In the past five years, Israel has orchestrated three major attacks against the nearly two million Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip. Together, Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009), Operation Pilar Defensivo (2012) and Operation Margin Protector (2014) have killed three thousand seven hundred Palestinians. On the contrary, in these invasions a total of ninety Israelis perished.
In view of these figures, it has often been said that the succession of attacks, tremendously disproportionate, was delusional and pathological. Israeli politicians, far from discouraging these kinds of perceptions, have actively disseminated them. After the attacks of 2008-2009, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Tzipi Livni, boasted: "Israel has demonstrated, during the recent operation, the authentic hooliganism that I demanded." However, as Norman G. Finkelstein points out in this concise and clairvoyant book, if we examine Israel's ultimate motives closely, we will discover that his repeated recourse to the wildest war is far from being irrational. In reality, Israel's attacks have been designed to sabotage a possible peace commitment with the Palestinians, even if the terms of it favor it widely.

"Method and madness is simply exceptional as a chronicle and academic essay." Mouin Rabbani, senior member of the Institute for Palestine Studies