Bombing. Arson. Riots. Murder. Fear. Euphoria. Hope. Despair. Religious fanaticism. Sounds like the Mid-east at the turn of the century, right? The only question is, which century? Author, J. Bowyer Bells' book, "Terror Out of Zion," chronicles the chaos in Palestine/Israel from the late 1800's to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. The story is one of unparalleled violence. Recent events show, little has changed.

Bell shows how Anti-Semitism in Europe from the late 1800's onward fueled the Zionist Movement making Jews determined to establish a national homeland. Nazism caused the movement to gain strength. As Hitler gained power Jews had two choices: immigrate illegally into Palestine, or Auschwitz! Palestinian Arabs, who had lived in the Holy Land for 2000 years, greeted their new, Jewish neighbors with pogrom like activities including riots, looting, arson, and murder.

Through it all, the British attempted to maintain order throughout the "Mandate." Both Arabs and Jews were confident the authorities would ultimately see the rightness of their position. However when the British kept the door closed to, "The Promised Land," even to the survivors of the Holocaust, Vladimir Jabotinski, Avraham Stern, Menachem Begin etc. took up arms. Bells account of their ruthless, but highly successful terror tactics makes interesting reading. They are a blueprint for what's happening today.

We have come a long since Britain attempted to police the "Mandate" with, "constables," armed only with, "staves." Caught between two groups who both claimed God's blessings, Britain tried to ignore the problem and hoped it would go away. When it did not, they left the problem to the U.N.

The U.S. has assumed Britain's role as arbiter in the mid-east. Little has changed. Both sides are still convinced of the rightness of their cause. Both still hate with an intensity borne of decades of bloodshed. Only the weapons are different. Biological/chemical weapons, suicide bombings, and most recently, commercial airliners have replaced revolvers and homemade bombs for the terrorists. America now responds with strategic bombers and cruise missiles. While the level of violence has increased dramatically, we are no closer to a solution.

Americans who mistakenly think the conflict began on Sept. 11, 2001 should read Terror Out Of Zion. What Bell does not answer is who is right? When is an individual or a group justified in taking up arms? What level of violence is justified? Do the ends justify the means? What is the distinction between a terrorist and a freedom fighter?

Terror out of Zion is a historical expose on events that are directly related to what's happening in the world today. Enlightening, detailed and informative I highly recommend it to anyone seeking an answer to why the world stands on the brink of World War III today.

A facinating book. In the issue surrounded by bitterness and blame-casting to this day Dr.Bell managed to write an objective and unbiassed book wich sheds a light on a lot of important and relevant issues. His writing style will make you read this book from cover to cover and crave for more!

That book made me so happy I really loved reading it. It was very enjoyable! I hope others will like reading it also.

Here's a book that shows where all this terrorism began. It was in Egypt, not Palestine or Lebanon or any of the other hotspots you might expect. Trying to get rid of the Brits, the Egypstians pioneered "righteous murder"--assasination with a theological justification. The author shows that it was different from any of the terror yet practiced by anarchists in Russia and elsewhere, and what developed from it was different from anything practiced later by groups like the IRA and the Red Brigades. There is a scary portrait here of Sheikh Abdel Rahman, who brought Islamist terror to the U.S. in 1993 with the first bombing (these guys were obsessed with the symbolism) of the World Trade Center. This book is must reading for anyone who wants to know how jihadi terror began and where it might go.

This history of the Arab-Israeli conflict provides a good supplement to the work of Conor C. O'Brien (The Siege), Sir Martin Gilbert (Israel), Samuel Katz (Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine) and Joan Peters (From Time Immemorial). It was written before the revisionist methods of Tom Segev and Benny Morris came into vogue. One may not always agree with Bell's conclusions, but at least one emerges from this read with confidence that they were based on facts--as opposed to politically-motivated distortion of them. (One might also consult Semites and Anti-Semites and The Middle East: A Short History, both by Bernard Lewis, and almost anything by Anita Shapira.)

Bell, like O Jerusalem co-authors Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre, had unusual access to both Arab and Israeli sources. The time span he considers is limited in scope, but offers tremendous detail. The biggest problem is finding a copy. If you do, snap it up. Alyssa A. Lappen

"The Long War," picks us where J. Bowyer Bell's last work, "Terror Out of Zion," leaves off. It begins with the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 and ends with the, "Six Day War, of 1967." Throughout, the author shows how Israel has persevered despite facing long odds, including military inferiority and diplomatic isolation.

Bell describes the fight for Israeli independence in 1948 against the "united" Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. His description of the political intrigues of the Arab states makes interesting reading. Arab infighting is the only reason Israel exists today.

Next, he describes the Suez Crisis of 1956 and the roles played by Israel, Britain, France and the United States. Despite the political bungling of the west, Israel reaffirmed its military superiority by humiliating its Arab opponents. Incapable of beating their most despised foe, the Arabs were reduced to rhetoric, diplomatic initiatives, backbiting and terrorism.

Last was the Six-Day War of 1967. Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt gambled on a joint attack with Syria on Israel, and lost the entire Sinai, despite Soviet diplomatic and military support. Israel now had real security, but no Arab recognition, and therefore no real peace. Serious questions remained:

What to do with over 1 million Palestinian refugees?

How to prevent terrorist raids on Israeli settlements.

How to beat an Arab boycott of Israeli products and of nations who did business with Israel.

These questions remain to this day!

The Long War deals with one key segment of the longest war in history. The events described are directly related to what is happening today. For years, the world's attention was captivated by the Cold War. The Mid-East was largely a sideshow. Issues raised in this book now occupy the center of the world stage. Only now are we devoting all of our diplomatic and military energies to resolving this conflict. Is there a solution to two intractable foes that both claim God's blessing in their quests to rid the same area of the other as they have for over 2000 bloodstained years? Unfortunately, we are no closer to a solution now than in the '50's.

Long War is essential to understanding the events of today. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking an answer to why terrorists hijacked four fully loaded passenger liners and flew them into three occupied buildings on September 11, 2001.

It is important to get behind the tactics and into the motives of a nationalist organization. The "terrorism" of the Irgun and Lehi factions in pre-Israel Palestine is well-summarized here, although he does downplay the savagery of the violence. Still, the people behind the violence have stories and motivations worth exploring. Ultimately, one must realize that the groups made a cult of violence, but that its members did so for reasons they regarded as self-sacrificing and patriotic. Established states are instruments of terrorism so it should be no surprise that those who aspired to create one would be capable of ruthless violence.

Bell writes a history of the role that the Irgun and Lehi played in the founding of the State of Israel. There is a tendency in the left of the Israeli political spectrum to minimize the role of the these organizations in the British decision to leave the Palestine Mandate and a tendency on the Arab side to portray these parties as brutal barbarians. Bell explores the motivations, operations, and personalities of these organizations and their contribution to the founding of the state of Israel. Bell concludes that these were highly dedicated men and women who sought a homeland for their people and that without their involvement, the Birtish might not have left. Bell's other works on the IRA and similar movements show that he is well versed in this type of material. I recommend this book to anyone who is open minded enough to hear all sides of the Israeli- Arab issue.

Though I believe this book has long since gone out-of-print, it is worth your while to track it down. Bell covers revolts in South Africa, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Egypt, Kenya, and Malaysia. But he also discusses how revolt works and why groups feel the need to rebel against their governments in the first place. The contents are divided into four parts: Revolts & Strategies of National Liberation, Revolts Against the Crown, On Revolt- Matrix, Models, and a Template, and The Rebel Vocation. Bell focuses particularly on revolts against the British Empire and the collapse of British power over the last century. The book was published in 1976 so obviously it is rather out-of-date but Bell's theories are still solid and do pass the proverbial test of time. I would highly recommend it to any student of history, government, and/or political science and I have personally found it very useful as a research tool.

For years, this and Tim Pat Coogan's book on the IRA stood as the only significant volumes on the subject. Both Bell and Coogan have kept their books in print by issuing "revised" versions every few years. The truth is, neither book was very good to begin with, though Bell's journalism and craftmanship is slightly ahead of Coogan's sloppy, slapdash approach. They both suffer from a similar problem - they seem to be written from a great distance from the subject, more like a series of newspaper reports than a thoughtful, fully realized nonfiction book. Bell's book (or Coogan's for that matter) can't hold a candle to Ed Maloney's "Secret History of the IRA," which is, quite simply, the definitive account of the IRA, especially in its analysis of Gerry Adams and the Peace Process.

This book is the best institutional history of the IRA and the Republican movement I have come across. It illuminates very clearly the dynamics of the conflict and the fundamental differences in perception and misreading of the other sides by all parties that has made this such a long war.

At least Bell's earlier books included some basic facts and events in the narrative. This book wanders from over generalizations to unsupported assertions and back to over-generalizations. It's is embarrassing to call this incoherent rambling an "analysis"

.................................... J. Bowyer Bell's latest effort on the issue of Northern Irish politics is a very welcome attempt to write a book about the IRA which might become a milestone in the analysis of political violence, in Ireland as well as elsewhere. Bowyer Bell's work is extremely well documented and has the features of real political sciences, in that he uses a series of events (30 years of Troubles!) as a starting point to reach more general conclusions. This is obviously possible thanks to his 35 years long attention to Irish politics and, most important, to his personal contacts with major and minor participants to those events. But he also tries to detach his analysis from the contingent, the current, the short-term, in order to provide the reader with keys to understand the Republican movement in Northern Ireland. The author succeeds where many others failed, keeping historical and political analysis apart from personal opinions and moral judgements, which is the hardest task when approaching the emotion-packed issue of Irish nationalism and "terrorism". His use of comparative analysis is also of great importance, stressing the general trends of political violence around the world, along with the peculiar features of the Irish case. All considered, Bowyer Bell's conclusions might be debatable (and thus they are scientific, according to Karl Popper!) but he often hits the mark. And always gives the reader food for thought!

Frequently fascinating but at the same time tedious and repetitive. There is no question this is a thorough in-depth history of the Troubles from the mid 60s to early 90s. Fascinating in history of terrorism in Ireland and its complete ruthlessness to gain political advantage. But also bogs down in places and becomes confusing in describing the numerous political factions and leaders involved which I guess is inevitable with the Troubles. Bell also tends to be overly dramatic by continually ending paragraphs in threes, e.g.,page 93 "It was a right that must be exercised to be effective, a right to be seen, to be dominant" or page 758 "What did 1989 have to offer but horror, no political progress, the decay of hope in the agreement" and countless other similar endings throughout. Overall, a fairly good read but you have to stay with it.