The Origins of the Arab Israeli Wars (4th Edition) (Origins of Modern Wars)

This highly-regarded history gives a balanced and judicious introduction to this immensely complex and controversial subject, weaving different strands of the story into a single coherent narrative, thus making it essential reading for all students studying conflict in the Middle East. Of all the troubles affecting the modern world few are as topical, deep rooted and intractable as the Arab-Israeli conflict. For this region, an understanding of the past is vital to an understanding of the present. Ritchie Ovendale's classic study of the roots of the conflict is now updated for a fourth time and considers events until 2003. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Maps 10 Acknowledgements 11 Author’s Note on Arab and Hebrew Names 13 Maps 14 1 ‘The Jewish State’ versus ‘the Arab Awakening’ 24 The rise of anti-Semitism in modern Europe 25 The origins of Zionism 26 ‘The Arab Awakening’ 32 2 Two Pledges and the Origins of a Conflict 40 The de Bunsen report 45 The Hussein–McMahon correspondence 46 The Sykes–Picot agreement 48 The Arab revolt and Lawrence of Arabia 51 The Balfour Declaration 55 3 The Division of the Middle East and the Roots of War 67 The King–Crane Commission 73 The San Remo Conference 74 The Cairo Conference 77 The 1922 White Paper on Palestine 79 The 1922 Declaration on Egypt 81 4 British Paramountcy over Arabs and Zionists 88 The ‘Wailing Wall’ riots 94 The ‘Black Letter’ 95 The Arab rebellion 97 The Peel Commission 98 The May 1939 White Paper on Palestine 100 5 The United States and the Jewish State Movement 107 The Biltmore Hotel resolution 108 Roosevelt and the ‘Jewish Commonwealth’ 110 Roosevelt and Ibn Saud 113 British assessment of American opinion 114 Truman and the Earl G. Harrison report 119 The Anglo-American commission 120 6 The Arab and Zionist Cases in British and American Eyes 127 The Morrison–Grady plan 130 Truman’s Day of Atonement speech 132 British strategic interests and ‘trusteeship’ 133 United Nations Special Committee on Palestine 137 United Nations vote for partition 140 7 The Recognition of Israel and War 150 Influences on United States policy 150 The First Arab–Israeli War 158 The Palestinian refugee question 163 8 Realignment and Change 171 Arab nationalism 172 The rise of Nasser 173 The premiership of Sharett and the return of Ben-Gurion 175 American preoccupations with communism 177 Mossadeq, Nasser and British paramountcy in the Middle East 179 The Baghdad Pact 183 The Aswan Dam loan 184 Israel’s alliance with France 187 9 The Suez–Sinai War of 1956 194 France, Israel, Britain and the question of ‘collusion’ 200 The American reaction 206 10 Towards the June 1967 War 216 Nasser and the ‘Arab Circle’ 216 Nasser and the alienation of Western sympathies 222 Israel’s industrialization and military doctrine 225 Military and diplomatic preparations for the June 1967 War 227 11 Attrition, and the October War 236 Resolution 242 237 The War of Attrition 239 Israel and the American connection 239 The Jordanian Civil War 240 Sadat and Arab preparations for war 242 12 Camp David and the War in Lebanon 251 Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy 251 Ford’s plans for a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement 254 The Lebanese Civil War 255 Carter, a ‘homeland’ for the Palestinians, and the rise of ‘political messianism’ in Israel 256 Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem 259 The Israeli incursion into Lebanon in 1978 260 Camp David 261 Israeli settlements in the occupied territories 264 ‘Operation Peace for Galilee’ 266 13 The Palestinian Uprising 276 Shamir and the Reagan administration 279 The start of the intifada 280 The institutionalization of the intifada 283 The American peace plan 284 Jordan withdraws from the West Bank 284 The declaration of Palestinian statehood 285 The Temple Mount killings 290 The Gulf War 291 14 The Peace Process 297 The American–Israeli special relationship 297 Islamism, the Arab states, and the aftermath of the Gulf War 300 The Madrid Conference 301 The Oslo Accords 305 The Hebron massacre 307 Arafat’s return to Gaza 308 The Jordanian–Israeli peace treaty 309 The second phase of the Oslo Accords 309 Netanyahu as Israeli Prime Minister 312 The stalling of the peace process 313 The Wye Memorandum 316 15 The Second Palestinian Uprising 324 The roots of the al-Aqsa intifada 325 Sharon as Prime Minister 331 Palestinian suicide bombings 331 The Bush plan 335 Operation Defensive Shield 338 The road map 341 16 Conclusions 351 Bibliography 362 Index 380

Praise for previous editions:

¿Ovendale does an admirable job of making sense of these diverse currents, and turns the history of the conflict into a coherent, readable narrative.¿
The Economist

¿Although Ritchie Ovendale¿s book is short, it is extremely well documented...If one wants to understand the origins of the Arab-Israeli wars, one must read this brief book.¿
Hatem I. Hussaini, American-Arab Affairs

Of all the troubles affecting the modern world few are as topical, deep rooted and intractable as the Arab-Israeli conflict. For this region, an understanding of the past is vital to an understanding of the present. Ritchie Ovendale¿s classic study of the roots of the conflict is now updated for a fourth time and considers events until 2003.

Ovendale begins this timely new edition by analysing anti-Semitism in modern Europe, the ¿Arab awakening¿ and continues through to the present, covering the creation of the state of Israel, the 1967 and October 1973 wars, the first Palestinian uprising and peace processes of the 1980 and 1990s. This fourth edition also includes a major new chapter on the ¿al-Aqsa intifada¿, as the second Palestinian uprising has become known. Erupting in 2000 and stemming from disillusionment with the Oslo accords, this intifada has added to the ever increasing numbers killed in the conflict. The latest Anglo-American ¿road map¿ for peace is outlined to bring the story up to date.

This highly-regarded history gives a balanced and judicious introduction to this immensely complex and controversial subject, weaving different strands of the story into a single coherent narrative, thus making it essential reading for all students studying conflict in the Middle East.

Ritchie Ovendale is formerly Professor of International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

His many publications include The Longman Companion to the Middle East Since 1914 (Longman, second edition, 1998) and Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century (Palgrave, 1998).

This fourth edition of an account of the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict considers events up to 2003. Ovendale, formerly professor of international politics at the University of Wales, begins by analyzing antisemitism in modern Europe and continues through the present, covering the creation of the state of Israel, the 1967 and October 1973 wars, the first Palestinian uprising, and the peace processes of the 1980s and 1990s. This edition includes a new chapter on the second Palestinian This history gives a balanced and judicious introduction to the immensely complex and controversial subject of Arab-Israel conflice, weaving different strands of the story into a single coherent narrative, thus making it essential reading for all students studying conflict in the Middle East. In few areas of the modern world is an explanation of the past more vital to an understanding of the present than the Arab-Israeli conflict. This lucid and non-partisan account provides an introduction to the subject