113 results for "History"

The Israeli solution: a one-state plan for peace in the Middle East

Glick, Caroline B.
"A manifesto that exposes the flaws in the two-state policy of the United States toward Israel and the Palestinians and offers a direct and powerful call for Israeli sovereignty in the region... In The Israeli Solution, Caroline Glick, senior contributing editor to the Jerusalem Post, examines the history and misconceptions behind the two-state policy... After a century spent chasing a two-state policy that hasn't brought the Israelis and Palestinians any closer to peace, The Israeli Solution offers an alternative path to stability in the Middle East based on Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria"--Provided by publisher.
Crown Forum 2014-03-01 324 pages

The Israeli solution: a one-state plan for peace in the Middle East

Glick, Caroline B.
"A manifesto that exposes the flaws in the two-state policy of the United States toward Israel and the Palestinians and offers a direct and powerful call for Israeli sovereignty in the region. The reigning consensus in elite and academic circles is that the United States must seek to resolve the Palestinians' conflict with Israel by implementing the so-called two-state solution. Establishing a Palestinian state, so the thinking goes, would be a panacea for all the region's ills. It would end the Arab world's conflict with Israel, because the reason the Arab world is anti-Israel is that there is no Palestinian state. It would also nearly erase the principal cause of the violent extremism in the rest of the Middle East. In a time when American politics are marked by partisan gridlock, the two-state solution stands out for its ability to attract supporters from both sides of the ideological divide. But the great irony is that it is one of the most irrational and failed policies the United States has ever adopted. Between 1970 and 2013, the United States presented nine different peace plans for Israel and the Palestinians, and for the past twenty years, the two state solution has been the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy. But despite this laser focus, American efforts to implement a two-state peace deal have failed--and with each new attempt, the Middle East has become less stable, more violent, more radicalized, and more inimical to democratic values and interests. In The Israeli Solution, Caroline Glick, senior contributing editor to the Jerusalem Post, examines the history and misconceptions behind the two-state policy, most notably: - The huge errors made in counting the actual numbers of Jews and Arabs in the region. The 1997 Palestinian Census, upon which most two-state policy is based, wildly exaggerated the numbers of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. - Neglect of the long history of Palestinian anti-Semitism, refusal to negotiate in good faith, terrorism, and denial of Israel's right to exist. - Disregard for Israel's stronger claims to territorial sovereignty under international law, as well as the long history of Jewish presence in the region. - Indifference to polling data that shows the Palestinian people admire Israeli society and governance. Despite a half-century of domestic and international terrorism, anti-semitism, and military attacks from regional neighbors who reject its right to exist, Israel has thrived as the Middle East's lone democracy. After a century spent chasing a two-state policy that hasn't brought the Israelis and Palestinians any closer to peace, The Israeli Solution offers an alternative path to stability in the Middle East based on Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria"--
Crown Forum 2014-03-04 324 pages

Battling for peace: a memoir

Peres, Shimon
"One of the great statesmen of our century, Shimon Peres, winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, has shaped the history of Israel and the future of the Middle East. In the seventies, as Israel's minister of defense, he engineered the legendary Entebbe raid against PLO terrorists; in the eighties, as prime minister, he saved the Israeli economy from near collapse; and as foreign minister, Shimon Peres is now a key negotiator in the peace accords that he helped bring about. In Battling for Peace, he tells, for the first time, the story of his amazing career. As we follow Peres from his ancestral home in Poland to Israel, from the youth village of Ben-Shemen to Kibbutz Alumot, from youth movement leader to prime minister, we are introduced both to a man and to a nation. A thoughtful, disciplined, and immensely resourceful young man, Peres was singled out by Israel's great leader David Ben-Gurion, who appointed him, while still in his twenties, director general of the Ministry of Defense. From this point on, Peres's life was inseparable from his country's history. Peres writes of his bitter quarrels with Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin, and of his great admiration for Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, and Francois Mitterrand. He discusses the origins of Israel's nuclear program, and tells how he led the way toward the Oslo agreement, describing his secret talks with King Hussein in London ten years ago, and revealing how a chance for peace was thwarted by self-serving politicians and timid American diplomacy"--OCLC
Random House 1995-05-10 350 pages

Sacred landscape: the buried history of the Holy Land since 1948

Benvenisti, Meron
As a young man Meron Benvenisti often accompanied his father, a distinguished geographer, when the elder Benvenisti traveled through the Holy Land charting a Hebrew map that would rename Palestinian sites and villages with names linked to Israel's ancestral homeland. These experiences in Benvenisti's youth are central to this book, and the story that he tells helps explain how during this century an Arab landscape, physical and human, was transformed into an Israeli, Jewish state. Benvenisti first discusses the process by which new Hebrew nomenclature replaced the Arabic names of more than 9,000 natural features, villages, and ruins in Eretz Israel/Palestine (his name for the Holy Land, thereby defining it as a land of Jews and Arabs). He then explains how the Arab landscape has been transformed through war, destruction, and expulsion into a flourishing Jewish homeland accommodating millions of immigrants. The resulting encounters between two peoples who claim the same land have raised great moral and political dilemmas, which Benvenisti presents with candor and impartiality. Benvenisti points out that five hundred years after the Moors left Spain there are sufficient landmarks remaining to preserve the outlines of Muslim Spain. Even with sustained modern development, the ancient scale is still visible. Yet a Palestinian returning to his ancestral landscape after only fifty years would have difficulty identifying his home. Furthermore, Benvenisti says, the transformation of Arab cultural assets into Jewish holy sites has engendered a struggle over the "signposts of memory" essential to both peoples. Sacred Landscape raises troublesome questions that most writers on the Middle East avoid. The now-buried Palestinian landscape remains a symbol and a battle standard for Palestinians and Israelis. But it is Benvenisti's continuing belief that Eretz Israel/Palestine has enough historical and physical space for the people of both nations and that it can one day be a shared homeland.
University of California Press 2000 366 pages

The idea of Israel: a history of power and knowledge

Pappé, Ilan
"Since its foundation in 1948, Israel has drawn on Zionism, the movement behind its creation, to provide a sense of self and political direction. In this groundbreaking new work, Ilan Pappe looks at the continued role of Zionist ideology. The Idea of Israel considers the way Zionism operates outside of the government and military in areas such as the country’s education system, media, and cinema, and the uses that are made of the Holocaust in supporting the state’s ideological structure.
Verso 2014 346 pages

Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the origins of the Arab/Israeli conflict

Judis, John B.
"A probing look at one of the most incendiary subjects of our time--the relationship between the United States and Israel. There has been more than half a century of raging conflict between Jews and Arabs--a violent, costly struggle that has had catastrophic repercussions in a critical region of the world. In Genesis, John B. Judis argues that, while Israelis and Palestinians must shoulder much of the blame, the United States has been the principal power outside the region since the end of World War II and as such must account for its repeated failed efforts to resolve this enduring strife. The fatal flaw in American policy, Judis shows, can be traced back to the Truman years. What happened between 1945 and 1949 sealed the fate of the Middle East for the remainder of the century. As a result, understanding that period holds the key to explaining almost everything that follows--right down to George W. Bush's unsuccessful and ill-conceived effort to win peace through holding elections among the Palestinians, and Barack Obama's failed attempt to bring both parties to the negotiating table. A provocative narrative history animated by a strong analytical and moral perspective, and peopled by colorful and outsized personalities, Genesis offers a fresh look at these critical postwar years, arguing that if we can understand how this stalemate originated, we will be better positioned to help end it"--
Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2014 432 pages

Never-Ending Conflict: Israeli Military History (Stackpole Military History Series)

Bar-On, Mordechai
Objective accounts of Israel's military conflicts, including the 1948 War, the Six Day War, and the Yom Kippur War Includes a chapter by Michael Oren, author of the bestseller Six Days of War This is the story of the tragic confrontation between two national movements contesting the same small piece of land, a clash that has become one of the most intractable issues in modern times. From the 1936 Palestinian Revolt to the Intifada that started in 2000, the Arabs and Israelis have clashed in twelve major incidents, often embroiling much of the Middle East. Here, historians deftly examine each conflict, offering a readable and informative look at seventy years of Israeli military history.
Stackpole Books 2006-08-16 272 pages

Arik: the life of Ariel Sharon

Landau, David
A commander in the Israeli Army from its inception in 1948, and a politician whose tenure bridged numerous governments, as both a general and a politician Ariel Sharon championed the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. But in his later years, as prime minister, he took a dramatic turn, and became the driving force behind Israel’s unilateral disengagement. In this first truly comprehensive biography, David Landau, the former editor-in-chief of Haaretz, paints a vivid picture of the most dramatic and imposing Israeli political and military leader of the last forty years—and takes a penetrating look at how Sharon transformed his country like no one else.
Vintage Books 2014-11-11 688 pages

Israel on the brink: eight steps for a better future

Pappé, Ilan
"In this timely book, historian Ilan Pappé argues that with the 2022 election of the most right-wing government in Israel's history, the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and the subsequent Israeli war on Gaza, political fractures inherent in the Jewish state have expanded dangerously - and will potentially lead to Israel's collapse. With the goal of working towards a transition that is as peaceful as possible, Pappé sets out his thoughts about the risks and opportunities emerging from this historical moment. Eight "mini-revolutions," he argues, will be necessary for this more hopeful future to emerge, including: Relocating the Right of Return of the Palestinian refugees to the center of the future vision; Establishing a new definition for the Jewish collective in historical Palestine; Finalizing a plan for the future of the Jewish settlements built in the West Bank since 1967; and Creating a new strategy for a united Palestinian national movement. Pappé concretely envisions a more just future - a democratic decolonized state for both Palestinians and Israelis - and how we might get there" -- publisher's description.
Oneworld 2025-09-18 288 pages

Shared histories: a Palestinian-Israeli dialogue

Paul Scham,Walid Salem,Benjamin Pogrund
There is no single history of the development of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli historical narrative speaks of Zionism as the Jewish national movement, of building a refuge from persecution, and of national regeneration. The Palestinian narrative speaks of invasion, expulsion, and oppression. Its no wonder peace remains elusive. This volume attempts to present both histories with parallel narratives of key points in the 19th and 20th centuries to 1948. The histories are presented by fourteen Israeli and Palestinian experts, joined by other historians, journalists, and activists, who then discuss the differences and similarities between their accounts. By creating an appreciation, understanding, and respect for the “other,” the first steps can be made to foster a shared history of a shared land. The reader has the opportunity to witness first hand a respectful confrontation between the competing versions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Left Coast Press 2005-10-15 298 pages

The PLO: the struggle within : towards an independent Palestinian state

Gresh, Alain
'The PLO: The Struggle Within' is a comprehensive and up-to-date history of the PLO and the development of Palestinian political thinking. Based on access to the PLO's own documents and numerous interviews with the readers of its various groups and factions, the author recounts the major debates that have taken place within the movement over the past two decades. Alain Gresh illustrates how the PLO has made the difficult transition from the original idea of the destruction of the state of Israel to the current notion of recovering at least some part of occupied Palestine and creating there a separate and independent Palestinian State alongside Israel. The breakdown of Palestinian power in Lebanon following the Israeli invasion, Arafat's clash with Syria, the siege of the refugee camps and the attempt to create a new united Palestinian strategy for the next decade are crucial elements in the evolution of the Middle East conflict. In this updated and revised second edition, Gresh covers the impact of these changes and draws out their implications for the final decade of this century.
Zed Books 1988 270 pages

Dying for Jerusalem: the past, present and future of the holiest city

Laqueur, Walter
A quasi-memoir of his time spent living and working in Jerusalem, Laquer's volume exploits the author's experiences and relationships with key figures in Jerusalem's history (Eliezer Sukenik, Golda Meir, Richard Kauffman, Gershom Scholem, Mordechai Shenhabi) as the starting points for several discussions and reminiscences of the people, events, trends and movements that shape Jerusalem. Laquer, a know-it-all without the pretense, is clearly conflicted: the writing has a cathartic element to it, as the author laments the economic plight of the city, "the exodus of the young, secular, and enterprising among the population," the increasingly ultraorthodox culture of the city and the diminishing hope for compromise between Jerusalem's Jews and Muslims, while confessing his undying feelings for the place. From the "second religion" of archaeology among Palestinians and Israelis to the distinctive architecture of the city's neighborhoods to the first contact of well-established Palestinian Arabs with newly arrived Ashkenazi Zionist immigrants, Laquer's account creates a remarkable sense of time and place-a worthwhile read for anyone interested in knowing more intimately the city and its history.
Sourcebooks 2006 345 pages

Waging peace: Israel and the Arabs, 1948-2003

Rabinovich, Itamar
Considerably expanded to include the impact of the 2003 war in Iraq and its aftermath, this new edition of Waging Peace provides a unique insight into the critical debate on the future of peace in the Middle East. A former chief negotiator for Israel, noted scholar-diplomat Itamar Rabinovich examines the complete history of Arab-Israeli relations beginning in 1948. He then gives a vivid account of the peace processes of 1992-1996 and the more dispiriting record since then. His updated analysis on Iraq, Ehud Barak, and Ariel Sharon - and on the expanding role of the United States in the Middle East - sheds new light on the long and tumultuous history between Arabs and Jews." "As Rabinovich brings the conflict into this century, he widens the scope of his proposals for achieving normalized and peaceful Arab-Israeli relations. While he considers the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians - a classic dispute between two national movements claiming the same land - Rabinovich also studies the broader political, cultural, and increasingly religious conflict between Israel and Arab nationalism and discusses the region in an international context.
Princeton University Press 2004-04-18 326 pages

The brink of peace: the Israeli-Syrian negotiations

Rabinovich, Itamar
A major casualty of the assassin's bullet that struck down Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was a prospective peace accord between Syria and Israel. For the first time, a negotiator who had unique access to Rabin, as well as detailed knowledge of Syrian history and politics, tells the inside story of the failed negotiations. His account provides a key to understanding not only U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East but also the larger Arab-Israeli peace process. During the period from 1992 to 1996, Itamar Rabinovich was Israel's ambassador to Washington, and the chief negotiator with Syria. In this book, he looks back at the course of negotiations, terms of which were known to a surprisingly small group of American, Israeli, and Syrian officials. After Benjamin Netanyahu's election as Israel's prime minister in May 1996, a controversy developed. Even with Netanyahu's change of policy and harder line toward Damascus, Syria began claiming that both Rabin and his successor Peres had pledged full withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Rabinovich takes the reader through the maze of diplomatic subtleties to explain the differences between hypothetical discussion and actual commitment. "To the students of past history and contemporary politics," he writes, "nothing is more beguiling than the myriad threads that run across the invisible line which separates the two." The threads of this story include details of Rabin's negotiations and their impact through two subsequent Israeli administrations in less than a year, the American and Egyptian roles, and the ongoing debate between Syria and Israel on the factual and legal bases for resuming talks. The author portrays all sides and participants with remarkable flair and empathy, as only a privileged player in the events could do. In any assessment of future negotiations in the Middle East, Itamar Rabinovich's book will prove indispensable.
Princeton University Press 1999-07-21 304 pages

One state, two states: resolving the Israel/Palestine conflict

Morris, Benny
“What is so striking about Morris’s work as a historian is that it does not flatter anyone’s prejudices, least of all his own,” David Remnick remarked in a New Yorker article that coincided with the publication of Benny Morris’s 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. With the same commitment to objectivity that has consistently characterized his approach, Morris now turns his attention to the present-day legacy of the events of 1948 and the concrete options for the future of Palestine and Israel.The book scrutinizes the history of the goals of the Palestinian national movement and the Zionist movement, then considers the various one- and two-state proposals made by different streams within the two movements. It also looks at the willingness or unwillingness of each movement to find an accommodation based on compromise. Morris assesses the viability and practicality of proposed solutions in the light of complicated and acrimonious realities. Throughout his groundbreaking career, Morris has reshaped understanding of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Here, once again, he arrives at a new way of thinking about the discord, injecting a ray of hope in a region where it is most sorely needed --
Yale University Press 2010 240 pages