The Israeli-Palestinian War: Escalating to Nowhere

(Hardback)

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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more than a local or regional dispute. Its ongoing and escalating nature increases the risk that the violence will spill over its present borders and contribute to both extremism and terrorism. While the Intifada from 1987 to 1993 was largely a popular uprising and a political struggle, the recent clash is a war with a steady escalation between conventional and unconventional forces. It is in the interest of all major powers, the international community, and the United Nations to press both sides to accept a realistic peace plan. Noted Middle East expert Anthony Cordesman details this continuing struggle by explaining the issues at stake for each side; the various combatants (both directly and indirectly engaged); as well as the course of the war in its various incarnations. The situation on the ground is complex and the quest for peace is ever more uncertain. If the Intifada was a struggle for recognition that a peace had to be reached that was just for both sides, the Israeli-Palestinian War has polarized both sides away from peace, convincing them of the justice of their own cause and tactics and the fundamental injustice of the other side's tactics and goals. Each side has used human rights, international law, and civilian casualties as political weapons. The history of a near century of conflict is used to justify war rather than a search for peace.

Reviews

Most of Cordesman's books are thick both in pages and substance. This book, with its comprehensive coverage enhanced by copious tables, maps, and chronologies certainly is. Cordesman has written two earlier books on Israel and the Arabs, but this is his first venture to concentrate even more narrowly on Israel and the Palestinians. And concentrate this book does. This book is no overview of Israel and the Palestinians going back to 1948. The war of the title is that which began with the al Aqsa intifada in September 2000, but the book's coverage of events starts with the first intifada, which began in 1987. Narrative chapters are interspersed with thematic treatments of everything from the tactics of this asymmetrical war to the role of different actors (including the Israel Defense Forces, the Palestinian Authority, Fatah, and Hamas).This is a solid reference work. * Foreign Affairs *
This is a comprehensive overview of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the outbreak of the Second Intifada, as seen from the perspective of longtime American Middle East strategist Cordesman. He examines the Israeli politics of the settlements, one of the Palestinian's primary grievances, and assesses Palestinian security forces' efforts to curb Palestinian violence. Other major issues include demographics and the Right of Return, economics, the politics of Jerusalem as the coveted capital of both peoples, and issues of water. He provides timelines of the conflict and reviews the motivations, organizations, and actions of all of the key actors, including outsiders. Social, economic, political, and human costs of the war are reviewed and Israeli and Palestinian military and political tactics are analyzed. Finally, the role of the Quartet (the US, the EU, Russian, and the UN) and the Road Map to Peace are reviewed. * Reference & Research Book News *

Author Bio

Anthony H. Cordesman is Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a military analyst for ABC News. A frequent commentator on National Public Radio, he is the author of numerous books on security issues and has served in a number of senior positions in the US government.