From the first Arab-Islamic Empire of the mid-seventh century to the Ottomans, the last great Muslim empire, the story of the Middle East has been the story of the rise and fall of universal empires and, no less important, of imperialist dreams. So argues Efraim Karsh in this highly provocative book. Rejecting the conventional Western interpretation of Middle Eastern history as an offshoot of global power politics, Karsh contends that the region’s experience is the culmination of long-existing indigenous trends, passions, and patterns of behavior, and that foremost among these is Islam’s millenarian imperial tradition.
The author explores the history of Islam’s imperialism and the persistence of the Ottoman imperialist dream that outlasted World War I to haunt Islamic and Middle Eastern politics to the present day. September 11 can be seen as simply the latest expression of this dream, and such attacks have little to do with U.S. international behavior or policy in the Middle East, says Karsh. The House of Islam’s war for world mastery is traditional, indeed venerable, and it is a quest that is far from over.
I call you “neighbor” because I don’t know your name or anything personal about you. Given our circumstances, “neighbor” may be too casual a word to describe our relationship. We are intruders into each other’s dreams, violators of each other’s sense of home. We are living incarnations of each other’s worst historical nightmares. Neighbors?
Lyrical and evocative, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is one Israeli’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians. In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland and help ensure that it succeeds as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East.
In this taut and provocative book, Halevi endeavours to untangle the ideological and emotional knot that has defined th conflict for nearly a century. Using history and personal experience as his guides, he unravels the complex strands of faith, pride, anger, and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel.
Halevi’s letters speak not only to his anonymous Palestinian neighbour but to all concerned global citizens, helping us to understand the painful choices confronting Israelis and Palestinians that will ultimately help determine the fate of the region.
Shlomo Sand was born in 1946, in a displaced person’s camp in Austria, to Jewish parents; the family later migrated to Palestine. As a young man, Sand came to question his Jewish identity, even that of a “secular Jew.” With this meditative and thoughtful mixture of essay and personal recollection, he articulates the problems at the center of modern Jewish identity.
How I Stopped Being a Jew discusses the negative effects of the Israeli exploitation of the “chosen people” myth and its “holocaust industry.” Sand criticizes the fact that, in the current context, what “Jewish” means is, above all, not being Arab and reflects on the possibility of a secular, non-exclusive Israeli identity, beyond the legends of Zionism.
Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, by Rashid Khalidi.
From the book jacket…
Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, Palestinians have spread out across the region - in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, as well as the occupied territories of Israel itself. Beginning with World War I, and across the geographical borders of their diaspora, this volume explores the evolution of a Palestinian national identity that developed in spite of, and in some cases because of, the obstacles it faced. It illuminates the sources of collective Palestinian identity from the late Ottoman Empire onward: religious beliefs; ethnic backgrounds; local loyalties; education; and external forces such as Zionism.
The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace, by Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf.
From the book jacket…
In 1948, seven hundred thousand Palestinians were forced out of their homes by the first Arab-Israeli war. More than seventy years later, most of their houses are long gone, but millions of their descendents are still registered as refugees, with many living in refugee camps. This group — unlike countless others that were displaced in the aftermath of World War II and other conflicts — has remained unsettled, demanding to return to the State of Israel. Their belief in a “right of return” is one of the largest obstacles to successful diplomacy and lasting peace in the region.
In The War of Return, Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf — both liberal Israelis supportive of a two-state solution — reveal the origins of the idea of a right of return, and explain how UNRWA — the very agency charged with finding a solution for the refugees — gave in to Palestinian, Arab, and international political pressure to create a permanent “refugee” problem. The authors argue that the Palestinians’ demand has no legal or moral basis, and make an impassioned plea for the United States, the United Nations, and the European Union to recognize this fact, for the good of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
