Crusade for the Children: A History of the National Child Labor Committee and Child Labor Re... Book

When I was in my first year of university I had a a devout Muslim flat mate who prayed five times a day. At the same time I had a good Jewish friend who passionately believed in the State of Israel. From these two people I received two incompatible versions of the events of 1948. This made me try and reconcile these two versions of history. The reality is that the two versions are not reconcilable. The story of Palestinian Arabs voluntarily vacating their homes at the behest of their governments whilst the Arab armies advanced into Palestine in order to destroy the infant Jewish state became one that I could no longer accept given the evidence. This has become the position of Israeli historians termed the "New Historians" in Israel. This book gives a good account of their arguments. The position that the Arab armies were dispatched to protect the Palestinian Arabs is strongly refuted with Arab rulers seeking to gain advantage over each other rather than assist the Palestinian Arabs. There are myths maintained by both sides of the Arab Israeli divide. But it does need to be acknowledged that the Palestinian Arabs were the victims in 1948. In 1948 they were systematically expelled from their homes and villages and in not just one or two instances murderously. They were not just the victims of the expansion of the nascent Israeli state of Arab state ineptitude and duplicity. Today it is only in Jordan that Palestinians have full citizenship. In other Arab countries Palestinians are prohibited from employment in certain occupations and suffer other disabilities. These and other arguments about 1948 are made in this book. As an atheist living in New Zealand I don't have skin the game but however I do wish to know the truth about the Israeli Arab conflict. This book has helped in that regard.