Know of an excellent, neutral book on the Arab-Israeli conflict?

Cafe Society
1

Recent and in a single volume, written for the layperson, if possible. Thanks!

2

If you’re going to try to follow what’s happened you need to know the history. I’d recommned starting with A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin. It’s a good book on the various agreements that were made back around WWI that are still be argued about today.

3

I’d go with Karen Armstrong’s Holy War: The Crusades and their Impact on Today’s World. It was a required text for my Crusades and Jihad class, and excellent IMO. I actually bought it for fun the prior semester, and was delighted to see it on the syllabus.

Despite its name, it’s not only about the Crusades. They do factor in there, but she covers holy wars from biblical Judaism to the inception of Islam to everything in between. She gives a very detailed account of the rise of the Zionist movement and the Arab nationalist movements.

The only problem is, it’s not very current. It was written in the early 90s, I believe, so it will give you a very good idea of the origins of the conflict but you’d have to turn to another book for more recent information.

Excellent book, however, very engaging and very neutral. She uses what she calls “triple vision” to approach the topic from the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian standpoint. Very easy to read, I remember in my final essay exam for the class I had to quote her “holy radioactivity” when describing the way the medieval church viewed the power of the saints.

There were some other required texts for that class, but none of them gave as in-depth of an overview of the conflict.

4

+1

I also enjoyed The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount.

5

Thanks. Anyone else?

6

Not a new recommendation, but I see that a 20th anniversary edition of A Peace to End All Peace with some new material is being published in July.

7

Healing Israel/Palestine, by Rabbi Michael Lerner. Written in 2003, but provides an excellent, readable, and relatively brief overview of the conflict until that date. He acknowledges the legitimate grievances of both sides while not excusing the crimes of either.