Adopt a Library Project

CAMERA launched this project in March of 2004 and within 6 months, 115 libraries had been adopted nationwide. The majority of adoptions were made by synagogue Israel committees and several JCRCs, but many of the adoptions were also implemented by individuals. We promoted the Adopt a Library Project with an email announcement and we also put the information on our website. Below is the announcement. To see online announcement with graphics, click here.

Adopt a Library Project
(from www.camera.org)

All too often libraries used by adults and students include a disproportionate number of books that present skewed and inaccurate depictions of Israel. It is vital to assure that American readers have the opportunity to read accurate, complete and balanced works on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Help assure that fair and accurate books about Israel and the war against terror are available to the public in community, high school and university libraries.

Donate new books about Israel to your local public and college libraries. With the participation of thousands of friends of Israel across the country, we can provide thousands of libraries with reliable books about Israel. Please consider "adopting" several libraries.

Also, consider donating a year's subscription of the Jerusalem Post or the Jerusalem Report to your library. To subscribe, call: 800-448-9291.

How To Donate Books

1. Call or visit your community or school library to determine which books on CAMERA's recommended booklist (see below) are currently available there.

2. Make a list of the books (including descriptions) you would be willing to donate.

3. Present the acquisition librarian with your list and tell her/him you would like to buy these new books for the library's collection as long as they will definitely be put on the circulation shelves and not re-sold for fundraising.

4. Once you get approval, purchase the books from your local bookstore and either bring them to the library yourself or have them mailed directly to the acquisition librarian to whom you spoke.

5. Please send to CAMERA the names of the books you donated, along with the name, city and state of the library. Send the e-mail to: LeeGreen@camera.org with subject line "Adopt a Library Project."

Suggested Book List:

Arafat's War: The Man and his Battle for Israeli Conquest by Efraim Karsh (Grove Press, 2003).
The author, a renowned historian and Director of the Mediterranean Studies Department at King's College, London, draws on Arabic, Hebrew and English-language sources to give what may be the most comprehensive account of Arafat's life. The book is also a review of the Oslo years and Arafat's role in the collapse of the peace effort. Well argued, fast-paced and engaging.

The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz (John Wiley & Sons, 2003).
Professor Dershowitz refutes 32 common misperceptions/misrepresentations regarding Israel. This excellent resource makes a great gift for a college student.

The Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars by Yaacov Lozowick (Doubleday, 2003). Israei historian Lozowick provides a riveting, concise history of the conflict between Israel and her neighbors, but more importantly, provides key context to explain why Israel's leaders chose certain courses of action over others and examines the morality of those choices.  Lozowick discusses what a "just war" is, whether Israel's soldiers and leaders behaved morally, and what they learned from past mistakes. Chapter 11 all by itself is worth the price of the book. Entitled "Immoral Decisions: the Bad Faith of Israel's Detractors," it describes the standard operating procedures and attitudes that lead so many journalists to provide unfair and wildly inaccurate coverage of Israel. This is an excellent book for novices as well as experts, and would be particularly helpful to college students seeking to make sense out of the avalanche of information about the conflict. Refuting dozens of pernicious myths about the conflict, "Right to Exist" is an impassioned moral history.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Middle East Conflict by Mitchell Bard (Alpha Books, 2nd edition, 2002).
This is a valuable reference book in an easy-to-read format especially inviting to younger readers. Topics include the roots of Middle East turmoil, global terrorism and Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. This book is recommended for Bar/Bat Mitzvah age students as well as adults.

O Jerusalem by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (Touchstone Books, 1988).
The events that led to the establishment of the State of Israel beginning with the inter-war years up to the United Nations resolution of 1948 form the core of this exciting and balanced narrative. Told from both the Jewish and Arab viewpoints, the story is rich in historical data and yet riveting in its personal approach.

Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict (A I C E, 2001).
The book, formerly published by AIPAC, has recently been updated and reissued by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. This classic reference book for pro-Israel activists contains new chapters on the "al-Aksa Intifada," Jewish settlements and the media. It also provides updated information on the peace process, U.S. Middle East policy, and more. "Myths and Facts" can be viewed on-line:  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mftoc.html

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael Oren (Oxford Press, 2002).
The effects of the Six Day War continue to be felt today, with misinformation widespread about how it began and proceeded, and what the international community required of Israel and the Arabs in its aftermath. Oren's book is essential reading about this pivotal war.

Arab Israeli Conflict: The Palestine War 1948 by Efraim Karsh (Osprey Pub Co, 2002).
Karsh examines the origins of Israel's War of Independence and its progression through two distinct stages: the guerrilla warfare between the Arab and Jewish communities of Mandatory Palestine, and the conventional inter-state warfare between Israel and the invading Arab armies. He assesses the participants, their war aims, strength in arms, strategies, and combat performance. This terrific handbook provides excellent detail for refuting the Arab charge that the Jews of Palestine won the day thanks to plentiful arms and highly trained fighters.

The Liberty Incident: the 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship by A. Jay Cristol (Brasseys, Inc, 2003).
This invaluable work draws on newly declassified documents and high-level interviews with numerous officials from the United States and Israel that systematically address relevant questions about the tragic 1967 Israeli attack on the American vessel. A former naval aviator, Cristol provides a page-turning, minute-by-minute account of the battering suffered by the U.S. Navy's intelligence ship, USS Liberty, and comprehensively explains the errors that led to the friendly-fire incident.

The Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land-Settlement and the Arabs 1878-1948 by Arieh L. Avneri (Yad Tabenkin, 1984).
This study investigates the expanding Jewish settlement over the 70-year period prior to the founding of Israel and its effects on the existing Arab community's economy and cultural institutions. It also examines the size of the Arab population in Palestine in 1878, the cause of its growth during the 70 years of Jewish development, Arab land sales to Jews, and the number of both Jewish and Arab refugees following the 1948 war.

Israel-Arab Reader : A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict by Walter Laqueur (Penguin USA; 6th edition, 2001).
The Israel-Arab Reader is a thorough and up-to-date guide to the continuing crisis in the Middle East. It covers the full spectrum of the Israel-Arab conflict-from the earliest days, through the wars and peacemaking efforts, up to the Israel-PLO and Israel-Jordan peace accords. This comprehensive reference includes speeches, letters, articles, and reports dealing with all the major interests in the area from all of the relevant political parties and world leaders.

Ivory Towers On Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America by Martin Kramer (The Washington Institute For Near East Policy, 2001).
Martin Kramer exposes academia's failure to anticipate major developments in the Middle East. For example, most academics underplayed the danger of Islamic fundamentalism and regarded the movement as a moderate force of democratization. Even so, the "experts" of the Middle East studies departments continue to garner federal funding, media interviews, and the credibility of a believing public.

Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation's Odyssey by Fouad Ajami (Vintage Books, 1999).
The author explores how those among the intellectual elite of the Arab world who have sought to introduce modernity and secularism into their societies have been stymied, exiled, and sometimes killed. No English writer surpasses Ajami in powerfully conveying to Western readers the contradictions and challenges of the Arab world.

Jihad in the West: Muslim Conquests from the 7th to the 21st Centuries by Paul Fregosi (Prometheus Books, 1998).
This account of Islamic military invasions of the last 1300 years, focuses on Jihad in Europe and begins with the initially unsuccessful siege of Constantinople. While European history has often focused on the Christian Crusades from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, Jihad in the West examines the smoldering Islamic war against the "infidels," which has now reached the Americas.

From Time Immemorial : The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine by Joan Peters (J K A P Pubns, 2001)
We are presented with an analysis of the long history of Arab aggression against Israel and the Jews making reference to a number of incidents throughout the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's. A factor highlighted to show that such did not begin with the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948 or the land captured during future conflicts, such as the "West Bank" & Gaza in 1967. An excellent, scrupulously researched study into the secular side of events in the Middle East.

Islam and Dhimmitude : Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Yeor (Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Pr;, 2001).
Bat Ye'or's thirty years of scholarship on "dhimmitude," the religious, cultural, and political fate of non-Muslims, in particular Christians and Jews, living under Islamic rule, is a seminal effort to recapture this specific suppressed history. In her current work, "Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide," the author bravely elucidates how doctrinal patterns of subjugation of the dhimmi peoples (i.e., Christians and Jews) initiated during the Arab and Turkish waves of Islamic conquest, the jihad-dhimmitude continuum, are of immediate relevance to contemporary historical trends and specific events.

Return of Anti-Semitism by Gabriel Schoenfeld (Encounter Books, 2003).
This is the story of how, "virtually unnoticed, and unremarked, a lethal hatred of Jews has once again come to play a large part in world events." Schoenfeld offers a well-written analysis.

What Went Wrong? : The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis (Perennial, 2003).
Bernard Lewis, a renowned authority an Islamic affairs, examines the anguished reaction of the Islamic world as it has tried to make sense of how it had been overtaken, overshadowed, and dominated by the West. In a fascinating portrait of a culture in turmoil, Lewis shows how the Middle East turned its attention to understanding European weaponry, industry, government, education, and culture. He also describes how some Middle Easterners fastened blame on a series of scapegoats, while others asked not "Who did this to us?" but rather "Where did we go wrong?"

Militant Islam Reaches America by Daniel Pipes (W.W. Norton & Company, 2002).
Long before September 11, 2001, Daniel Pipes publicly warned Americans that militant Islam had declared war on America yet sadly, Americans failed to take heed. The publication of Militant Islam Reaches America finally brought Pipes the attention he deserves. Dividing his work into two parts, Pipes first defines militant Islam, stressing the large and crucial difference between Islam, the faith, and the ideology of militant Islam.

American Jihad : The Terrorists Living Among Us by Steven Emerson (Free Press, 2003).
Some have said that the events of September 11 took every American by surprise. That's not true. There were Cassandras among us warning about the dangers of Islamic terrorism--and one of their leaders was Steven Emerson, who must be ranked among the most fearless reporters in the world.