# Recommend books that will help me understand the Israeil-Palestinian conflict better

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-books-that-will-help-me-understand-the-israeil-palestinian-conflict-better/478868>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 27, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-books-that-will-help-me-understand-the-israeil-palestinian-conflict-better/478868 "2008-12-27T19:44:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-books-that-will-help-me-understand-the-israeil-palestinian-conflict-better/478868/1 "2008-12-27T19:44:38Z")

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I would like to better understand the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel. What books would you recommend to help me further my knowledge of the conflict?

ETA - sorry for the spelling error in the title

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**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-books-that-will-help-me-understand-the-israeil-palestinian-conflict-better/478868/2 "2008-12-27T19:53:47Z")

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> [@newcrasher](#):
>
> What books would you recommend to help me further my knowledge of the conflict?

One of the problems is that the vast majority of books out there (99%?) are pro Israel perspective. If the pro-Palestine folks have something intelligent to say about this (professors, social commentators, etc), they’re not writing a lot of books that you can buy from [amazon.com](http://amazon.com).

I have one such [book](http://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Israeli-Conflict-Dan-Cohn-Sherbok/dp/1851682619), but it’s not that good.

Just something to keep in mind in your hunt.

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**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-books-that-will-help-me-understand-the-israeil-palestinian-conflict-better/478868/3 "2008-12-28T02:46:08Z")

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Tbh, you aren’t really going to find anything unbiased out there.

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**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-books-that-will-help-me-understand-the-israeil-palestinian-conflict-better/478868/4 "2008-12-28T03:34:38Z")

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Not specifically Israeli-Palestinian but Middle East in general – [From Beirut to Jerusalem](http://www.amazon.com/Beirut-Jerusalem-Thomas-L-Friedman/dp/0374158959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230435151&sr=1-1) by Thomas Friedman is a book that I’ve seen recommended here and elsewhere.