Politicide: Ariel Sharon's War against the Palestinians by Baruch Kimmerling

From the Publisher

Baruch Kimmerling's new book outlines Sharon's quest to reshape the whole geo-political landscape of the Middle East. He describes how Sharon is committed to politicide, the destruction of the Palestinian political identity, and how he has won the support of powerful elements within Israeli society and the present American administration in order to achieve this. At this time of crisis Kimmerling exposes the brutality of Sharon and his junta's "solutions" and constructs a devastating indictment of a man whose cruelty and ruthlessness have resulted in widespread and indiscriminate slaughter.

Publishers Weekly

One of Israel's well-known leftist academics, Kimmerling trains his polemical sights here on Ariel Sharon. Israel's prime minister, he argues, is pursuing "politicide," which he defines as activities designed to "destroy the political national existence of a whole community of people and thus deny it the possibility of self-determination." This policy, Kimmerling says, has long been Sharon's goal, whether as a daring commander in retaliatory raids during the 1950s, in the 1982 Lebanon war or in his policies as prime minister. Sharon, he argues, is using the latest peace plan-the Bush administration-backed "road map"-as a pretext: he is counting on the Palestinians to give him an excuse to further his aims. The 1967 Six-Day War is the critical moment in Kimmerling's analysis. Israel's victory in that war gave it control over the West Bank and emboldened nationalists and messianists to blind themselves to the Palestinians and their fundamental rights. As a result, both sides have become locked into mindsets that preclude a satisfactory peace treaty. These sections are his most compelling: Kimmerling writes persuasively and well, although some may wonder why he looks at Sharon with a much more jaundiced eye than at Yasser Arafat. But his analysis of Sharon's designs, while plausible, are less convincing, and his description of Sharon's regime as "semi-fascist" will antagonize many readers. Given the latest events surrounding the "road map," only time will tell whether Kimmerling's doomsday scenario-the destruction of both the Palestinians and the Israelis-will come true. (July 31) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Foreign Affairs

Kimmerling, an Israeli sociologist and a specialist in Palestinian history, defines "politicide" as a process designed to eliminate Palestinian political existence. The implicit message of his book is that this goal has always been present in Israel's confrontation with the Palestinians. For Kimmerling, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon embodies politicide in Israeli thought and action, from the 1948 war to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the virtual war against the Palestinian Authority carried out by Sharon since 2001. Politicide is by definition incompatible with a two-state solution and in its extreme form could lead to partial or total ethnic cleansing. It should be emphasized that Kimmerling's little book on Israel's "politicidal" temptation, although far from the mainstream of Israeli and U.S. thought, is insightful, informative, and, yes, judiciously balanced.

Library Journal

This is the most detailed and up-to-date critical biography available of Israel's current prime minister, Ariel Sharon. In this thought-provoking book, Kimmerling (Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology, Univ. of Toronto, & George S. Wise Professor of Sociology, Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem) describes the rise of Sharon and Sharonism in the Israeli political and military hierarchy. The author vividly explains what he calls Sharon's lifelong, unwavering policy of "politicide," described as a commitment to destroy the Palestinian political identity. The author lays bare specific policies followed by Sharon throughout his military and political career with the aim of achieving his goal of destroying Palestinian identity with brute and indiscriminate force. Kimmerling further analyzes how Sharon succeeded in winning the support of powerful elements in Israel and the Bush administration in pursuit of his policy of politicide. This timely and highly readable book by one of Israel's leading dissident intellectuals is essential for those interested in going beyond the headlines in order to understand the failure of the Palestinian-Israeli "peace process."-Nader Entessar, Spring Hill Coll., Mobile, AL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A decidedly contrarian reading of recent Israeli history by a noted dissident-scholar. For Kimmerling (co-author, Palestinians, 1993; Sociology/Univ. of Toronto), who considers himself "an Israeli patriot," his nation took a hard turn toward fascism with Ariel Sharon's rise to power; this rightward trend has only been worsened by the declining Israeli economy, which has led Israeli citizens to "demand more activities against 'the other'-the Arabs." Sharon, whom Kimmerling openly brands a war criminal for his role in the deaths of civilians during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, has been happy to oblige them, forging a strong alliance of once disparate political parties in the Knesset to the single end of committing "politicide" against the Palestinian people, removing them physically and otherwise from the landscape. The ongoing settlement of the West Bank and encroachments on the Gaza Strip are but two manifestations of this process, Kimmerling argues-a process, he suggests, that is the moral equivalent of the ethnic cleansing practiced elsewhere in our time. Sharon, he adds, has long practice in such work, having served as Moshe Dayan's willing lieutenant in the anti-Palestinian campaigns of the early 1970s; "cooperation between Dayan and Sharon was so perfect," he asserts, "that the minister of defense [Dayan] never had to give written orders to the general [Sharon], he had only to express wishful thinking about an issue (for example, 'How nice it would be if there were no Bedouins in a certain area'), and Sharon would consider it an order." Inflammatory words, those, and Kimmerling has long been criticized in Israel for voicing them. Politicide should prove similarly divisive, though itreflects well the current torn emotions of the Israeli majority, which is inclined to despise Arafat and vote Likud-but also, against Sharon's wishes, to favor the creation of an independent Palestinian state in place of a status quo that clearly is not working. A work of ideology as much as reportage, and a wake-up call for the perpetually bogged-down state of affairs in the Middle East.

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