For most of the twentieth century, considered opinion in the United States regarding Palestine has favored the inherent right of Jews to exist in the Holy Land. That Palestinians, as a native population, could claim the same right has been largely ignored. Kathleen Christison's controversial new book shows how the endurance of such assumptions, along with America's singular focus on Israel and general ignorance of the Palestinian point of view, has impeded a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Christison begins with the derogatory images of Arabs purveyed by Western travelers to the Middle East in the nineteenth century, including Mark Twain, who wrote that Palestine's inhabitants were "abject beggars by nature, instinct, and education." She demonstrates other elements that have influenced U.S. policymakers: American religious attitudes toward the Holy Land that legitimize the Jewish presence; sympathy for Jews derived from the Holocaust; a sense of cultural identity wherein Israelis are "like us" and Arabs distant aliens. She makes a forceful case that decades of negative portrayals of Palestinians have distorted U.S. policy, making it virtually impossible to promote resolutions based on equality and reciprocity between Palestinians and Israelis.

Christison also challenges prevalent media images and emphasizes the importance of terminology: Two examples are the designation of who is a "terrorist" and the imposition of place names (which can pass judgment on ownership).

Christison's thoughtful book raises a final disturbing question: If a broader frame of reference on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict had been employed, allowing a less warped public discourse, might not years of warfare have been avoided and steps toward peace achieved much earlier?

Kathleen Christison, a freelance writer and former CIA analyst, has written on Middle East affairs for over twenty-five years. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

"Breaks new ground through the sheer scope of its analysis, tracing 130 years of formulation of American perceptions of the Middle East and their ultimate manifestation in U.S. government policy. It is unhesitatingly recommended, as a standard text, to anyone wishing to better understand the conflict."—Nigel Parry, Middle East International

"There is no shrewder observer of the American-Palestinian-Israeli triangle. Christison has written a masterful treatise on how it is that the United States managed to ignore the Palestinians for a century."—Donald Neff, Journal of Palestine Studies

"After reading this book, it will be impossible not to wince the next time a representative of the U.S. government describes America as an honest broker."—Lawrence Davidson, Middle East Journal

"Even though informed readers may already have acknowledge the failures of media coverage and of American foreign policy in the Middle East, Christison's thorough documentation of its roots is worthwhile reading—as is her warning about the profound repercussions of failing to take the Arab viewpoint into account."—Boston Book Review

"Christison has authored a reasoned, compelling, and incisive account of how and why the United States has come to view the Israeli-Palestinian dispute the way it has. As such, it represents an intelligent challenge to much of the prevailing orthodoxy surrounding this issue. To the extent that the academic community listens to her, the author can expect to gain a ready audience. Policy-makers, of course, utilize a different calculus—one that will be much slower in listening and implementing Christison's ideas, if at all."—Middle East Insight

"[This book] offers a valuable refresher course and new insights as well for U.S. policy makers as the long-awaited process, negotiated in August 1999, for implementing the Wye agreement and early final-status talks unfold."—Middle East Policy

"An excellent book just published in America gives still another new perspective on the one-sidedness of the U.S. stance in this 100-year-old conflict between Arabs and Israelis. More alarming, the author's shocking account provides a new indictment against all U.S. leaders since World War I for their failure to deal with the other party—the Palestinians—to the conflict, a neglect that has precipitated havoc in the region and sometimes in the world. . . . Christison has written a book that ought to be mandatory reading for Arab decision makers and anyone concerned about the undignified role of the sponsor of the so-called Middle East peace process."—Gulf News (United Arab Emirates)

"Christison weaves together the complex strands of American thinking regarding Palestine. Her superb book will undoubtedly result in heated debates among policy- makers and journalists."—Ann M. Lesch, author of Arab Politics in Palestine, 1917-1939