This is a very well written analysis of the career of Ariel Sharon & modern Israeli-Palestinian history. from the Qibiya massacre in 1953 to Sabra and Shatila in 1982 and the present day's war crimes during operation defensive shield of spring 2002, his determination to wipe out any functioning Palestinan political and/or communal entity cannot be any clearer. In his own words, the war of 1948 is not yet over, and the danger of further ethnic cleansing (aka 'transfer')has never been greater.

Prof. Baruch Kimmerling's new book about the checkered career, heinous war crimes and diabolical treachery of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is of such critical importance to understanding the expolsive Middle East crisis, that one would think it would make the cover of Newsweek, and be the subject of discussion and debate from the New York Time to the CBS Nightly News. Needless to say, publicity for Kimmerling's expose has been tightly suppressed by the Establishment media, who have a vested interest in portraying the Butcher of Beirut as an honorable, if hawkish warrior and Zionist "patriot."

The truth, according to Kimmerling's formidable research, is very different. The bill of indictment is eye-popping. Sharon is a Nazi, a racist and an assassin intent on imposing a defacto concentration camp on the Palestinians. Extreme? Yes, but Sharon is the epitome of extremism.The bloody wreckage of Palestinian AND Israeli lives is effectively the basis for "Politicide."

Put aside the System-approved fantasies by Bernard Lewis, Dore Gold and Steve Emerson. Instead, study this courageous and revealing work from a writer who embodies a voice of conscience and dissent against what is done in the name of the Jewish people to the hapless natives of Palestine.

The fact that this book is being denied publicity by the corporate media is one hint of its power. The System seeks to protect at all costs the reigning paradigm. In "Politicide," Kimmerling indicts mass murderer Sharon, and he does so without polemics, with a cool recitation of facts.

"Politicide" is fallible and there are a couple of errors: the author upholds the official Israeli line on the Jenin massacre and the attack on the Church of the Nativity; and there is one noteworthy omission: all mention of Baruch Goldstein's 1994 massacre of 40 Palestinians as the flash point that initiated suicide bombings, beginning in April of that year.

With those caveats noted, this book is nonetheless a huge embarrassment for the legion of Sharon partisans in the American media and US government ,and they are doing their worst to keep "Politicide" in the deep freeze. But if Kimmerling's work gains a wide American readership, I predict that Sharon's usefulness to the Cryptocracy will be finished and many lives may be saved.

Kimmerling's and Migdal's analysis of Palestinian politics and society is hopelessly biased. The authors soft-pedal the Palestinians' basic rejection of Israel's legitimacy and their implicit (and often explicit -- cf. Arafat's many pronouncements in Arabic) wish to destroy Israel. For example, Kimmerling and Migdal, incredibly, fail to discuss the 2000 Camp David negotiations, the later Clinton proposals, or the January 2001 Taba negotiations, deferring instead to the extensive coverage of this sequence "elsewhere." This glaring omission is evidence enough of the authors' biases. Absent is any mention of the Palestinian rejection, without counter-offer or any other serious sign of a willingness to compromise, of Barak's proposals. Absent is the subsequent Palestinian response: another intifida. Absent is the Palestinian rejection of the Clinton proposals, which offered the Palestinians all of Gaza, 94-96% of the West Bank, and shared sovereignty over Jerusalem, including dominion over the haram al-sharif/temple mount. Further underscoring the Palestinians' unwillingness to negotiate and their basic rejection of Israel's right to exist is another fact that Kimmerling and Migdal ignore: the unyielding insistence by the Palestinians in all negotiations (at least beginning with Oslo) on their so-called "right of return." Of course, a full right of return would mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state. One may debate whether the Palestinians are merely being tactical here or whether it is truly their intent to destroy Israel demographically. But it is irresponsible of Kimmerling and Migdal to omit any discussion of these events. Consequently, I do not recommend this book.

In a field littered with propaganda, two knowledgeable scholars, Baruch Kimmerling, the George S. Wise Professor of Sociology at the Hebrew University, and Joel Migdal, professor at the University of Washington, have written an objective, scholarly treatise on the history of the Palestinian people and the forces that shaped the development of their national consciousness.

It is difficult to imagine a better collaboration than the one between Kimmerling and Migdal. Kimmerling is one of the best social scientists in Israel with a list of impressive publications on his vita. I am less familiar with Migal's work, but his prose is often breathtakingly beautiful, especially when he describes the land itself. Rarely will one find a better writer in the social sciences than Migdal.

Those without a scholarly knowledge of the field will find the book tough to read at times but the patient reader will be rewarded for his efforts with a deeper understanding of the world's most intractable conflict.