Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #183762 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Review
'The most ambitious book ever attempted on the conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians ... a great and important book.' Edward Said, London Review of Books 'A major, timely and devastating analysis of one of the great tragedies.' Fred Halliday, Tribune 'Brilliant and unscrupulous.' Observer

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).

About the Author
Noam Chomsky is a world renowned linguist and one of America's foremost social critics. He is the Institute Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the author of numerous books.

Customer Reviews

An optimal basis for understanding Isreal and Palistine.
You may not agree with Prof. Chomsky, but his documentation is faultless; an excellent foundation upon which to build your own, informed opinion on what is actually going on and why, in the Middle East. Refute him if you can; it's just the facts, Ma'm. It is extremely difficult to find an informant who dares criticise Isreal at all, let alone so factually correct and with such intellect. He may be the ultimate dove, but Peace needs doves. Enjoy. Shalom.

Israel is a rogue state!
According to Chomsky and Said, there is unequivocal evidence that Israel is a rogue state. This book contains a thorough scrutiny of the US foreign politics. Chomsky claims that Israeli lobbyists in the US are highly powerful. Even though the US government strongly denies that it is being controlled by the Israeli lobbyists, evidence irrefutably shows that these lobbyists run the foreign politics of the US. How else does one explain that the US government never criticizes Israel’s belligerent war waging? Moreover, why does not the US government send inspectors to Israel for disarmament, when it is a well known fact that Israel possesses atomic bomb? Instead, the US government sends inspectors to countries that allegedly have weapons of mass destruction, when in fact their claims have never been corroborated. In addition, the US government never condemns daily killings of innocent Palestinians. Chomsky further asserts that Israel is the greatest recipient of the US financial aid. Why does the US support an oppressive government that constantly violates human rights? According to Chomsky, it is because powerful Israeli lobbyists in the US allow for this to proceed. Chomsky’s assertion that the US foreign politics is extremely unjust and flawed has been confirmed in a number of cases, which for the purpose of this review cannot be mentioned here. I could not agree more with Chomsky when he explicitly claims that foreign politics must be based on an equal treatment of all countries, but above all on justice, the importance of which cannot be overstressed. Without justice, there will never be peace and stability in the world. As Chomsky puts it, punishing certain regimes while protecting and aiding others that are equally, if not more, oppressive and belligerent is extremely unfair and totally unacceptable. The world needs justice and equality for all, irrespective of religion, race and ethnic affiliation. As it stands today, however, justice does not hold for all.
I highly recommend this meticulously researched masterpiece to those who want an unbiased and balanced view of the tragic situation in the Middle East. Chomsky and Said brilliantly dissect anomalous and insidious strategic interests of the US foreign politics, which, as has been shown, is primarily based on injustice.

Rubbish
Chomsky unabashedly writes about the facts of the US-Israeli-Palestinian relationship and undermines every prejudice that we as westerners use to justify our villification of the Palestinians - It is therefore our responsibility to label Chomsky with empty rhetoric as "anti-American", a supporter of Nazi theorists who deny the holocaust because Chomsky, a Jew himself, wrote a preface to a book by a mad French writer who denied the holocaust, ONLY after the French tried the theorist. Chomsky wrote the preface as a quickly penned defence of the democratic value 'freedom of speech' (which is not in support of the text - but in support of free speech) the same claim made by the majority of the West when Iran issued a Fatwa condemning Rushdie. OOOPs I accidentally revealed one aspect of western hypocrisy and I didn't even think of burning my bra, or trashing my local Macdonalds.

All Chomsky asks is to look at the historical record, the historical facts, for example how many people were murdered, how much financial and military support US gave to repressive regimes, declassified documents, historical individuals central to the events etc - I would say facts,

for example - page 182 in a footnote Chomsky quotes from David Ben Gurion's (surely a pretty important primary piece of evidence) independence war diary from January 1st 1948 explicitly condoning the military doctrine of attacking defenceless civilians. Chomsky tells us exactly where we ourselves can find all this information unlike the majority of generalised Israeli propaganda Chomsky gives us reams of notes / supporting evidence of his sources - obviously not hiding anything then.

Ben Gurion states "What is necessary is cruel and strong reactions. We need precision in time, place and casualties. If we know the family - [we must] strike mercilessly. women and children included. Otherwise the reaction is inefficient."

The reaction of course is towards an occupied people fighting for their freedom and rights.

- and yes a lot of Chomsky's work focuses on how the media failed to represent in the mainstream various atrocities that US and UK governments supported various totalitarian terrorist regimes like Suharto in Indonesia and the Contras in Nicaragua, Saddam in Iraq and Israel full stop etc etc the list is very long. Being aware of propaganda - which we are - is not the same as knowing exactly what that propaganda is. Chomsky demonstrates successfully what that propaganda is and the sytems whereby it works. Its application to Israel is one of the crowning achievments of US propaganda.

If you hate morality, justice, truth, international law, human rights then please do not waste money on this book because it is rubbish.

Chomsky disgustingly writes a factual, evidence based, thouroughly researched history in which the Palestinians are human beings in the US-Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Therefore he must be a self-loathing Jew and anti-American because he opposes a US government policy where the massacare of tens of thousands of women and children is acceptable.

WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD.