Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168527 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Synopsis
This work untangles the intricacies of the US-Israeli-Palestinian relationship. Sixteen years after its first publication, Chomsky has revised and updated this corrosive study, hailed as a defining work on modern US foreign policy in the Middle East, to cover the significant developments of the 1980s and 1990s. Examining America's search for a "reliable ally" in the Middle East and beyond, in a determined effort to ensure American control of oil in the Arabian peninsula, Chomsky lays bare the contortions, lies and misinformation that have been used over the years to obscure the real agenda. In the process he reveals the extent to which modern nation-states make claims for peace while actively pursuing very different objectives. This updated edition aims to provide a corrective to the mythmaking that has obscured the real history of "peace" negotiations in the Middle East.

From the Back Cover
This is the long-awaited new edition of one of Chomsky's landmark works first publishedin 1983. Fateful Triangle is a timely and much-needed corrective to the mythmaking that has obscured the real history of 'peace' negotiations in the Middle East. This edition includes a New Foreword by Edward Said.

'A major, timely and devastating analysis of one of the great tragedies.' Fred Halliday, Tribune

'Formidable.' The Jewish Quarterly

'Brilliant and unscrupulous.' Observer

Naom Chomsky is a world renowned linguist and one of America's foremost social critics. He is also Institute Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His books include Powers and Prospects and Class Warfare (both published by Pluto Press).

Customer Reviews

Good,but dated.
Forget the "self-hating Jew" nonsense peddled by some of the other reviewers.In TFT,Chomsky simply points out the obvious,that Israel and the USA are somewhat less than humane and righteous towards their Palestinian enemies,certainly in the late 1970s and early 1980s,the timeframe for this book.
This book made more of an impact in the US than in Europe,mainly as most American reporting of Israel is hero-worship rather than analysis of fact.To today's reader,the underlying themes of Israeli domination and power in the Middle East,Palestinian weakness,and US refusal to countenance anything resembling an independent Palestinian state still ring true,but the examples are very dated.Also,the book was written before the Oslo agreements,Israeli-PLO mutual recognition,the rise of Hamas,and Israeli withdrawl from Gaza.Times are very different now.More valuable as history than current political analysis,but still worth a read.

A work of hate
This is clearly a work of the most extreme and obnoxious hatred against all Israel's men , women and children and is filled with prejudices and untruths.
It is in fact an extreme form of incitement against the Jewish nation akin to Meim Kampf and the Elders of the Protocols of Zion

Maybe THE book on Israel/Palestine but not a FIRST book.
I still remember when I bought this. A few days after 9/11 I saw this in a bookshop; for years I had noticed the blatant double standards regarding Israel in the media, and I'd taken note of some of Israel's critics but, due to mainstream media's idea of balance ( giving equal, in fact greater, space to totally false propaganda), I vacillated between anger at injustice and wondering if I was guilty of an unconscious antisemitism. This book made up my mind, and how! Like most people I think twice about laying out on an expensive book, but I'd just come into some money, 9/11 had just happened, and Israel had just blatantly taken advantage of 9/11 by declaring ' war on terrorism' and assassinating 14 Palestinian 'activists'; I'd heard of Noam Chomsky (though I knew little about him then) and the blurb on the jacket looked impressive, so I took the plunge. But it took me about 9 months to get through it, mainly because I had to find other books to fill in the gaps in my memory and knowledge - and that's the point of the qualification in my heading: this is not a narrative history of the problem; it is a discussion of the way it is propagandised in the West's media, so, while it discusses much of the history, and the core of the book (about 150 pages) includes an account of the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath, most newcomers will need some preparatory reading to approach it. If you've never read this, you don't know how little you know. And, to anyone under about 35, how could you know unless you're a history student? The first edition of this was written in 1984 in the wake of the first invasion of Lebanon, but it was updated with a new chapter in 1999.
Don't be put off! Let me recommend 2 short, cheap (especially on Amazon), easily digested books that will give you the necessary background: the first is ' War and Peace in the Middle East' by Oxford University's Avi Shlaim (author of 'the Iron Wall) - this book is under 100 pages and gives you the story of all the Mid E. states from the beginning of European imperialist intervention, through WWII, the creation of Israel, the 6-day war, up to the present.
The second is 'Bad News from Israel' by the Glasgow University media group (Greg Philo et al) which is another (short but very systematic) account of the media presentation, but starts with an 80 page history of the Palestine/Israel conflict, pointing out where the story is contested - this is the most easily digested (accurate too) summary of the history I know of.
Then read 'Fateful Triangle'. There are many other good books, but many of them, while well meaning, unconsciously (to be generous) make some of the assumptions and repeat the mistakes which Chomsky's laser-like mind exposes here. And that is why I say that this is THE book! This will set your mind right for further reading; bearing that in mind, David Hirst's 'the Gun and the Olive branch ' is a comprehensive narrative, and Edward Said's collected essays,' from Oslo to Iraq and the road map', is essential for a discussion of the inadequacies and corruption of Arafat and the PLO.

But be warned: ' the Fateful Triangle' is the angriest book I've ever read - parts of his description of the invasion of the war in Lebanon made me feel like banging my head off a wall, or weeping. Not for the faint-hearted!