Peter Mansfield's A History of the Middle East (1992) gives a concise and balanced account of the history of Palestine and the Palestinian-Israeli conundrum that is understandable to most readers. After briefly introducing the ancient history of the area, Mansfield devotes over one-half of the book to the post-World War II era. In Palestinian Rights: Affirmation and Denial, a collection of essays edited by Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, sixteen authorities on the Palestinian question explore most aspects of the subject from a decidedly pro-Palestinian perspective. Different essays address such topics as an analysis of the legal status of Israeli settlements on the West Bank and the Israeli use of Palestinian waters.
Several books explore the origins, nature, and course of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Yoav Gelber looks at the origin of this conflict in Palestine, 1948: War, Escape and the Emergence of the Palestinian Refugee Problem (2001). Andrew Gowers and Tony Walker, Behind the Myth: Yassar Arafat and the Palestinian Revolution (1990), traces the origins and development of the PLO and the efforts of Arafat and other Palestinian leaders to reach a settlement with Israel. Walter Laqueur's A History of Zionism (1972) relates the genesis of the Zionist movement from its origins through the Six-Day War. Avi Shlaim's Collusion Across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine (1988) discusses the nature of the Zionist movement and its objectives. Shlaim's book relates the international maneuvering that led to the formation of the state of Israel and the present plight of the Palestinian people. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (2001), by Charles D. Smith, looks at the role of Palestine and the Palestinians in Israel's troubled relations with its Arab neighbors.
David Matasky's Making Peace with the PLO: The Rabin Government's Road to the Oslo Accords (1996) is a journalistic account of the peace settlement agreed on by the Palestinians and the Israelis in 1995 in Norway. A more comprehensive account of PLO-Israeli relations is a collection of essays edited by Avraham Sela and Moshe Ma'oz, The PLO and Israel: From Armed Conflict to Political Solution, 1964-1994 (1998). Separate essays explore the tortured course of relations between the two entities from the formation of the PLO to the time of the book's publication.
Three other books are also noteworthy, despite their biases: D. Hirst, The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East (1977), and A. Hart, Arafat: Terrorist or Peacemaker? (1984), both take a decidedly pro-Palestinian position. N. Lucas, The Modern History of Israel (1977), represents a pro-Israeli account of the same events covered in the first two books.
Edward W. Said, a professor of Palestinian origin at Columbia University who has written extensively in support of the Palestinian cause, presents his case in Power, Politics, and Culture: Interviews with Edward W. Said (2001), edited by Gauri Viswanathan. Said tells the story of his own exile from Palestine in Out of Place: A Memoir (1999). Said has also published a critical analysis of the Oslo peace accords in The End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After (2000).
Links to web sites on Palestine and on the Palestinian side of the conflict with Israel may be found at Www. palestine-net. com.
World History
