Conclusion

The origins and the causes of the Arab-Israeli conflict cannot be separated from the historical developments of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The emergence of modern nationalist movements based on the values of the Enlightenment, such as equality and citizenship, and the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War as part of the emerging process of decolonization, set in motion the quest for independence and statehood for both Arabs and Zionists.

decolonization

The process whereby an imperial power gives up its formal authority over its colonies.

fourteen points

A speech made by the American president Woodrow Wilson on 8 January 1918 in which he set out his vision of the post-war world. It included references to open diplomacy, self-determination and a post-war international organization.

Recommended reading

The best accounts of the early phase of the Arab-Zionist conflict over Palestine are generally found in books covering the whole of the Arab-Israeli conflict. By far the most comprehensive and objective history is Mark Tessler, History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Bloomington, IN, 1994). Shorter versions of the same material and useful particularly for newcomers to the subject include T. G. Fraser, The Arab-Israeli Conflict (New York, 1995), Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (New York, 1996), Kirsten E. Schulze, The Arab-Israeli Conflict (London, 1999) and Don Peretz, Library in a Book: The Arab-Israel Dispute (New York, 1996).

The development towards a distinctly Palestinian nationalism is discussed by Yehoshua Porath in his books The Emergence of the Palestinian Arab Nationalist Movement, 1918-1929 (London, 1974) and The Palestinian Arab National Movement 1929-1939: From Riots to Rebellion (London, 1977) as well as in Muhammad Y. Muslih, The Origins of Palestinian Nationalism (New York, 1988), while the effects of key personalities such as Hajj Amin al-Husayni and events such as the Arab Revolt upon Palestinian nationalism are extremely well analysed by Philip Matar, The Mufti ofJerusalem: Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement (New York, 1988). Two worthwhile books looking at the shortcomings of Palestinian leaders and society are Ann Mosely Lesch, Arab Politics in Palestine, 1917-1939: The Frustration of a National Movement (Ithaca, NY, 1979) and Issa Khalaf, Politics in Palestine: Arab Factionalism and Social Disintegration, 1939-1948 (Albany, NY, 1991). Finally, useful sections on Palestinian identity and leaders can also be found in Joel S. Migdal, Palestinian Society and Politics (Princeton, NJ, 1980), Pamela Ann Smith, Palestine and the Palestinians, 1876-1983 (London, 1984), Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (New York, 1997) and Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S.

While books on Palestinian nationalism are relatively few, books on Zionism are comparatively numerous. The better general histories of the intellectual roots and developments include Shlomo Avineri, The Making of Modern Zionism: The Intellectual Origins of the Jewish State (New York, 1981), Walter Lacqueur, A History of Zionism: From the French Revolution to the Establishment of the State of Israel (New York, 1972) and David Vital, The Origins of Zionism (Oxford, 1975), David Vital, Zionism: The Formative Years (Oxford, 1982) and also his Zionism: The Critical Phase (Oxford, 1987). Interesting additions to the general literature include Jehuda Reinharz and Anita Shapira (eds), Essential Papers on Zionism (London, 1996), which comprises a wide range of essays on specific turning points in Zionist history from different historiographical perspectives, Anita Shapiras in­depth analysis of the defensive ethos in Zionism in her book Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force (Stanford, CA, 1992) and Mitchell Cohen, Zion and State: Nation, Class and the Shaping of Modern Israel (Oxford, 1987), which looks at the struggle between the Zionist Left and Right. Further insightful works on Zionism and the history of the emerging Jewish state include Howard Sachar, A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to our Time (New York, 1979), Bernard Reich, Israel: Land of Tradition and Conflict (Boulder, CO, 1985), Michael Wolffson, Israel: Polity, Society and Economy, 1882—1986(Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1987) and Noah Lucas, The Modern History of Israel (New York, 1975).

Arab—Jewish relations are addressed in Neil Caplan, Palestine Jewry and the Arab Question, 1917—1925 (London, 1978), Futile Diplomacy, vol. I: Early Arab-Zionist Negotiation Attempts, 1913-1931 (London, 1983) and also his Futile Diplomacy, vol. II: Arab-Zionist Negotiations and the End of Mandate (London, 1986), Yosef Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs, 1882-1948: A Study of Ideology (New York, 1987) and Neville J.

There are only a very small number of books that deal solely with the important issue of land acquisition, sales and ownership as well as rural development. The three books worth recommending in this category are Kenneth Stein, The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1984), Gershon Shapir's revisionist book, Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1882-1914 (Cambridge, 1989), and Warwick P N. Taylor's book, State, Lands and Rural Development in Mandate Palestine, 1920-1948 (Brighton, 2007).

British policy in Palestine is discussed by Nicholas Bethell, The Palestine Triangle: The Struggle between the British, the Jews and the Arabs, 1935-1948 (London, 1979) and Bernard Wasserstein, The British in Palestine: The Mandatory Government and the Arab-Jewish Conflict, 1917-1929 (London, 1978). A comprehensive analysis of British policy during the Second World War can be found in Ronald Zweig, Britain and Palestine during the Second World War (Suffolk, 1986) while Michael Cohen focuses on the final phase of the mandate in Palestine - Retreat from the Mandate: The Making of British Policy, 1936-1945 (London, 1978). Two of the more interesting aspects of the British mandate are the Jewish Revolt and illegal Jewish immigration. A good book on the former is David A. Charters, The British Army and Jewish Insurgency in Palestine, 1945-1947 (New York, 1989) while books on the Jewish paramilitary organizations include Munya M. Mardor, Haganah (New York, 1964) and J. Bowyer Bell, Terror out of Zion: Irgun Zvai Leumi, LEHI and the Palestinian Underground, 1929-1949 (New York, 1977). For an insider's view, Menachem Begin, Revolt: Story oftheIrgun (New York, 1951) is recommended. On the subject of illegal immigration, useful books include David Kimche's very readable account The Secret Roads: The ‘Illegal’Migration of a People, 1938-1948 (New York, 1955) as well as Ze'ev Venia Hadari, Second Exodus: The Full Story of Jewish Illegal Immigration to Palestine, 1945-1948 (London, 1991).

The period of the end of the mandate has been attractive to both diplomatic and regionalist historians, most of whom have focused on Palestine as a reflection of the decline of Britain and the rise of the United States. Good works on this subject are Zvi Ganin, Truman, American Jewry and Israel, 1945-1948 (New York, 1979), Evan M. Wilson, Decision on Palestine: How the US Came to Recognize Israel (Stanford, CA, 1979), Michael Cohen, Palestine and the Great Powers, 1945—1948 (Princeton, NJ, 1982), W. Roger Louis, The British Empire and the Middle East, 1945—1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States and Postwar Imperialism (Oxford, 1984) and W. Roger Louis and Robert W Stookey, The End of the Palestine Mandate (Austin, TX, 1986).

Finally, the emergence of the state of Israel and first Arab-Israeli war has become a battlefield among historians. Joseph Heller looks at the emergence of the Jewish state by focusing on its key architect, Ben Gurion, in Birth of Israel, 1945—1949: Ben Gurion and his Critics (Gainesville, FL, 2000). Good histories of the war are Uri Milstein, History of Israel’s War of Independence (Lanham, MD, 1997) and David Tal, War in Palestine, 1948: Strategy and Diplomacy (London, 2004). Palestinian historians have focused on the loss of state and the refugee crisis. They include Walid Khalidi, All that Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948 (Washington, DC, 1992) and Nur Masalha, Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of‘Transfer’ in Zionist Political Thought, 1882—1948 (London, 1992). The period of 1947-48 has also been the target of Israeli revisionist historians. Important contributions are Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947—1949 (Cambridge, 1987), Simha Flapan, The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities (New York, 1987), Avi Shlaim, Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine (Oxford, 1988), Ilan Pappe, The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947-1951 (London, 1994), Ilan Pappe (ed.), The Israel/Palestine Question (London, 1999), Eugene Rogan and Avi Shlaim (eds), War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of1948 (Cambridge, 2002) and Ilan Pappe, Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oxford, 2006). Revisionism has not just been the domain of Israeli historians. Important Palestinian contributions include Issa Khalaf, Politics in Palestine: Arab Factionalism and Social Disintegration, 1939-1948 (Albany, NY, 1991) and Salim Tamari and Elia Zureik, Reinterpreting the Historical Record: The Uses of Palestinian Refugee Archives for Social Science Research and Policy Analysis (Jerusalem, 2001).