During the twenty-five years that I wrote and produced a nationally syndicated radio program, Religion in the News, and the twenty years that I was also director of Paulist Communications, I produced many radio programs dealing with social-justice issues. In most of these conflicts, such as apartheid, oppression in Latin America, poverty and racism in America, war and peace in the nuclear age, equality for women, right to life, and rights of Native Americans, I found a wide spectrum of Americans who vociferously shared my view that these were inherently burning moral issues. When it came to the morality of American involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, however, I did not find this to be the case; these same people did not seem to consider it a moral issue for Americans. At least they did not write about it very much.
   Yet it was year-in-year-out American diplomacy and billions in American loans and/or outright grants voted for annually by Americans' representatives in Congress that were sustaining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was American-made bombers, paid for, at least in part, by American taxpayers, that were pulverizing Beirut apartment houses and burying their occupants under the rubble. Rightly or wrongly, willingly or not, every American citizen, simply by his or her citizenship, was and is involved in the conflict. I therefore have had a long-standing desire to study this issue as a moral issue more fully.
   In 1990, when my assignment to Paulist Communications was completed, I was assigned to a sabbatical year. I spent part of it researching the issue in the Holy Land. I have been able to continue this research as part of my current work. Being satisfied that one has cut through biased presentations, historical half-truths, oft-repeated myths, and exaggerations in order to reach the truth has not come easily. Many points of fact are disputed, and conclusions contested. I have briefly alluded to some of these but have not attempted exhaustively to air all of the arguments pro and con.
   This volume explores the morality of American involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly in the founding of the state of Israel. It does this within an historical context. For some readers the historical facts chronicled herein may speak for themselves. These readers will draw from the chronicles their own conclusions regarding the moral rightness or wrongness of American policy and actions. Other readers may desire an explicit moral evaluation which I believe flows from the facts. Therefore both are presented.
   Wherever possible, the moral principles I use are those that transcend the world's major religious and cultural divisions. Most people recognize "is it fair," "do to others as you would have them do to you," "help those in need," "do not kill unjustly," and "do not steal" as universal moral values.
   The book examines primarily the morality of American involvement in the conflict. However, the first few chapters present background which many readers may find useful in evaluating moral aspects of the conflict itself, and therefore helpful in evaluating the morality of American actions. The first two chapters briefly summarize thirty-six centuries of biblical portrayals and historical events. Added information on this background is given in Notes and in Appendix One.

   This book treats only what I term the objective morality of a person's action, that is, the moral rightness or wrongness of the act considered just in itself, regardless of what the person doing the act thinks of its morality. The book in no way attempts to treat what I term subjective morality, that is, the moral rightness or wrongness of the act as perceived by the person doing it. Thus the book focuses solely on the objective morality of persons' actions, not on the subjective morality of the people who performed them. Moreover, the legality of the actions in terms of national or international law is outside the scope of this book. All of my statements should be understood within these contexts.