The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969-1994 by Edward W. Said (1994-06-01) by (PDF)

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Excellent Book

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Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Despite 40years of Israeli occupation, hundreds of illegal Israeli settlements, endless unproductive “peace process”-es, the Palestinians are no closer to genuine self-determination and nationhood. The Israel Lobby continues to wag the American dog. America’s blind support of Israel and the billions of US taxpayer dollars continue to prop up the Israeli apartheid regime and make peace impossible.It was hard for me to read these essays without getting angry: at the self-serving lies of Israeli apologists, at the cynicism of every US administration, at the sheer stupidity and venality of Palestinian leadership (so-called!).Israel will never make peace with the Palestinians through negotiations as long as the US continues to subsidize Israel. Where is the incentive?I fault Said for timidity in not elaborating on HOW Palestinians should prosecute their struggle. It is long past time that Palestinians accept that depending on their “Arab brothers” is going to get them nothing and nowhere. None of the essays helped me to understand how Said proposes to get Israel to allow Palestinian self-determination and statehood.I also fault Said for his failure to mobilize any organized opposition the Israel Lobby in the US. Said may be much-celebrated in a certain small left-leaning ghetto of the intelligentsia, but he is a marginal figure in national politics and the debate (very little allowed) on Israel. The Lobby is powerful, yes. But the Israel Lobby does nothing illegal: it peddles influence and money and thereby influences politics in its favor, and nothing prevents a Palestinian Lobby from adopting similar tactics and emulating the Israel Lobby. The surest, perhaps the only, way to Palestinian self-determination is to change US policy towards Israel.

⭐For anyone who thinks maybe they haven’t heard the whole story, this is a good place to start, right here.

⭐If there is any cause in this whole wide world where the obvious, glaring injustice of it all has been summarily ignored and dismissed by most of the world’s leading intellectuals, it is the cause of the Palestinian freedom movement.Said’s (pronounced Sayid)–a Palestinian Arab of Christian descent–was that rare voice which informed the world of the Zionist duplicity, in a way that laid bare the untold sufferings of over 4 million of its inhabitants in the most lucid manner possible. For over three decades, Said’s was a lone cry in the New Yorkian wilderness, which drew attention to the State of Israel’s Ocean liner of lies ever since (and even before) it came into existence.Said’s pain and melancholy comes through, etched in every page of this book and makes for frightful reading. Given the supposed openness of the media in democratic nation-states, it’s shocking how through over 5 decades, the combined might of Zionism’s religious fanaticism, the traditional incompetence of ruling monarchies in the Arab world, the West’s moral ambivalence to call the Israeli spade a bloody shovel and the Zionist lobby in Washington have been able to keep an entire nation of millions in a sort of permanent exile.This book neatly divided in 3 parts critiques everything that is wrong and tragic about the Palestinian movement with merciless felicity and attention to detail that a proper understanding of this cause deserves. Of course, he is severe (and justifiably so) on Israel, but it is his attacks on the rest of the Arab world and the dishonest intellectuals of the western world that makes for fascinating reading. Truly, an intellectual like Said, rarely ever loses his relevance or goes out of fashion. This book is a priceless gem, to be read and re-read by anyone who wants to move beyond standard middle-east explanations, terrorism clichés and the rhetoric of “with us or against us”.

⭐Edward Said’s writings pertaining to Palestinian and Near Eastern affairs are always well-written, deeply insightful, and immensely compelling. This collection of writings, primarily dealing with the emergence of a Palestinian self-consciousness, was authored of the course of nearly thirty years. Not only does it provide a uniquely valuable historical catalogue of Said’s thoughts upon Palestinian issues, it traces well the Palestinian self-view. Edward Said is, to my mind, one of the most truly complete thinkers alive today…his thoughts, be they upon literary criticism, culturalism, politics, or ethnography, scintillate…this collection is no different. For those wanting a, albeit ocassionally caustic, tracing of the Palestinian self-view and world-view of them, this stands as a superior resource.

⭐It is remarkable how relevant these essays seem still, even as they lead up to the era of the Oslo process, in the frozen present since 1967, or 1948. Sorting out the myths of the Arab-Israeli conflict can be a full-time job, and that’s the problem. Said’s witnessing of the issues since 1967 has always been one component of the unfolding tragedy. The Arab-Israeli conflict sometimes seems in a time warp, and the relevance of these essays endures, whatever one’s perspective. Said’s acerbic commentary seems to hover over the decades, and his personal account, to start the book, is a permanent record of those who endured the juggernaut.

⭐Thank God for Said. He explains so eloquently the Palestinian cause in a way we never hear from the maintream media. This collection of essays, though 400 pages, hangs together very well.

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