A biased propagandist book

What is it about?

Book Review of Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir, “The One-State Condition” (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012)

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Why is it important?

One of the most frustrating features of the vast literature that has been written on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that it lacks nuance. The conflict is so complex, so protracted, so bitter and so bloody that people find it hard to maintain objective scholarship, take a step back and strive hard to really fathom the causes of this brutal reality. Unknowingly, and sometimes knowingly, they drift from academic scholarship to ideological propaganda. This book, from its back cover endorsements, and from its very first pages, tells its readers that if they wish to read a nuanced, balanced history of the conflict they should go elsewhere. This book is not about the many shades of grey of reality. It is a story about evil people on the one side who do horrible things to other people. The authors of this book, like many subjective authors before them, passed the fine line between academic writing and political platform. Once they have passed that line, critical readers must take every assertion that Azoulay and Ophir are making not merely with a grain of salt, but with spoonful of salt.

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