What Price Israel? -- by Alfred M. Lilienthal -- Online Selections

First Published 1953

50th Anniversary Edition
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From the brand new 16-page Introduction
completed September 20, 2003
by Alfred M. Lilienthal

Fifty years have come and gone since the first publication of What Price Israel? in 1953. I was 39 then, and now I am 89. The long sad story over this half-century has been one of conflict, aggression, terror, war, occupation, resistance, and so-called peace processes guaranteed to fail over and over again. I have seen it all—and yet I have hoped that somehow I would live long enough to finally see a just peace and true independence for the Palestinian Arab people.

Zionism has often been innocently defined as a movement to provide a homeland and refuge for Jews in need of safety in the land where their ancestors lived in ancient times. That definition only sounds good until we realize that almost a million Palestinian Arabs already living there had to be displaced and made homeless in the process. Incredibly, even today so many years later, many Americans and others worldwide still believe that it was “a land without a people for a people without a land.” It was not!

Any real chance for Middle East peace—as well as defusing the reasons behind our present American-led “war on terror”—must be based on fact and not on intentional or unintentional distortions of past events. As British historian, F.W. Maitland, once wrote: “We study the day before yesterday in order that yesterday may not paralyze today, and that today may not paralyze tomorrow.” The early history of the problem is therefore important. What really happened does matter. The true story, rather than slanted Zionist propaganda, about why a Palestinian Arab state did not come into existence at the same time as Israel can be found in the original text of What Price Israel? which has remained unchanged here in this 50th anniversary edition except for a few minor alterations in punctuation, spelling, and phrasing.

I do not know if I am the last, but surely I am one of the last living individuals who was at Lake Success, in the state of New York, on November 29, 1947 when the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. Prior to the passage of the Partition Resolution in 1947, I spoke to the representatives of every one of the fifty-seven (then) member states of the United Nations in behalf of the anti-Zionist organization, the American Council for Judaism.

In fact, I lobbied against the Partition Resolution 181 because it was our belief that the creation of a “Jewish only” Zionist enclave in that region could lead to insecurity and war which would endanger the lives of Arabs and Jews alike. Finally, as patriotic Americans, we believed this did not serve the long-term interests of the United States. A state based upon religious or racial exclusivity could, I argued, result in what actually has happened these last fifty-six years: misery for all peoples in the area and American involvement in the on-going conflict in ways that has undermined our own democratic principles and national security. We foresaw that the price of Israel would indeed be high.

As an eyewitness to those past events, it is remarkable to me that the same kind of bribes and threats were being used to browbeat the United Nations delegations to vote for partition as have recently been shamelessly used to try to force U.N. members to support the American-Israeli war on Iraq.

What does Iraq have to do with Israel? Or rather, what does Israel have to do with American-led plans for so-called “pre-emptive” aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab and Muslim nations? I know that some of my colleagues for justice for the Palestinians would like to believe that American imperialism controls Israel rather than that Israel controls American foreign policy in the Middle East through the network of ultra-Zionist sympathizers within the U.S. who place their concerns for Israel above their concerns for America itself. Without the State of Israel having come into existence in 1948—there would be no need for a war on terror. Other conflicts would be going on around the world, including in the Mideast region, since human nature seems to have such a talent for strife. But this particular “clash of civilizations” between the West and Islam is primarily a tragic outcome of U.S. support for Israel.

To understand why reportedly many Arabs wanted to “drive the Jews back into the sea,” we have to be aware of exactly why Zionism was seen by both Christian and Muslim Arabs as a grave danger to their home territories far beyond the narrow area in Palestine that most Western nations believed to be the only goal of conquest for the new Jewish state. It has never been the mere existence of Israel since its inception on May 14, 1948 that has been the major underlying cause of the region’s over half-century of deadly turmoil. Rather, the true obstacle to a peaceful solution is the abnormal nature of Israel’s statehood. It is a nation without a Constitution, a fact unknown to most Americans, and a state without officially declared borders. It is the kind of state that Israel has become which goes to the heart-core of the problem and has blocked progress toward peace in the region.

Under the Zionist concept of a Jewish state with worldwide nationalism, Jewish Israelis are first-class citizens and non-Jews—the Palestinians and others—can only be second-class citizens. And holding themselves out as the Jewish state only further encourages Middle East and South Asian countries to identify and conduct themselves as Muslim states with consequent prejudices and discrimination against their non-Muslim citizens and residents. Far from being a noble example to the rest of the Middle East and beyond of a modern democracy, Israel has become a polarizing factor based on Zionist notions of purported racial and religious Jewishness as its foundation.

No significant progress has yet been made toward bringing the Israelis and Palestinians to a lasting settlement, based on justice for both peoples, precisely because of the peculiar nature of nationality as defined in Israel that views all Jews everywhere as birthright Israelis. An Israeli state, propagating normal nationalism confined to its own borders, would by now constitute little or no threat to the Palestinians, and would no longer provide an ongoing provocation to Arabs throughout the region. On the other hand, a Jewish state, propagating an abnormal Jewish nationalism extending anywhere on the globe wherever Jews may dwell, must always be viewed as a threat both to Arabs as well as to all who identify themselves as Jews, even those of us who have long opposed being claimed by Israel as its potential citizens.

I cannot help but feel that it is ever more urgent to answer the concerns of many Americans preoccupied with Mideast terrorism, which is referred to constantly in our U.S. media as a characteristic of Palestinian crimes only, while vicious Israeli crimes against Palestinians are dismissed as self-defense measures. In actuality, neither side—Israelis nor Palestinians—has come into court of world opinion with clean hands. If the Palestinians have been guilty of terrorism, and they have, let us not forget who first introduced this disease into the region. It was the likes of Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, and Ariel Sharon, who later became Prime Ministers of Israel, and yet all had a long list of atrocities to answer to of their own.

It was in 1953, the same year that What Price Israel? was first published, that a young Sharon was the commander of killer Unit 101 that brutally massacred defenseless Arab civilians in the Palestinian village of Qibyah. Perhaps we cannot expect the less than scholarly George W. Bush to know about this lifelong criminal history of his Israeli “Man of Peace,” but many of Bush’s experienced advisors do indeed know they are dealing with a perpetrator of many inexcusable war crimes. Why then do these informed men and women go along with providing Israel with unbounded military, financial, and moral support when doing so is contrary to our own national interest and security? Tragically, when it comes to the Middle East, the old saying, “The more things change, the more they remain the same,” still reigns supreme. The same old lies and chicanery on the part of fanatical Zionists are going on now in the Bush administration just as they were in the Truman administration.

In the Summer of 2003, we have seen great shock and sorrow expressed about very angry and seemingly “anti-Semitic” remarks in a 1947 diary of then President Harry Truman that had remained dust-covered and unread for over half a century until the Truman Library found it and released it to the public. In a July 21, 2003 article, “Truman did it to save his own skin,” in the Jewish World Review, Sidney Zion laments with considerable rage that now the truth is out, and it shows that White House aide Clark Clifford told Truman he would lose the 1948 election unless he immediately recognized the Jewish state. Why the huge surprise that Truman’s much acclaimed love and concern for the Jews has turned out to be a bitterly disappointing fable! The American champion of the founding of Israel made his pro-Zionist decisions far less due to his Bible upbringing or humanitarian motives than because of his political concerns to have both the Jewish vote and campaign money from wealthy Jews. Readers of the original What Price Israel? have known this for 30 or 40 or 50 years since they first read it. The truth was known then but was denied and covered up to make the existence of the new “Jewish state” appear to be the outcome of both a religious and humanitarian miracle.

Several months after Roosevelt's death and Truman's succession to the presidency, a Reuters news service headline in December 1945 had declared: “Truman Clarifies Palestine Stand: Not in Favor of a ‘Judaic’ State.” The article went on to detail Truman's outlook at the time, “As a true American, he did not feel that any Government should be based on religious or racial grounds, and he was therefore opposed to the creation of a ‘Judaic’ State in Palestine. For the same reason, he would oppose one based on the Moslem religion or a Baptist denomination. The Palestine Government, he felt, should be the Government of the people of Palestine, irrespective of race, creed or color.” The article goes on to describe the position of the American Council for Judaism as presented in person by Lessing Rosenwald to Truman—and Truman’s stated view was virtually identical to our own as anti-Zionist Jews! So, what happened to change Truman's mind so dramatically?

The names in Truman's time of Zionist American Jews who pressured, manipulated, or paid for the promotion of Israel include David Niles, Judge Sam Rosenman, Max Lowenthal, Abraham Feinberg, Eddie Jacobson, and A.J. Grandin. Secular or Christian Zionists close to Truman, such as Clark Clifford and Matthew Connelly, clearly made their decisions based on vote counting and campaign financing. Although What Price Israel? in 1953 dealt with many of these individuals, plus Silver, Wise, and others—there are resources today that were not available to me then or even later in 1978 and 1983. That is when I wrote the almost 1,000-page history, and its update, of the “special relationship”—facilitated by many influential American Jewish individuals and organizations—between Israel and the United States government: The Zionist Connection I & II.

The curse of our time is the proliferation of so-called “think tanks” that advise our public leaders. Their influence has increased tremendously during recent years. What many of these wretched groups actually are is on the other hand becoming increasingly revealed. Even our greatly controlled media pundits are becoming alarmed at the world chaos being created by the neo-conservatives who have so heavily influenced Bush's perpetual war on terror. Ironically many of the founders of this neo-conservative dynasty were at one time the same Trotskyists and other Marxists that I personally opposed back in the 1930s. At the 1936 World Youth Congress, I led the walkout against these Communist elements. How ironic to see these same shady characters later reinvent themselves dramatically into a new brand of conservatives and gain considerable influence during the Reagan presidency. They may have changed their name and hijacked true conservatism, but their agenda is the same as when the elders among them were Marxists. Control is the name of their game no matter what side they are playing on. Unfortunately many of these “neo-cons” are Jewish, and from this fact has indeed derived an outburst of suspicion and resentment toward Jews in general that could lead to very damaging anti-Semitism that would not otherwise exist.

However, I would like to stress to any Americans—who may be outraged by the conduct of the Kristols, Perle, Wolfowitz, Abrams, Feith, and other extremist neo-con Zionists—that many of the rest of us Jews are not guilty of their offenses. All Jews are not Zionists, and all Zionists are not Jews. Starting with Bush, Cheney, and Ashcroft—plus many in Congress such as Tom DeLay—we have a long list of Christian Zionists presently running our country, who may envision an eventual Middle East catastrophe based on an interpretation of prophesy that Jews must move in mass to Israel so that Armageddon can occur and Christ return. The catch is that all those millions of Jews are to either be converted or slaughtered in this coming bloodbath. Just as the neo-conservatives have hijacked true conservatism, the Christian Zionists have distorted the teachings of Christian evangelicalism to create their own guaranteed self-fulfilling prophesy leading to an earthly hell and unspeakable destruction—which would constitute the true final Holocaust of the Jews as a people and a religion!

Sincere American Christians who presently believe this deadly doctrine are not at fault; they have been taken in by a unique re-interpretation of scripture that goes back to the Scofield Reference Bible of 1909 that was influenced and funded by Zionists. Former White House speech-writer and author, Grace Halsell—who investigated this “Dispensationalist” doctrine promulgated by Hal Lindsey, Jerry Falwell, Billy and Franklin Graham, and others—has revealed the history and impact of this dangerous movement in her book Forcing God’s Hand: Why Millions Pray for a Quick Rapture—And Destruction of Planet Earth.

It is Washington that will be the principal ideological battleground where the crucial showdown will take place over whether there will or will not be a successful “Road Map” leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state to exist and flourish side by side with the existing state of Israel. If a real and lasting solution is to evolve, the voice of positive opposition in the United States—both Jews and Christians—as well as Arab Americans—along with secular groups right and left and in between—must be molded into a unified political force. The Zionist lobby, the many spineless politicians, and the biased media have to date had the final and decisive say as to the possibility of Middle East peace. They can similarly block any current or future peace plan as they have so successfully done other peace efforts in the past—the list would be a long one! Change will not be easy against such entrenched forces, but it is up to the increasing number of supporters of peace with justice to move forward with courage and determination.

Here are the many diverse endorsements that are included in their entirety at the beginning of the book:

Endorsements

JOSHUA RUEBNER

For 50 years, What Price Israel? has served as a landmark publication for Jewish Americans committed to peace and justice in Israel/Palestine. Dr. Lilienthal’s courageous refusal to equate Jewish identity with unqualified support for the State of Israel is as relevant today as when he first articulated his critique in the early 1950s.

Unfortunately, since the time that this book was first published, the Jewish American Establishment has become even more of a servile mouthpiece for the policies of the Israeli government. As Dr. Lilienthal argues persuasively, Jews of conscience have a responsibility to ensure that Israel is not allowed to speak in our names when oppressing the Palestinian people.

This new edition of What Price Israel? will surely inspire the current generation of Jewish American peace activists to recommit themselves toward undoing Israel’s oppressive policies in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and helping to promote a historical reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.

Joshua Ruebner,
co-founder, Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel
http://www.jppi.org

RAMZY BAROUD

Alfred Lilienthal is living-proof that virtue, courage, and compassion can be all the qualities one requires to cross the oceans of hate and prejudice that separate our world today.

Throughout his years, he has enlightened people, hungry for truth, and has inspired those disheartened by bloody conflicts that engulf the fate of humanity.

His expertise in the Middle East, its history and cultures, is astounding and can hardly be omitted from the intellectual debate surrounding the Arab-Israeli conflict. Every word this man has written deserves to be read and re-read again. The wisdom of Alfred Lilienthal must exceed the period in which he lives, to inspire and educate future generations.

Ramzy Baroud,
Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Chronicle
http://www.palestinechronicle.com

PAUL FINDLEY

Alfred Lilienthal and his books have inspired my every move in the Middle East challenge since November 24, 1978 when he walked into my Capitol Hill office and presented me with a copy of the first edition of his The Zionist Connection. Since then, I have acquired and read copies of his What Price Israel? and There Goes the Middle East.

Reading The Zionist Connection inspired me to begin research for my book, They Dare to Speak Out, and an interview with Dr. Lilienthal helped provide grist for my volume, now available in an expanded third edition. The question What Price Israel? has dominated most of my days since 1978.

Dr. Lilienthal is already a towering figure in American history. His courageous, sustained endeavors will continue to inspire others until justice is finally achieved in the Middle East. Arabs have a saying that translates, “Thanks be to God.” It is the perfect expression whenever Dr. Lilienthal’s lifework is examined.

Paul Findley, Member of Congress 1961-83, author of: They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby; Deliberate Deceptions: Facing the Facts About the US-Israeli Relationship; and Silent No More: Confronting America’s False Images of Islam

NOAM CHOMSKY

When it appeared, this book was a truly path-breaking contribution, which opened many eyes to critical realities that had been too long obscured. It is just as relevant today as then—regrettably, one might add. It is very much to be hoped that it will reach a large and receptive audience. That would be no slight contribution to hopes for a more decent future in a tortured corner of the world.

Noam Chomsky, author, Institute Professor and Professor of Linguistics at MIT, and Fellow of the National Academy of Science

JACK SHAHEEN

Dr. Alfred Lilienthal’s brilliant What Price Israel? is an unsurpassed must read for political leaders and policy makers determined to make a realistic road map which can bring about a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. Lilienthal builds with new power on his unparalleled historical and political insights.

Dr. Jack G. Shaheen, author of the book Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People

PETER GUBSER

Dr. Alfred Lilienthal’s What Price Israel? represents what is truly superior in American writing on contemporary political subjects. Taking a very contentious subject at a time—fifty years ago—when no one dared to raise the issues, Dr. Lilienthal presented salient facts, asked the obvious but often unasked questions, and contributed his own penetrating analysis. Today, what Dr. Lilienthal put to paper a half century ago, is still relevant and contemporary. The issues he raised then, remain unresolved, and still need to be addressed. All people in the Middle East should be able to live in freedom and peace.

Peter Gubser, President
ANERA — American Near East Refugee Aid
http://www.anera.org

HOWARD ZINN

Alfred Lilienthal dares to say what so many of us hesitate to say, to raise questions that few of us will pose out loud.

What Price Israel? challenges fundamental premises and offers bold solutions to what has been considered an insoluble problem. I hope it will be widely read.

Howard Zinn, author and professor, Boston University

PATRICK BUCHANAN

Dr. Lilienthal was a pioneer for truth on this issue, and his book What Price Israel? is a classic.

Patrick J. Buchanan,
Conservative author, columnist, and television
commentator, founder and editor of
The American Conservative

JAMES ENNES

Alfred Lilienthal was one of the first to recognize and to warn of the dangers inherent in the Zionist movement. For this he was denounced and often scorned. Yet if American leaders had heeded his warnings, the world would be a saner and safer place today.

James Ennes, author of the book Assault on the Liberty
http://www.ussliberty.com

MOHAMED KHODR

What Price Israel? Fifty years ago one young American Jew, Dr. Alfred Lilienthal, dared to ask and answer such a question with courage and prophetic insight that regrettably still haunts our world. Dr. Lilienthal is reissuing his landmark book on Israel’s founding. He is doing this for the benefit of a generation deprived of the historical facts on the deceptions of Zionism that utilized the tragedy of the Holocaust to establish a Jewish nation for Europe’s victims upon land long inhabited by the newly victimized and expelled Palestinians.

Being true to his faith, conscience, and patriotism, Dr. Lilienthal dared to voice the truth against the powerful Zionist juggernaut of media manipulation and political intimidation that has ensured an “Israeli” only “fence” around Washington, DC. For the sake of Christian and Muslim Palestinians, for Judaism and Israel’s security, for the lives of the innocent on both sides, and U.S. independence from further Zionist deceptions under Ariel Sharon—all Americans must read this book.

The future of the United States, the Middle East, and the world will owe Dr. Lilienthal, a true American hero, a debt of gratitude for the courage and risks he endured for all our children to have peace and justice.

Mohamed Khodr M.D.
Physician, human rights activist, and freelance writer on the Middle East Conflict and Islam. Dr. Khodr experienced first hand Sharon’s three-month siege and destruction of Beirut in 1982.

JOHN MAHONEY

The HMS Serapis, commanded by the British captain, Richard Pearson, fatally hit the Bon Homme Richard, commandeered by John Paul Jones, in 1779. Pearson, watching Jones fighting tenaciously on deck, even as his ship was sinking under him, is reported to have observed, “There’s always some poor bastard who doesn’t get the word.”

For over half a century Dr. Alfred Lilienthal has been fighting—tenaciously would be putting it mildly—to tell his fellow Americans that their billions of dollars to Israel were going to support a racist government that was illegally stealing another peoples land. Meanwhile, the mainstream press in the U.S. keeps on promoting Israel as an embattled democracy and staunch ally. Alfred, as the reprint of his 1953 What Price Israel? suggests, still hasn’t gotten the word. Thomas Jefferson hailed John Paul Jones as the “hope of America’s future on the ocean;” I hail Alfred Lilienthal as the hope of America’s future as an intelligent and just world leader.

John F. Mahoney, Executive Director
Americans for Middle East Understanding
http://www.ameu.org

A CANADIAN READER

I first read Dr. Alfred Lilienthal’s What Price Israel? in 1980 while living in Cairo. Although I already had a fairly good understanding of the Israel/Palestinian-Arab conflict, his insight and historical perspective were a revelation. Like so many around the world, I was overwhelmed by this eloquent American Jew who had the courage and moral integrity to damn the consequences and stand shoulder to shoulder with the Arabs in their conflict with Israel. From the very beginning he saw Zionism as the fraud it is.

As the Sharon government’s current construction of the so-called “separation wall” confirms, Dr. Lilienthal was absolutely correct. After 55 years of inflicting unspeakable horror on Palestinians and other Arabs, all Zionism can offer Jews is another ghetto.

Gary D. Keenan, Canada

AN AMERICAN READER

Alfred M. Lilienthal happens to be one of my heroes. I was born in 1947, and I grew up what I call standard-issue American ignorant on the subject of Palestine. To say that I “believed” the “Exodus version” would be an understatement. I simply knew—just as I know the sun shines—that we were in the right in supporting our plucky little “friend and ally,” Israel. (And of course, I had no idea at all of how our “ally” was ripping off the United States taxpayer.)

In 1960, the movie Exodus was released with dishy Paul Newman. My friends and I all went to see it, pleased that we now knew the “history” of Israel. I also read the book, not once but twice. I believed that Palestine had been “a land without a people for a people without a land,” and that the land was a complete desert, all of it resembling those illustrations of the Wilderness of Judea one sees in Bibles. I believed that the Jews had labored mightily for some forty years building up the Promised Land, making the desert bloom, and that then, “The Arabs” objected to the project because they were envious of what hard work had accomplished.

Needless to say I also believed that Israel was a genuine democracy, with a constitution and civil rights for all which welcomed all comers, and all the new nation wished to do was to cultivate its little plot and bring enlightenment and progress to the benighted locals. “The Arabs” seemed so completely mean and unreasonable, and I couldn't understand why the few, who had been wandering around the desert, couldn't just pack up their tents and get on their camels and live in the Jordanian desert if they were so against progress.

Presumably the very few who lived in dinky little “villages”—collections of a few hovels on my mental landscape—such as the little village of Abu Yesha in Exodus could simply emigrate if they hated progress that much. One liked to think that there were a few sensible “good” Arabs who were delighted to be part of this noble project, eager to learn and benefit from all the technology and (Western—is there any other kind?) education the Jews brought with them. I mean, who wouldn’t want to live as I did in the United States, and Israel was practically the fifty-first state!

Well, that was my mindset, because that was how I grew up. Nobody ever bothered to enlighten me about the facts. I had never heard the term Zionism, and as for the Palestinians, who could they be? The land had been essentially unpopulated since Roman times, had it not? Wasn’t it a worthless desert until many of the Jews bought it from some Arabs and Turks who didn’t even use it? I thought the PLO was a bunch of Arab thugs who just wanted to destroy this noble Jewish endeavor for the hell of it. And of course, it never dawned on me that any of “The Arabs” including some of the Palestinians were Christians. So, naturally I thought the Israeli victory in the Six-Day War in 1967 was an example of divine justice, which served the mean old Arabs right.

On April 9, 1986 I heard about a show called “Flashpoint” which was to be shown that evening on Public Television. Ironically enough, I probably wouldn't have paid any attention to it at all if the “thought police” hadn't tried to kill it. Since I “knew” all about this issue, I decided to watch the show. What did the Jews have to fear? They were on the side of the angels. Any decent person would admit so much. The first part consisted of two Zionist propaganda films of one half hour each. Then, the program presented a controversial one-hour film about the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza—and the mistreatment of the Palestinians—that was a real eye-opener.

After it was over I just sat there stunned, and I can honestly say that the world in which I went to bed that night was not the same world in which I had gotten up that morning. My mother and I were watching the show together, and she spoke first as the credits were rolling, something along the lines of “well, we have certainly been thoroughly mistaken in our ideas all these years.”

I can’t begin to describe how I felt at that moment. I felt filthy, as if I would never be clean again, and ignorant and stupid and used. I was furious. I knew that everything I had believed up to that time was a lie, but I had no idea what the facts were or how I had ended up with so many crazy ideas. After all, I was a reasonably well-informed citizen of the United States of America where we enjoyed this terrific free press. How was it that after all these years I had never ever caught a glimpse of anything except for what I now knew was nothing but propaganda?

Where to start? I went right over to my book shelf and there, among such gems as Exodus and Raquela, A Woman of Israel and Fodor’s Guide to Israel, sitting on the shelf where it had been for I don't know how long but which I had never gotten around to reading, was an autographed copy of Alfred M. Lilienthal’s first book, What Price Israel? I have no idea how it came into my hands. Needless to say, that book clarified everything for me, and I’ve been searching out the facts and working ever since for some modicum of justice for the victims of political Zionism.

You may be sure that I will be purchasing several copies of the new edition of What Price Israel? I have told so many people about it, and now I will have an opportunity to present some of my nearest and dearest with his or her own copy. After I first read it, I searched out his Reader’s Digest article, and then his other books. When I look at any of them today, I am always amazed at how prescient Dr. Lilienthal was, and how unflinchingly honest.

Karen Ray Bossmeyer
Kentucky, U.S.A.

U.N. CONCILIATOR

It is such an honor to be asked for an endorsement. I have the greatest admiration for Alfred Lilienthal, his superb literary talent, knowledge of history, and above all his perseverance regardless of the indignities he has suffered. What a terrible price the world has paid for not having heeded the facts and advice Dr. Lilienthal provided in What Price Israel? in 1953.

As for my attachment to the Palestinian cause, I worked for the United Nations from April 1946 to February 1959. My first encounter with the Middle East was when I was assigned to the U.N. Conciliation Commission for Palestine, September 29, 1948. I arrived in Haifa a few days after the chief U.N. Mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden, was murdered by Zionist terrorists headed by Yitzhak Shamir who later became a Prime Minister of Israel. My assignments took me to Damascus, Cairo, Beirut, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Rhodes and Lausanne, Switzerland with the Mixed Armistice Commission.

Not a day has passed in all these years that the Palestinian tragedy has not been foremost on my mind. The Israeli occupation of Palestinian land with all its tanks and helicopter attacks is terrorism. Injustice, refugee camps, demolished homes, daily suffering of innocent people, friends becoming enemies—all of these are what has led to terror in return. We still have not gotten the message of 9/11 and the ultimate reason behind it. We must settle the Palestinian problem.

What Price Israel? is an indispensable source of facts regarding the central issues in the Middle East. Had Dr. Lilienthal’s many admonitions relating cause and effect been thoroughly examined and acted upon by the leaders of the world and its people, we would not be fearing, as many do, that the Zionists are leading us down the path to Armageddon. Our remaining options for peace are few; our last wake-up call is now.

Eleanor Peebles Hedlund, Tucson, Arizona
United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine
1948-1950

2003 Preface

By Fahda Bint Saud

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. The God of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad (peace be upon them), the God of all prophets and of all creation.

When Dr. Lilienthal asked me to write a small contribution for the 50^th Anniversary Edition of What Price Israel?—I immediately accepted his offer without hesitation, even though I had never met him personally. My reasons for accepting were many. First, because of my great admiration for Dr. Lilienthal’s courage and intellectual honesty; Secondly, because he knew my father, the late King Saud; Thirdly, because he was one of the first Jews ever to meet a Saudi king and interviewed him in his own palace in Riyadh. Last and foremost, his historic 1954 meeting with King Saud augmented the fact that it was the creation of Israel that was the main cause of enmity between Jews and Arabs. Contrary to Zionist claims, there never was any ancient and deep-rooted hatred of Arabs for Jews before the partition of Palestine, just as there never was any hatred between Abraham’s sons, Ishmael and Isaac, who each became the forefathers of the Arab and Hebrew peoples.

Sadly, many in the West are still deluded by this unfortunate Zionist propaganda, that only the Jews and not the Arabs were blessed by God. Tragically, this false animosity is today fueling the clash of civilizations. As told in the Bible, at the death of Abraham, both his sons buried him. (KJV–Genesis 25:9). This indicates that Ishmael and Isaac were not estranged and that they had maintained a brotherly relationship. One Arab tradition even has it that Esau, Isaac’s firstborn son and Jacob’s brother, married Ishmael’s daughter Bashemath. This union is collaborated in the Old Testament (KJV–Genesis 36:3-4), which proves that in the past Arabs never considered the Hebrews or Isaac and his descendants to be their sworn bitter enemies. This is the scene of Jacob’s deathbed as recorded in the Quran:

“And were ye witnesses when death approached Jacob. Behold, he said to his sons: What will ye worship after me? They said: We will worship thy God and the God of thy forefathers, Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac, the One God and to Him we bow in submission.” (Sura 1, Verse 132).

The Zionists would have everyone believe that Ishmael was accursed in the eyes of God; that he was not deemed worthy by either God or his own father to share in the glory of Isaac, the chosen one. In truth, not only in the Quran, but also in the Bible, Ishmael is blessed and revered as the “son” and “seed” of Abraham (KJV–Genesis 21:13). He is named by God himself (KJV–Genesis 16:11), and his cries and afflictions are heard by God:

“And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called Hagar out of Heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.” (KJV–Genesis 21:17-18).

As for Ishmael’s sons, the ancestors of all the tribes of Arabia and of the Prophet Mohammad, the Bible names them all and describes them in the most noble and regal of terms: “And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Napish, and Kedemah; These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations.” (KJV–Genesis 25:12-16). The prophet Mohammad traces his lineage to Abraham through the celebrated Koreish tribe, which sprang from Kedar, Ishmael’s second son.

Throughout these long fifty years since the first publication of What Price Israel?—Dr. Lilienthal never stopped trying to reveal the racism and injustice of the Zionist regime and the atrocities being committed against the Palestinians. Like a true warrior, he battled to make Israelis realize that their persecution of the Palestinians was just as heinous as the Nazi persecution of Jews; that their iniquity and aggression was harmful to the cause of all Jews. He never stopped denouncing the genocide inflicted upon a people whose only fault was being born non-Jewish in the holy land of Palestine. He called for the establishment of a Palestinian state at a time when it was a heresy merely to speak of their affliction or persecution.

And so I felt truly honored to be asked to contribute to this new edition of his book. I wanted to say so many things, to clarify so many misconceptions. But one issue is now foremost in my mind. There are very few among us like Dr. Lilienthal whose wisdom and knowledge guide them in life. He represents the true spirit of Judaism. May his mission of enlightenment prevail. And may the same God, who breathed His spirit unto us and who created us in different races and tribes and sent to us his messengers, now lead us all from darkness unto light.

Princess Fahda Bint Saud
Saudi Arabia
September 2003

2003 Introduction Alfred M. Lilienthal	Full Endorsements	2003 Preface Fahda Bint Saud
1953 Foreword Judaism Not Zionism	Chapter 1 The Historic Duality	Chapter 2 Haven or State?

2003 Introduction Alfred M. Lilienthal	Full Endorsements	2003 Preface Fahda Bint Saud
1953 Foreword Judaism Not Zionism	Chapter 1 The Historic Duality	Chapter 2 Haven or State?

2003 Introduction Alfred M. Lilienthal	Full Endorsements	2003 Preface Fahda Bint Saud
1953 Foreword Judaism Not Zionism	Chapter 1 The Historic Duality	Chapter 2 Haven or State?

2003 Introduction Alfred M. Lilienthal	Full Endorsements	2003 Preface Fahda Bint Saud
1953 Foreword Judaism Not Zionism	Chapter 1 The Historic Duality	Chapter 2 Haven or State?

What Price Israel? 50th Anniversary Edition
1953	2003