The Israel-Palestine Conflict

The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories provides non-specialist readers with an introduction and historical overview of the issues that have characterized and defined 130 years of the still unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Provides a fresh attempt to break away from polemical approaches that have undermined academic discussion and political debates Focuses on a series of core arguments that the author considers essentially unwinnable Introduces readers to the major historiographical debates sparked by the dispute Encourages readers to consider more useful ways of explaining and understanding the conflict, and to go beyond trying to prove who is ‘right’ and 'wrong' "This volume suggests a fresh and original interpretation to the history of the Arab Israeli conflict. Caplan juggles skillfully and even-handedly between the two narratives, reflecting the parties' own views without embracing the cause of any party." —Joseph Nevo, University of Haifa "An impressive and very valuable work. One could not ask for a better short history of the conflict. Caplan offers readers a study that is extremely well-informed, resolutely fair-minded, and filled with thoughtful insights." —Mark Tessler, University of Michigan

List of Maps Preface Chronology Part I Introduction. 1. Problems in Defining the Conflict 2. Defining the Conflict, Nevertheless Part II Histories in Contention 3. Background to 1917: Origins of Conflict 4. Arabs and Jews under the British Mandate: Entrenching Positions, 1917–1928 5. Collapse of the Mandate: Rebellion, Partition, White Paper, 1929–1939 6. Shoah, Atzma’ut, Nakba: 1939–1949 7. Israel and the Arab States, 1949–1973 8. Back to the Core: Israel and the Palestinians 9. From Camp David to the West Bank to Lebanon 10. From Boycott to Mutual Recognition, 1982–2008 Part III Towards a More Useful Discussion of the Arab–Israeli Conflict 11. Writing about the Conflict 12. Confronting the Obstacles Bibliograph Index