Finkelstein, expanding upon his doctorate thesis, writes that the modern Zionist historical tradition is based on a series of ideologically-charged systematic biases, all of which face considerable problems when measured up with the actual record in his view. For example, he specifically refers to the Palestinian exodus before Israeli independence and the purported causes. Finkelstein credits Zionist military aggression upon Palestinian villages and calls for a transfer of populations as driving Palestinian refugees out of their lands, rather than a voluntary exodus occurring mixed in with orders to leave from Arabic leaders and other factors as Israeli historians have written. He goes into detail on issues such as Israel's exploitation of water rights.[1]
In a essay about several publications about Israel-Palestine for London Review of Books, politician Ian Gilmour wrote that the book served as "both an impressive analysis of Zionist ideology and a searing but scholarly indictment of Israel's treatment of the Arabs since 1948."[3]
In another review essay on publications about the conflict, Rita J. Simon from American University gave it a mixed review in the Middle East Studies Association Bulletin. The 2001 Verso edition, she says, is the most comprehensive and the most virulent of the books she reviewed; while she says "Finkelstein's arguments... are usually documented with data and scholarly arguments" and "is more than an emotional diatribe against Israel" she criticized it for letting the reader to believe that "Israelis are the Nazis of the 21st century", a notion that destroys "the scholarly integrity of their work".[4]
Endorsing the book for the publishers, historian Avi Shlaim said that the "book makes a major contribution to the study of the Arab-Israeli conflict which deserves to be widely read, especially in the United States”.[6]
^Finkelstein, Norman G. (2003). Image and reality of the Israel-Palestine conflict (2nd ed.). London: Verso. p. 174. ISBN1-85984-442-1. Retrieved 15 August 2014. Although Israel does 'recognize Palestinian water rights in the West Bank', these rights do not include the 'ownership of the water', which will be the subject to the permanent status negotiations. Indeed, Israel already claims the legal title to most of the West Bank water on the basis of 'historic usage'. That is, having stolen Palestinian water for nearly three decades, Israelis now proclaim it is theirs.
