Routledge Jews, Antisemitism, and the Middle East

Will animosity towards Jews and the State of Israel never end? This book ventures to rectify the misrepresentations, propaganda, obsessions, and falsifications widely disseminated in the media and public discourse, explaining the motivations behind them. The issues Michael Curtis scrutinizes are complicated and controversial, sometimes even baffling, but he reviews them in as objective and rigorous a manner as possible. Curtis divides his arguments into five key areas: political correctness and the obsessive attack on Israel; the surprising and disturbing rise of antisemitism; the Arab world and the Islamist threat; the Palestinian narrative; and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The first section focuses on the censorious attitude toward Israel taken by many in the international community. A second section consists of essays on the increase of contemporary antisemitism in Arab and Muslim countries as well as European democracies. In the third section, the author addresses changes in the Arab world, the threat of Iranian ambitions, the new alliance of Sunni Islamist states, and the growing strength and danger of Islamic fundamentalism and extremist behavior. His fourth section, on the Palestinian Narrative, details the acceptance by many critics of Israel and the international media of the Palestinian narrative of victimhood. Finally, the section on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict details the continuing struggle within the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians. This book is a must read for historians, political scientists, Jewish studies scholars, and all those interested in one of the most volatile and controversial regions in the world today. Review -Productive as ever in his ninetieth year, Michael Curtis collected his many reflections on antisemitism and anti-Zionism into a convincing and useful volume. In it, he notes the ironies, absurdities, and malign implications of the world's oldest bias. Readers will come away mobilized to fight this malignancy.- --Daniel Pipes, president, Middle East Forum -For those perplexed by the competing master narratives on the contemporary Middle East, Michael Curtis' voice is one that must be heard. His scholarship is impeccable. His insights cut through the labyrinth of distortions and half-truths and quickly get to the heart of the matter. This important work follows upon his 2010 book, Should Israel Exist? In this new contribution to the field, Curtis deals with the dangers facing the democratic State of Israel by hostile forces in the Middle East and with the remarkable increase in recent years of both open and veiled antisemitism. This should be required reading of all those interested in Middle Eastern affairs.- --Fred Gottheil, professor of economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "Productive as ever in his ninetieth year, Michael Curtis collected his many reflections on antisemitism and anti-Zionism into a convincing and useful volume. In it, he notes the ironies, absurdities, and malign implications of the world's oldest bias. Readers will come away mobilized to fight this malignancy." --Daniel Pipes, president, Middle East Forum "For those perplexed by the competing master narratives on the contemporary Middle East, Michael Curtis' voice is one that must be heard. His scholarship is impeccable. His insights cut through the labyrinth of distortions and half-truths and quickly get to the heart of the matter. This important work follows upon his 2010 book, Should Israel Exist? In this new contribution to the field, Curtis deals with the dangers facing the democratic State of Israel by hostile forces in the Middle East and with the remarkable increase in recent years of both open and veiled antisemitism. This should be required reading of all those interested in Middle Eastern affairs." --Fred Gottheil, professor of economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "Productive as ever in his ninetieth year, Michael Curtis colle