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Map of Middle East |
CIAO DATE: 05/05
Winter 2005 (Volume XXXIV, Number 2, Issue 134)
From the Editor
Articles
Forgetfulness for Memory: The Limits of the New Israeli History by Joel Beinin
Many believe that the "new historians" represent a revolution in Israeli intellectual life. However, the exclusion of Arab voices and sources of evidence, especially in the work of Benny Morris, limited the extent of that revolution and situates some of the new history close to traditional Zionist categories of knowledge. This historical exclusion partly explains Morris’s retreat to the Israeli political center since the outbreak of the second intifada. Meron Benvenisti’s outlook and "relational" approaches to the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are intellectual methods with a more promising political perspective.
Lebanon's Armed Forces and the Arab-Israeli War, 1948–49 by Matthew Hughes
In military histories of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Lebanon’s role, however minor, is almost entirely missing. This article seeks to fill this gap with a detailed examination of the involvement in the war not only of Lebanon’s army but also of the irregular forces—notably the Arab Liberation Army—operating separately from its territory. The analysis—which covers the military and political constraints affecting both actors, their military performance, and the implications of their performance—is located within the historiographical debate on the 1948 war, and more specifically within the context of the Israeli "new history" approach of debunking the David versus Goliath argument.
Historical Reprint
Why Did the Palestinians Leave, Revisited by Walid Khalidi
The myth that the Palestinian exodus of 1948 was triggered by orders from the Arab leaders—a cornerstone of the official Israeli version of the 1948 war and intended to absolve it of responsibility for the refugee problem—dies hard. Thus, it continues to be deployed by apologists for Israel as a means of blaming the Palestinians for their own fate. Even Benny Morris, one of whose major conclusions in his 1986 The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem was to discredit the Israeli claim, cannot seem to let go of it completely. Thus, the conclusion of the substantially revised update of the book, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (2004), states that although the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) and the local National Committees made efforts to block the exodus of army-aged males, "at the same time, they actively promoted the depopulation of villages and towns. Many thousands of Arabs—women, children, and old people . . . left, well before battle was joined, as a result of advice and orders from local Arab commanders and officials. . . . Indeed, already months before the war the Arab states and the AHC had endorsed the removal of dependents from active and potential combat zones. . . . There can be no exaggerating the importance of these early, Arab-initiated evacuations in the demoralization, and eventual exodus, of the remaining rural and urban populations" (pp. 589–90).
Essay
Paralysis over Palestine: Questions of Strategy by Jeff Halper
This essay by a prominent Israeli activist grows out of concern that advocacy efforts in support of the Palestinian cause have remained stuck at the protest-informational stage of combating disparate manifestations of the occupation. What is needed, the author argues, is a strategy to mobilize the vast range of civil society groups—Palestinian, Israeli, and international—to forge an effective lobbying and advocacy force that can lend the Palestinian leadership public support and a measure of parity with Israel. Intended as a starting point for debate, the essay explores the possibilities of a "middle range" strategy that would articulate the essential "red line" elements crucial to any just and sustainable settlement, provide a coordinated strategy of advocacy, and explore a range of "endgames," including a regional approach to resolving the conflict if the "two-state solution" is found to be impossible because of irreversible "facts on the ground."
Special Document File
"Taking Back" Middle East Studies: The Case of Columbia University's MEALAC
Resource File
The al-Aqsa Intifada: Military Operations, Suicide Attacks, Assassinations, and Losses in the First Four Years
Recent Books
Singer: Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: An Imperial Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem, reviewed by Butrus Abu-Manneh
Segal and Weizman: A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture, reviewed by Mark LeVine
Wolfsfeld: Media and the Path to Peace, reviewed by John Collins
Dor: Intifada Hits the Headlines, and Reporters Without Borders: Israel/Palestine: The Black Book, and Muravchik: Covering the Intifada, reviewed by Ahmed Bouzid
Israeli: Green Crescent over Nazareth: The Displacement of Christians by Muslims in the Holy Land, reviewed by Laurie King-Irani
Tal: Pollution in a Promised Land: An Environmental History of Israel, reviewed by Sandy Sufian
Anidjar: The Jew, the Arab: A History of the Enemy, reviewed by Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin
Samara: Epidemic of Globalization: Ventures in World Order, Arab Nationalism and Zionism, reviewed by Adam Hanieh
Burge: Whose Land? Whose Promise? What Christians Are Not Being Told about Israel and the Palestinians, reviewed by Donald E. Wagner
Pilger: Palestine is Still the Issue: A Special Report by John Pilger (film), reviewed by Bashir Abu-Manneh
Shorter Notices
Arab Views (cartoons from al-Hayat)
From the Hebrew Press
Photos from the Quarter
Quarterly Update on Conflict and Diplomacy
Settlement Monitor
Documents and Source Material
International
A1. International Crisis Group, Report on the Palestinian Authority under Israeli Occupation, Amman and Brussels, 28 September 2004 (excerpts)
A2. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), "Gaza on the Edge," Gaza, 1 October 2004 (excerpts)
Arab
B. PLO Negotiations Support Unit (NSU), Analysis of the Israeli Disengagement Plan, October 2004 (excerpts)
Israel by Anders Strindberg
C1. Sharon Advisor Dov Weisglass, Remarks on Relations with the United States, Disengagement, the Road Map, and the Possibilities of a Palestinian State, Tel Aviv, October 2004 (excerpts)
United States
D1. Fourteen U.S. Representatives, Letter to the Slated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Condemning Presbyterian Divestment Resolution, Washington, DC, 13 December 2004 (excerpts)
D2. Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Slated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Response to U.S. Representatives’ Letter on Divestment, Louisville, KY, 23 September 2004 (excerpts)
D3. Human Rights Watch, "Razing Gaza: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip," New York, 19 October 2004 (excerpts)
D4. President George W. Bush, Remarks on the Requirements for a Palestinian State, Washington, DC, 12 November 2004 (excerpts)
Chronology
Bibliography of Periodical Literature