www.rondavid.net  (© Ron David)

ARABSONG: Celebrations of Life

A journal of truth, humor and occasional beauty dedicated to the principle that every

human life --black, white, arab, jew, american, non-american-- is equally valuable.

Arabs & Israel for Beginners

Amazon.com Reviews of ARABS & ISRAEL FOR BEGINNERS

by Ron David & Illustrated by Susan David

Fearless Mythbreaking for the Open Minded

For those of us raised on the prevailing myths about the Middle East, this book is a serious eye-opener. Admittedly, Israel's image is tarnished. But does criticizing US policy make me anti-Christian? No. So retracing Israeli military policy does not makes a book anti-Semitic. If you are wondering about the who, what, when, where and why of the tortuous Middle East crisis this is a great place to start. There is never a dull minute in this book.

The best book written on the conflict, ever.
Reviewer: dackerman8 from Tel Aviv, Israel
Nothing more needs to be said. This is the most concise, the most insightful, the most brilliant book ever written on the entire history of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Ron David has done nothing short of creating a work of immeasurable genius.

Crucial reading as the West starts another Middle East war

As someone who worked as a UN-employed doctor in the Gaza Strip for two years, I have first hand experience of life under Israeli military occupation. Although this book does not cover the very recent history of the conflict between Israel and the Arabs, it is probably the best summary I have read in the forty years since I began reading books and articles about the history and politics of the Palestinian/Israeli tragedy.

As the West prepares to start a second war in the Middle East, there is now open discussion within and outside Israel about the need to ethnically cleanse the territories that Israel has occupied illegally and colonized since 1967. Apologists for the policies of Israel - a nation with weapons of mass destruction, which flouts international law and ignores its responsibilities under the 4th Geneva Convention - do nothing to secure the long term future of Israelis.

A common tactic used to respond to critics of Israeli policies - including Jewish critics - is to suggest that they are anti-semites! This book will help people to understand just how cheap a tactic this is. It does nothing for the image of Jews and Judaism to imply that the interests of the religion and its adherents coincide with the interests of a colonialist state created in the 20th century.

For people who want to understand the expansionist nature of the Zionist project, there is no better place to start than Ron and Susan David's excellent book. I hope they publish an updated edition, and that their work does not become yet another victim of censorship and suppression of views questioning the moral credentials of Zionism.

Because of the attacks on the World Trade Center & Pentagon and the resultant Arab bashing, because of the genocide-in-progress of the Palestinian people and because Americans may allow their sinister and stupid president to slaughter more innocent people in Iraq, I have been meaning to get more involved in the ridiculous endeavor of showing Americans (ostensibly devoted to the principle that all people are equal!) that we Arabs & Muslims are fully equal, fully human, fully everydamnedthing. 

I was born in this country, jim, as were my parents, and if you are so damned dumb that you’d like to contest my equality—physical, mental or spiritual—by all means, let us get it on.

Back to the point: What ultimately provoked me to get involved NOW was the last of the above three Reader Reviews of our book Arabs & Israel for Beginners that appeared on Amazon.com.  The response to our book has been wonderful.  There are 67 reader reviews on Amazon.  (By all means, check them out -- Amazon reviews of Arabs & Israel.)

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PS: There is great deal more to come on this web page.  It's already written but I'm new at this.  It takes me a fair amount of time to format my writing for this web site.  I don't have a clue about how to build web sites, but I'm doing it just the same.  And, rather than finish one web page at at time, I'm working on the whole thing at once.  (A little here, a little there?)  It would have been prudent to wait until my web site was further along before I published on the web. 

But I feel compelled to do whatever I can to: 1) prevent yet another war with Iraq ... and another unprovoked slaughter of the Iraqi people -- who aren't guilty of anything; 2) stop the genocide-in-progress of the Palestinian people; 3) wake America up to the real causes of the 9/11 terrorist attack so we can prevent further attacks ...

Those three are urgent.  I cannot just sit back and do nothing. 

Ron D