Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Updated, A

by Bickerton, Ian J.; Klausner, Carla L.

• ISBN13: 9780131900042
• ISBN10: 0131900048
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

For undergraduate courses in History, Political Science, Jewish Studies, International Relations, Foreign Relations, and Diplomatic History that specifically cover the Arab-Israeli Conflict or the Middle East. This concise and comprehensive text presents a balanced, impartial, and well-illustrated coverage of the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The authors identify and examine the issues and themes that have characterized and defined the conflict over the past century. The updated Fourth Edition includes a new final unit that examines the many developments since 9/11.

Table of Contents

Tables, Charts, and Maps	p. xiii
Documents	p. xv
Preface	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Defining the Question	p. 4
Who Are the Arabs and Jews?	p. 4
The Religious Dimension: Judaism and Islam	p. 6
The Task of the Historian	p. 11
The Landscape of Palestine	p. 11
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 15
Palestine in the Nineteenth Century	p. 16
Palestine under the Ottoman Empire	p. 17
The Arabs of Palestine	p. 19
Jews in Nineteenth-Century Palestine	p. 20
The Birth of Modern Zionism	p. 21
The Jewish and Arab Communities of Palestine on the Eve of World War I	p. 28
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 30
Palestine During the Mandate	p. 36
The Hussein-McMahon Correspondence	p. 37
The Sykes-Picot Agreement	p. 39
The Balfour Declaration	p. 41
Postwar Settlement	p. 42
The Mandates	p. 44
Land, Immigration, and White Papers	p. 49
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 57
World War II, Jewish Displaced Persons, and the Partition of Palestine	p. 68
The Holocaust	p. 70
Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust	p. 72
The United States, American Jews, and Palestine to 1945	p. 73
Palestine after World War II	p. 76
The Displaced Persons and Palestine	p. 76
Postwar British and American Policy	p. 78
The Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry	p. 79
Palestine before the United Nations	p. 83
UNSCOP Majority Report	p. 84
The United States and the Partition Proposal	p. 85
UNGA Approves the Partition of Palestine	p. 86
Arab and Jewish Response to the UN Partition Resolution	p. 87
Partition in Doubt	p. 90
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 92
The Proclamation of Israel and the First Arab-Israeli War	p. 100
Israel Declared and the War of 1948	p. 101
The Palestinian Refugees	p. 104
Israel: A Jewish State	p. 106
The Arabs of Palestine: 1948	p. 110
Conclusion	p. 112
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 113
The Conflict Widens: Suez, 1956	p. 116
The Uncertain Years, 1949-1956	p. 117
Israel and the Palestinians	p. 117
Israel and the Arab States	p. 120
Background to the 1956 War	p. 121
The Baghdad Pact, 1955	p. 124
The Suez Crisis	p. 126
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 132
The Turning Point: June 1967	p. 137
Israel after 1956	p. 138
The Arabs after 1956	p. 140
U.S.-Soviet Involvement: The Cold War and the Arms Race	p. 141
Syria, the Palestinians, and the War of 1967	p. 144
Recapitulation	p. 154
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 155
Holy Days and Holy War: October 1973	p. 160
The Palestinians and the PLO after 1967	p. 162
Diplomacy, the War of Attrition, and the Rogers Plan	p. 168
Detente and the Role of the Superpowers	p. 170
Egypt Prepares for War	p. 171
The 1973 War and Its Aftermath	p. 174
The Arab Embargo and the Oil Weapon	p. 176
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 178
The Search for Peace, 1973-1979	p. 183
The Peace Process, 1973-1979	p. 184
Water and the Arab-Israeli Conflict	p. 192
The Camp David Accords	p. 193
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 199
Lebanon and the Intifada	p. 210
Lebanon	p. 211
The Intifada	p. 224
The Superpowers and the Peace Process	p. 234
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 236
The Peace of the Brave	p. 244
The End of the Cold War and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union	p. 245
The Gulf War	p. 245
The Madrid Peace Conference	p. 250
The Road to Peace	p. 255
The September 1993 Israeli-PLO Accord	p. 262
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 266
The Peace Progresses	p. 280
The Gaza-Jericho Agreement between Israel and the PLO	p. 281
Peace between Jordan and Israel	p. 282
The Road to Oslo II	p. 284
The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin	p. 286
The Israeli Elections of May 1996	p. 295
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 301
Collapse of the Peace Process	p. 313
Peace Negotiations Stall	p. 314
Internal Problems In Israel	p. 315
The Wye River Memorandum	p. 317
The Death of King Hussein	p. 321
The Election of Ehud Barak	p. 321
The Sharm al-Sheikh Memorandum	p. 324
The Syrians--and Great Expectations	p. 327
The Talks Continue	p. 331
Lebanon	p. 333
Camp David II	p. 337
The al-Aqsa Intifada and Collapse of the Peace Process	p. 339
The Election Victory of Ariel Sharon	p. 343
Conclusion	p. 352
The Changing Character of the Arab-Israeli Conflict	p. 352
Outstanding Issues in the Conflict	p. 354
Glossary	p. 361
Guide to Pronunciation	p. 365
Photo Credits	p. 366
Index	p. 367
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

The first edition of this book was written ten years ago. Since then, there have been tremendous changes both in the Arab-Israeli conflict itself, and in the way it has been written about. The Gulf War of 1991, the Madrid peace conference later the same year, the end of the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union, together with the 1993 Oslo accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, led to a changed dynamic in the relations between Israel and the Arab countries, and to a significant transformation in the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. Over the next seven years, until mid-2000, remarkable, if halting, measures were taken by both sides toward a peaceful resolution of the complex issues that had divided Jews and Arabs for the past century. Then, dramatically, in September 2000, we witnessed a reversal and a return to an escalating cycle of violence and alienation. The way the participants, including their respective historians, view, speak, and write about themselves and each other has also significantly shifted in the past decade. The discourse between Palestinians/Arabs and Israelis, and within each group--especially among Israelis--has matured and moderated with the passage of time, and despite recent events, we still believe that a majority on both sides recognize that specific goals are more attainable through peaceful means than by warfare. Bitterness and hatred may once again threaten to destroy the fabric of the peace process built up between Israelis and Palestinians; nevertheless, Israel is now recognized and accepted as a reality by most Arabs, and most Israelis are ready to acknowledge the almost certain possibility of a Palestinian state. Despite extremists in both camps, Arabs no longer call for Israel to be driven into the sea, and Israelis understand that Palestinians are more than a bunch of terrorists. With this new awareness, new questions have arisen, new frameworks through which the past and present can be viewed have been constructed, new histories have been written. Of course, the circumstances that produced the Arab-Israeli conflict have not changed, nor have old enmities disappeared. Historians cannot ignore or change past events or sentiments. We simply see things differently in the twenty-first century than we did in earlier years. Time provides alternative perspectives with which to interpret events. The most dramatic example of this is to be seen in the way a group of Israeli historians, "post-Zionists"--called the New Historians--have reinterpreted the history of the origins and early history of Israel and have challenged many of what they call the myths of the previous generation of nationalist historians. A similar revision of Palestinian and Arab history will, no doubt, appear in the future. The Arab-Israeli conflict continues to surprise pundits and commentators, however. It even appears to defy the participants themselves. The unexpected ferocity and level of violence that erupted in late September 2000 seem once again to have transformed the relationship between Israel, the Palestinians, and the Arab states from one of relative calm to one of explosive bitterness and hostility. It is difficult to know what to make of it all, and events are unfolding so quickly as we write that, at times, we ourselves have not always agreed on how to interpret them. A year ago we were optimistic; now we are not so sure. In this fourth edition ofA Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflictwe have tried to reflect the changes outlined above. Our narrative and chronologies have been updated, and we have reviewed how we interpret many of the events preceding these startling, rapidly changing, and somewhat unpredictable happenings. We have also considered the many new accounts and interpretations and have included many in the bibliographies at the end of each chapter. In the last chapter of this edition,