The Case Against Israel is a measured but relentless assessment of the long struggle between Zionists and Palestinians. It argues that Zionism was responsible for the conflict, and that Israel is responsible for its perpetuation.
Neumann emphasizes the fateful Zionist quest for Jewish sovereignty in Palestine. This quest - not the massacres or plans for transfer or other blots on Zionist history - made violence inevitable, and compromise impossible. The Zionists established a sovereign Jewish state in 1948. Had they been content with that, peace might have followed the 1967 war, when Israel could have backed the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories.
Instead, Zionists pushed to extend Jewish sovereignty, this time through the settler movement. The violent Palestinian response will cease only if the threat ceases: if Israel withdraws to its pre-1967 borders. Neumann argues that, since Israel can do this unilaterally, the choice of peace over war is entirely in its hands.