The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947-1951

(Paperback)

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This seminal text by renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, discusses one of the most significant periods in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Based on archival material, it presents the reader with a comprehensive and general history of the origins and consequences of the 1948 war. While among Arabs, and especially Palestinians, the events of that year are known as the nakba - the catastrophe, the trauma, the disaster - for Jews, and in particular for Israelis, their victory in the war of 1948 is a veritable miracle. For them, against tremendous odds and through heroic military effort, the Jewish community succeeded in thwarting attempts by the Arab states to destroy it. Pappe shows here that in sharp contrast to the recollections and myths of both sides, the military events of 1948 were not decisive. The victory of the Zionist organization and the fate of the Palestinians was determined by politicians on both sides - in the discussions and decisions of the United Nations in 1947-8 and in the Arab League - long before a shot had been fired. He argues that Israel's failure to take advantage of the genuine opportunity for peace with the Arabs at the UN-sponsored Lausanne Conference in 1949 resulted in the prolonged and tragic conflict between Israel and the Arab states still very much alive today. Complete with a new foreword by the author, the book remains the authority on the subject for a new generation of readers.

Reviews

[A]ny one looking for an authoritative account of 1948... should go straight to this book. -- Yezi Sayigh, Middle East International
Papp has added significantly to our understanding of a formative period in the making of the Arab-Israeli conflict -- Avi Shlaim, London Review of Books
This is an important book and especially relevant to the current process of Arab Israeli negotiations -- Leonard Goren, International Affairs
The value of Pappe's work lies not only in his well-documented rebutall of much traditional Israeli, and Arab, historiography, but also in his contribution to our understanding of how international efforts to resolve conflicts can fail, because of the politics of international power struggles in bodies like the United Nations, its committees and commissions. -- Rosemary Hollis, Asian Affairs
The argument presented by Pappe is as simple as it is powerful. -- Ilan Peleg, International Journal of Middle East Studies
Pappe makes a special effort to provide an objective account of what happened in those crucial years. The period has been painstakingly researched and the arguments of the conflicting sides are presented in the way that they would have argued them themselves [...] This is an important book -- Leonard Geron, International Affairs
Ilan Pappe manages to confer considerable freshness and topicality on this seemingly exhausted topic. -- Nissim Rejwan, The Jerusalem Post Magazine

Author Bio

Ilan Pappe is an Israeli historian and socialist activist. He is Professor of History and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter, UK. His publications include the bestselling The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006) as well as A History of Modern Palestine (2006); The Israel/Palestine Question (2006); The Forgotten Palestinians (2011); The Idea of Israel (2014); The Modern Middle East (2014); Ten Myths About Israel (2017) and with Noam Chomsky, Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians (2010). He writes for, among others, the Guardian and the London Review of Books.