Synopses & Reviews
Mark Tessler's highly praised, comprehensive, and balanced history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the earliest times to the present--updated through the first years of the 21st century--provides a constructive framework for understanding recent developments and assessing the prospects for future peace. Drawing upon a wide array of documents and on research by Palestinians, Israelis, and others, Tessler assesses the conflict on both the Israelis' and the Palestinians' terms. New chapters in this expanded edition elucidate the Oslo peace process, including the reasons for its failure, and the political dynamics in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza at a critical time of transition.
Review
Of the numerous books devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Univ. of Michigan political science professor Tessler's contribution certainly ranks among the most extensive and thorough. Given the highly polemical nature of the discourse over Israel/Palestine, Tessler's ability to provide a balanced account of the dispute should be commended. Chronologically organized and well documented through the Oslo peace process of the 1990s, his book is significantly sketchier with respect to the events of the last decade. Even so, and in spite of its somewhat intimidating length, students and scholars of the modern Middle East will find it useful. The litany of statistical information in the book, neatly arranged in tables spread within the various chapters, is particularly noteworthy, as are the 23 well-drawn maps. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. -- ChoiceM. Gershovich, University of Nebraska, Omaha, March 2010
Review
"Of the numerous books devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Univ. of Michigan political science professor Tessler's contribution certainly ranks among the most extensive and thorough. Given the highly polemical nature of the discourse over Israel/Palestine, Tessler's ability to provide a balanced account should be commended....Recommended. --M. Gershovich, University of Nebraska, Omaha" --Choice, March 2010 Indiana University Press
Review
"[Tessler is] thoughtful, well-informed and resolutely fair-minded... rigorous and commiserative alike, and his gloss on the fallout from the creation of Israel, which included a counterflow of millions of Jewish immigrants from the Arab world, is among the best things in the book." --David Schoenbaum, New York Times Book Review
Review
"[A] very informative and well-researched book... It is beyond doubt that Tessler's narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle makes his volume an essential textbook for any student of the conflict." --Middle Eastern Studies Indiana University Press
Synopsis
An expanded and up-to-date edition of this classic history
About the Author
Mark Tessler is Samuel J. Elderveld Collegiate Professor of Political Science, Director of the International Institute, and Vice Provost for International Affairs at the University of Michigan. He is author (with Ann Lesch) of Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinians: From Camp David to Intifada (IUP, 1989), co-editor of Democracy, War, and Peace in the Middle East (IUP, 1995), and editor of Area Studies and Social Science: Strategies for Understanding Middle East Politics (IUP, 1999).
Table of Contents
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface
A Note on Transliteration
Part I. Jews and Arabs Before the Conflict: The Congruent Origins of Modern Zionism and Arab Nationalism
1. Jewish History and the Emergence of Modern Political Zionism
2. Arab History and the Origins of Nationalism in the Arab World
Part II. Emergence and History of the Conflict to 1948
3. The Conflict Takes Shape
4. The Dual Society in Mandatory Palestine
Part III. Routinization of the Conflict, 1948-1967
5. The Palestinian Disaster and Basic Issues after 1948
6. Israel and the Arab States through June 1967
Part IV. The Palestinian Dimension Reemerges: From the June War through Camp David
7. Postwar Diplomacy and the Rise of the Palestine Resistance Movement
8. Israel, the Palestinians, and the Occupied Territories in the 1970s
Part V. The High Price of Stalemate and Futile Diplomacy in the 1980s
9. Violent Confrontations in the Early 1980s
10. Futile Diplomacy in the Mid-1980s
Part VI. Efforts to Break the Stalemate: From the Intifada through the Oslo Peace Process
11. The Intifada and Beyond
12. The Oslo Peace Process
Epilogue: The Post-Oslo Period