The Israel-Palestine Conflict

Contested Histories

Neil Caplan

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781119524014
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia de Oriente Medio

One of the "10 Must-Read Histories of the Palestine-Israel Conflict"
— Ian Black, Literary Hub, on the 100 th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration

The new edition of the acclaimed text that explores the issues continuing to define the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Numerous instances of competing, sometimes incompatible narratives of controversial events are found throughout history. Perhaps the starkest example of such contradictory representations is the decades-long conflict between Israel and Palestine. For over 140 years, Israelis, Palestinians, and scores of peacemakers have failed to establish a sustainable, mutually-acceptable solution. The Israel-Palestine Conflict introduces the historical basis of the dispute and explores both the tangible issues and intangible factors that have blocked a peaceful resolution. Author Neil Caplan helps readers understand the complexities and contradictions of the conflict and why the histories of Palestine and Israel are so fiercely contested.

Now in its second edition, this book has been thoroughly updated to reflect the events that have transpired since its original publication. Fresh insights consider the impact of current global and regional instability and violence on the prospects of peace and reconciliation. New discussions address recent debates over two-state versus one-state solutions, growing polarization in public discourse outside of the Middle East, the role of public intellectuals, and the growing trend of merging scholarship with advocacy. Part of the Wiley-Blackwell Contested Histories series, this clear and accessible volume:

• Offers a balanced, non-polemic approach to current academic discussions and political debates on the Israel-Palestine conflict
• Highlights eleven core arguments viewed by the author as unwinnable
• Encourages readers to go beyond simply assigning blame in the conflict
• Explores the major historiographical debates arising from the dispute
• Includes updated references and additional maps

Already a standard text for courses on the history and politics of the Middle East, The Israel-Palestine Conflict is an indispensable resource for students, scholars, and interested general readers.

Part I
Introduction

1
Problems in Defining the Conflict

If ever there was a contemporary conflict that deserved to be included in a series of historical works entitled “Contesting the Past,” it is surely the Arab–Israeli or Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Perhaps exaggerating, one scholar considers it “the single most bitterly contentious communal struggle on earth today.”¹ Any attempt to simply recount its main events in chronological order is bound to be contested by someone – even if that account is deliberately neutral in intent, purged of any overt editorializing, and without judgments on motives, causes, or effects. Of course, such bare chronologizing is of very limited use to anyone, and the study of history is a much more complicated affair.

In a letter to US president Harry S. Truman in December 1945, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, wrote: “Palestine, for its size, is probably the most investigated country in the world.”² More than 50 years later, a French intellectual and one‐time associate of Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, agreed: “No conflict in the world,” wrote Régis Debray, “is as well documented, mapped and recorded.”³ Juxtapositions and contrasts such as these occur frequently and provide ironic relief to those engaged in researching this enduring and perplexing dispute.

Not surprisingly, there exists a wide variety of ways of understanding and representing the Israeli–Arab or Palestinian–Israeli conflict. These efforts at explanation, whether in the realm of politics, lobbying, media, academe, or the general public, are often reflections of the highly contentious conflict itself, including its bitterness and complexity. A familiar pattern is the presentation of one side's “true” account as against the other party's “lies,” “myths,” or “propaganda.” Less simplistic and more useful are the scholars, journalists, and analysts who acknowledge and discuss the parties' competing “narratives” of the conflict – the different stories, versions, perceptions, or viewpoints adopted by those people most intimately involved.

In Part II of this book we outline the history of 140 years of the interrelated Israeli–Palestinian and Arab–Israeli disputes from their early local origins to conflicts of regional and global dimensions. Reflecting – and respectful of – the clash of narratives, we highlight 11 “core arguments” that have emerged between Israelis and Palestinians and that contribute to the unhappy fact that the conflict is still today unresolved and very resistant to resolution. My intentions are modest, yet challenging enough: to explore this conflict with all its paradoxes and complexities, if possible to demystify some of its features, and to offer some understanding about why the histories of Palestine and Israel – the narratives held dear by Palestinians and Israelis – are so contested.

What's in a Name?

A number of problems stem from the complexities that flow from the very act of naming the conflict and its main protagonists. In naming the conflict and defining what it is about, one is immediately, if unwillingly, taking a position that will surely be disputed by someone holding a different view. The conflict analyzed in these pages has been described variously as the “Jewish–Arab” conflict, the “Zionist–Arab” conflict, the “Arab–Israeli” conflict, and the “Israeli–Palestinian” conflict.

If we choose to call it the “Jewish–Arab” conflict, we are pitting the Jewish people as a whole against the Arab people as a whole. Is this an appropriate or accurate definition? As we will see below (Chapter 2), the designations Jews and Arabs refer to wide groups extending beyond those directly contesting the land of Palestine/Israel. Although some writers do refer to the “Arab–Jewish conflict,” in these pages we avoid this designation because it is too broad and may lend itself to confusion and misleading interpretations.

What is missing from such a wide definition are the specifically political, national, and territorial aspects of the conflict that exists today. By using the term “Zionist” rather than “Jewish,” we supply these missing components for one of the protagonists. Zionists believe in and support the quest by Jews to “return to Zion” (i.e. Jerusalem and the Holy Land); in the modern period, this implied also support for the creation of a Jewish state in the area. Applying this definition, it would be accurate to say that, prior to the creation of the Israeli state in 1948, we were dealing largely with a “Zionist–Arab” and a “Zionist–Palestinian” conflict.

Who, then, are the Arabs? Not really a symmetrical designation to Jews, Arabs may be defined as an ethno‐national group sharing a common history, the Arabic language, and cultural roots emanating from ancient tribes in the Arabian Peninsula. The “Arab–Israeli” conflict – perhaps the most commonly used of all these various titles – is in many ways an apt name for the territorial and political dispute since 1948 between the state of Israel, on the one hand, and the 20 or so states that consider themselves to be Arab, on the other.

Still, even this preferred designation carries with it a number of drawbacks. As we have noted, it may lead to the erroneous notion that the conflict began in 1948 with the creation of Israel, ignoring at least half a century of a pre‐existing Zionist–Arab and Zionist–Palestinian dispute. Also misleading is the notion that the Arab world is a single entity that displays uniform attitudes and policies vis‐à‐vis Jews, Zionism, and/or Israel. In effect, historical experiences, policies, and attitudes vary among individual Arab peoples and states, with the result that it is misleading to suggest that the Arabs, as a single unit, constitute one of the two antagonists in the Arab–Israeli conflict.⁴

A further potential drawback of this definition of the conflict is that the broad term “Arab” can sometimes overlook or understate the existence of the specific struggle between Zionists (pre‐1948) and Israelis (since 1948), on the one hand, and the Arabs of Palestine (or Palestinians...