Schwartz and Wilf, both of the left, have written a must-read about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the reason it won’t be settled anytime soon. A great book and an important one.” —Ben Shapiro, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Wire
"[A] convincing and essential book." —Bret Stephens, New York Times
“The War of Return eloquently explains why the Palestinian demand for ‘return’ has continually sabotaged chances for a two-state solution. The historical amnesia of the contemporary West, coupled with the hypocrisy of Arab states, have artificially sustained a cause that should have long ago been discredited by all those hoping to solve the Palestinian tragedy. A major contribution to the very short bookshelf of essential books on the Arab-Israeli conflict.” —Yossi Klein Halevi, author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor and Dreamers
“The War of Return looks frankly and perceptively at the most prominent obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace: the Palestinian demand that the world and Israel recognize the Palestinian refugees' ‘right of return,’ and Israel's refusal to accept that ‘right’ and a mass refugee return. Anyone seriously interested in the ongoing Arab-Zionist conflict needs to know what Schwartz and Wilf spell out.” —Benny Morris, author of Righteous Victims and The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949
2020-02-26
A controversial manifesto against the one-state, two-peoples approach to peace in the Middle East.
Since 1950, Israel has had a Law of Return, granting Jews the right of Israeli citizenship. The Palestinians, however, want to have a Right of Return—not to their own country, but into the State of Israel. Schwartz, a one-time correspondent for Haaretz, and Wilf, a former Labor MP, count themselves among peace-inclined Israelis on the political left. However, they mount a vigorous, methodical argument against such a Palestinian Right of Return. Their disillusionment with the process begun at Camp David and came with the realization that the Palestinian leadership did not want the two-state solution but instead demanded a "right to return" to what is now Israel and form a political majority. “We no longer want to throw the Jews in the sea,” they quote one Fatah official as saying, “but ‘to live together’ ”—shorthand, the authors hold, for “one state, with no right of self-determination for the Jews.” The authors argue that the majority of Palestinians are no longer refugees properly speaking, as they were after the partition of 1948, but instead citizens of neighboring states as well as Germany and the U.S. “In Jordan,” they write, “there exists a situation unlike anywhere else in the world, whereby citizens of a state, most of whom were born in that state, have lived there their entire lives…are designated as refugees from a different state.” Even so, the UN gives refugee status to descendants of displaced Palestinians, and by supporting the agency that issues such a designation, the authors write, the West tacitly endorses the Palestinian goal of a wholly Arab nation “from the River to the Sea.” For this reason, they charge, the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) should be dismantled.
A book certain to fan the flames of a seemingly unquenchable fire.