Reddit reviews Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy

When did Ben Ami say that? I read his book in which he says he strongly urged Arafat to accept the deal because he felt it was the best deal Israel could possibly offer. He even claimed that members of Arafat's negotiating team were ready to accept the deal but Arafat nixed it. Whether or not he was right about that, he also went on to caution that by inciting violence (which eventually turned into the second intifada) the Israeli war hawks' refusal to negotiate would be validated and it would be a while before Israel would offer a deal like that again.

I honestly believe that if the Palestinians renounced violence against Israel and came to the negotiating table ready to make the hard choices necessary to create peace, the pressure would be entirely on the Israeli government to rise to do the same. But as long as Israelis have to live in fear of Hamas rockets and Palestinian violence, the war mongers will be pushed out of power and we'd see people like Ben Ami and Rabin replace them.

For any who are interested, here's a link to his book: http://www.amazon.com/Scars-War-Wounds-Peace-Israeli-Arab/dp/0195325427/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406414234&sr=1-1&keywords=scars+of+war+wounds+of+peace
He tries to be unbiased and is very critical of both sides (especially so of Israel's involvement in Lebanon) and is worth a read.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scars-War-Wounds-Peace-Israeli-Arab/dp/0195325427

Here's another biased source for you.

Lots and lots of details on over 1100 densely printed pages. I really liked it.

Shlomo Ben-Ami's "Scars of War, Wounds of Peace" is also worth the read.

It sounds very much like you're a recent graduate of Alan Derschowitz/ADL School of Middle Eastern "History".

The fact is mainstream Israeli historians have accepted that ethnic cleansing (including massacres) occurred. The main focus of debate is now on the extent to which it was planned and orchestrated by the Israeli leadership.

See for instance Schlomo Ben Ami -Historian and former Israeli foreign minister:-

>reality on the ground [during the 1948 war:] an Arab community in a state of terror facing a ruthless Israeli army whose path to victory was paved not only by its exploits against the regular Arab armies, but also by the intimidation, and at times atrocities and massacres, it perpetrated against the civilian Arab community.

..

>philosophy of transfer, [which] had a long pedigree in Zionist thought, provided a legitimate environment for commanders in the field actively to encourage the eviction of the local population.