| Description |
xxi, 392 pages : illustrations maps ; 20 cm |
| Contents |
Pt. I. 1948 and After -- 1. The Balfour Declaration and its Consequences -- 2. The Civil War in Palestine -- 3. The Rise and Fall of the All-Palestine Government in Gaza -- 4. Did They Leave or Were They Pushed? -- 5. Husni Zaim and the Plan to Resettle Palestinian Refugees in Syria -- 6. All the Difference -- 7. Israel's Dirty War -- 8. The Struggle for Jordan -- 9. Abu Nidal, Abu Shmidal -- 10. Sleepless Afternoons -- Pt. II. To Oslo and Beyond -- 11. The Face that Launched a Thousand MiGs -- 12. Arab Nationalism and its Discontents -- 13. Israel and the Gulf -- 14. Changing Places: The Madrid Peace Conference -- 15. Prelude to the Oslo Accord: Likud, Labour and the Palestinians -- 16. The Rise and Fall of the Oslo Peace Process -- 17. Woman of the Year -- 18. Overtaken by Events -- 19. The Likud in Power: The Historiography of Revisionist Zionism -- 20. Capital Folly -- Pt. III. The Breakdown of the Peace Process -- 21. The Lost Steps -- 22. George W. Bush and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict -- 23. Ariel Sharon's War Against the Palestinians -- 24. Palestine and Iraq -- 25. Israel's War Against Hamas: Rhetoric and Reality -- Pt. IV. Perspectives -- 26. His Royal Shyness: King Hussein and Israel -- 27. Edward Said and the Palestine Question -- 28. Four Days in Seville -- 29. Benny Morris and the Betrayal of History -- 30. Free Speech? Not for Critics of Israel |
| Summary |
Shlaim (Lion of Jordan), an Israeli army veteran and international relations professor at Oxford University, offers a penetrating critique of Zionism in these reviews and essays collected from the last 30 years. He focuses on the "three main watersheds" - Israel's establishment, the Six Day War of 1967 and the Oslo Accords of 1993 and offers valuable commentary on current scholarship - saving his sharpest criticism for Benny Morris, a former colleague in Israel's school of "new historians," a group who made their name by refuting early historical accounts of Israel's creation and the displacement of Palestinians. But while he illuminates unfamiliar corners and characters in the Arab-Israeli impasse, such as a Syrian dictator who briefly pursued peace before getting swept from power and executed, Shlaim too often lets his politics seep into his work, omitting important details that should shape the debate: he describes Professor Norman Finkelstein as merely "a well-known critic of Israel," ignoring Finkelstein's rather incendiary comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany. Shlaim's book is an important one, but some readers might think that he gives short-shrift to the Israeli side of this divisive debate |
| Notes |
Originally published: 2009 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Arab-Israeli conflict -- Causes.
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Arab-Israeli conflict.
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| SUBJECT |
Israel -- Foreign relations.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85068694
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Israel -- History http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85068697 -- 20th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2002012476
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Israel -- Politics and government -- 20th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008104775
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Palestine -- History -- 20th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008108855
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| LC no. |
2012372549 |
| ISBN |
1844676560 (paperback) |
|
9781844676569 (paperback) |
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