred-year history of colonization, apartheid and genocide, and a growing global movement for justice in Palestine. This point-by-point examination brings together the historical, factual, legal, and moral basis for an informed understanding of one of the great historical (and ongoing) injustices of the past hundred years.” – Craig Mokhiber, international human rights lawyer and activist and former senior United Nations official“To interrogate the role of the Israeli government and its military, over many years, in creating a fertile soil for Palestinian anger…. Understanding Palestine and Israel, a new book by writer Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at DC’s Institute for Policy Studies, might be a useful primer.” – The Washington Post“For decades now, we have been able to count on Phyllis Bennis to refute arguments that we who are not ‘experts,’ that we cannot possibly grasp the complexities of the Israel-Palestine ‘conflict.’ In this moment of unprecedented opposition to the Zionist project, Bennis’ most recent book once again offers lucid exposition and compelling argumentation for the ever-increasing numbers of advocates for freedom and justice in Palestine.” – Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, UC Santa Cruz

Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, and Director of its New Internationalism Program. Her areas include U.S. unilateralism and empire, the Middle East (particularly Israel-Palestine and Iraq), and US-United Nations relations. She is the author of Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Ending the Iraq War, Challenging Empire: How People, Governments and the UN Defy US Power, Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN, and Before & After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the War on Terrorism. Bennis appears frequently as a commentator/analyst on U.S. and international television and radio programs, including “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer” on PBS, the CBS “Morning Show,” NPR’s “Diane Rehm Show,” and many others on CNN, BBC, Fox, CBC, and al-Jazeera TV. Her work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Christian Science Monitor, Le Monde Diplomatique (Paris), TomPaine.com, New York Newsday, The Philadelphia Enquirer, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Mother Jones, and many other publications.