ISBN 0-7453-1530-5. “Fateful Triangle – The United States, Israel & the Palestinians” written by Noam Chomsky. Published originally in 1983 by Pluto Press. This edition is an update published in 1999. 568 pages excluding Preface and Index. This is a big book. It is Chomsky’s defining opus on the Middle East yet you get the feeling he hardly breaks into a sweat. He has written on the plight of the Palestinians many times before, and afterwards, and sometimes quotes himself – such is the extent of his work on the topic. The fact that this book is already ten years out of date, by the time I read it, did somewhat put me off reading it in the first place. It is now 26 years since it was first written – an entire quarter century. Continue reading →

ISBN 0 7453 1320 5. First published in 1994 by Pluto Press (this edition, with new Epilogue, 1997). Based upon three lectures in Cairo in May 1993. Roughly 300 pages long excluding notes, Index and Maps. The first half of the book largely details the history of the Cold War, in full revisionist form, whilst the second half deals with the Middle Eastern Peace Process. Obviously now a little dated this, nevertheless, is primetime Chomsky. Rarely has he been so lucid, so cutting, or so angry. Various parts of this revision of post war world history has appeared in his other books but here it is in its full glory. He demonstrates how Western ideology triumphed over the facts. There was never any real threat from Soviet Russia. Entirely the opposite. Continue reading →