A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Arab and Islamic Studies

by Mark Tessler

Mark Tessler's highly praised, comprehensive, and balanced history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the earliest times to the present—updated through the first years of the 21st century—provides a constructive framework for understanding recent developments and assessing the prospects for future peace. Drawing upon a wide array of documents and on research by Palestinians, Israelis, and others, Tessler assesses the conflict on both the Israelis' and the Palestinians' terms. New chapters in this expanded edition elucidate the Oslo peace process, including the reasons for its failure, and the political dynamics in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza at a critical time of transition.

Genres: History, Middle East, Nonfiction, Politics, Israel, Islam, Judaism

1040 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exhaustive and very elucidating history of this conflict. I had the chance to interview the author yesterday. Even though I don't agree with every opinion, his thoughtful prose certainly reflects his nature. That's just wonderful, and so unusual.


May 16, 18-June 10, 18
* Perhaps, later on my blog.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hoping for a bit more from the second edition of Tessler's comprehensive treatment of the conflict. The new edition adds only a new Introduction and two additional chapters, one covering the Oslo Accords and the follow-up to about 2000 and the second covering roughly 20001-2007 and the degrading situation during that period, with some good insight on the legacies of Arafat and Sharon. Tessler offers a lot of detail in combination with even-handed commentary. I appreciate that his focus is often on the moderates of both sides, whether in the majority or minority and that he shows peace is unlikely to be made so long as hardliners, like those of Likud and Hamas, are calling the shots. He also shows the need for strong Palestinian leadership that rejects both violence and political corruption rather than parties that force a choice between one or the other.

[David Eisner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clear, exhaustive, non-tendentious history of the conflict that recognizes the legitimate claims of both peoples. If you're looking for evidence to help you win an argument, to bolster your side's narrative, then this is not the book for you.

[Marsilla Dewi-Baruch · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who wishes to know in-depth of the conflict, this book offers the best narrative. It does not take side and provides clear understanding what caused the war between Israel-Palestine to linger. Gotta say Tessler has presented a wonderful analysis.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purposefully adopting a 'both sides' attempt at objective analysis, Tessler's book ends up consistently coming down hard on the Israeli right wing who are credibly accused by Palestinians and the left activist community of bad faith, of funding and pursuing Jewish settlement in the occupied territories from the late 1970s onwards in order to undermine any ability for future Israeli governments to make progress on peace for land deals with the Palestinians. Tessler's book is an 800 page opus that quotes major players and perspectives going over each important event leading up to the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s. It's still an invaluable academic text on the subject despite missing 30 years of subsequent history.

My major takeaways:

- The Israeli right has been, and continues to be, a revanchist movement prioritizing the creation of Greater Israel. This perspective precludes genuine commitments to peace, which they have consistently undermined since the initiation of the conflict post 1948. Their reactionary, nationalist perspective and its enabling of Jewish settlement in the occupied territories is a purposeful barrier intended to prevent any meaningful settlement with the Palestinians.

- The PLO was an effective and remarkable organization for a period of time despite their recurrent failures to get meaningful concessions from Israel. This being said, the PLO's support of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, and the overall divisions of the Arab world between nominal 'left' leaning military governments on the one hand and conservative monarchies stifled pan-Arabism and progressive movements in the region, creating a labyrinth of shifting interests and alliances that the PLO did a remarkable job of navigating outside of the aforementioned support of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. The portrait painted of the PLO by the US and Israel as pantomime terrorists is purposefully cynical and ignores all of the moderating influence Arafat and Fatah had on rejectionist elements within the Palestinian and Arab political communities.

- This was not news to me (or maybe to anyone who would bother to read this), but it bears repeating that Hamas and the Islamist movement writ large was supported in part by the Israeli right, both through funds, but more importantly, by Israel's constant rejection of negotiating with the PLO. Hamas' jihadi outlook, verging on a religious nihilism, is a direct consequence of Israeli rejection of meaningful concessions to the Palestinians and the abuse the occupied territories have experienced from the IDF, and Jewish settlers.

The Israeli right supported Islamist elements because it is easier to deny concessions to Hamas than it was to deny the PLO who mostly tried to operate in good faith, built real legitimacy with the Palestinian people and solidarity with Arab States. The PLO's legitimacy made it harder for the Israeli right to deny Palestinian human and political rights, meanwhile Hamas' extremism was a ready-made excuse to the international community and the US that Israeli policy was one of self-defense rather than aggression.

- The USA's contemporary role in the conflict is very much circumscribed by the dynamics established by the Reagan administration and Israel's invasion of Lebanon in the 1980s. American intransigence and total bias towards Israeli positions have negatively impacted the peace movement and motivated the Palestinian turn towards intifada and the growth of Islamist movements. I do not think it is coincidental that this is when evangelicals first impose themselves on national American politics, and the underlying American nostalgia for 'the good war' narrative around WWII as well as the ambient American understanding of so-called "Biblical history" coupled with Western Islamophobia has created a callous default position in the American public that must be overcome to create pressure on sympathetic, but largely inactive elements in American politics.

- The international left's romantic obsession with the Palestinian cause is due to in part to the obvious moral correctness of their anti-apartheid/pro-human rights position, but probably also to the fact that there is no meaningful movement currently possible on the issue due to the Israeli right's ideology and Netanyahu's personal interests. Stuck in this hellish status quo, left leaning activists choose to adopt maximalist rhetoric, tapping into an illustrious/tragic history of left-leaning Palestinian resistance. This allows Western activists to distinguish themselves from pro-status quo peers and tap into leftist rhetorical frameworks about colonialism, and-- with a common stretch-- capitalism. However, much of this rhetorical posture is unhelpful, and is reflective of decades of desperate failure. Those are lessons the left must sit with as the purpose of left action ought to be pragmatic successes rather than self-righteousness. This is not so much Tessler's position as it is my reflections on reading this book in 2024.

- The Israeli right has conceived of their Revisionist Zionism in terms that would engender apartheid, Palestinian displacement and genocide, further state violence against minorities and collective punishment. As the Israeli state has developed, this reactionary position has held a large plurality, if not a slight majority, within the country and that is the biggest single roadblock to any morally acceptable resolution that demonstrates any respect for Palestinian rights.

However, it is also true that the Israeli Labor party and left movements have had moments of power and many Israelis recognize the moral repugnancy of the occupation and are among its most vocal critics. Stopping genocide and apartheid may come down to the success of these perspectives within Israeli politics.

[Hadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

How this book treat the history of Israel/Palestine question is analysed through a PhD thesis that has been conducted under professor Ilan Pappe’s supervision in the European centre for Palestine Studies (ECPS). According to the results of the thesis, this book is the fourth most adopted textbook in the area of Israel/Palestine history in western universities.
This academic investigation expose how the report of the question’s history in this book is undermined by a pro-Israeli bias. For more information about this research you can consult with: https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/h...
An article is, also, published by Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies that contain the main results of that research: http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/...

[Sergei · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last sentence of this book is "These are the considerations that led both Israeli and Palestinian analysts to describe the [1993 Oslo Accords] as a landmark, a historic breakthrough which, no matter what the difficulties and disappointments that lay ahead, constituted a turning point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and in this sense, just maybe the beginning of the end." To this, I say: HAHA LOLZ!!!1!

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you could only pick one book on the subject..... and you want it to be well-researched, well-cited, relatively thorough and relatively unbiased.... this is my stand-out choice.

[Olivia Humphrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

this shit is COMPREHENSIVE oh my god.

ok on a serious note though and in all honesty - i was assigned a few chapters of this for class but decided to read the whole thing because I got the sense i'd get a sort of comprehensive, unbiasedness here i'm unlikely to get elsewhere. i was right. dr. tessler did a phenomenal job - this is extraordinarily well-done. it's in-depth, it's well-structured, it's carefully worded and yet completely readable. i do feel like the lengths he went to to maintain this 'unbiased' facade was a bit extreme - we don't REALLY need the most far-right and far-left israeli perspectives on EVERY single event that occured, do we? - well, maybe that's the point. we should, i just don't want to read about them - but i appreciated it nonetheless. if you really just want the facts to make up your mind one way or another, this is the book for you. it definitely did reaffirm my support for the palestinian people, but it did so in a way that allowed me to come to that conclusion when presented with the hard, cold statistics and facts of this modernly-documented conflict. that being said, i never felt like the language was overly sterile or cruel. there was emotion without bias, facts without apathy. five stars for sure!! i'm your biggest fan dr. tessler!

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This history started out well, then got bogged down in repetitious descriptions of more recent events and political positions. It felt as though the author had lived through these times, taken copious notes, and published them all without editing them into a format with some shape and perspective to it. And then at the end everything kind of fell apart, with an update that was clearly tacked on and was not integrated with the rest of the book. If you want an overview of earlier history, then every small political twist and turn between, say, 1967 and 1990, this book might be useful.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggle to decide on a rating for the book just as I struggled to read it. On the one hand, I learned a great deal about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The author is unbiased in the presentation of information. However, it is non very readable. The information is very dense and in great detail and it is very hard to read. Mr. Teaser suffers from wanting to over convey his knowledge and supporting facts for his statements. At 760 pages, this book could have been edited down substantially and still conveyed the important unbiased opinion of Mr. Tessler.

[Brandon Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A balanced and exhaustively researched work; great, given the scale of the task. I was particularly impressed by the attention given to the foundations of modern Zionism extant from the rubble of the 18th-century Haskalah. Dr. Tessler also gives due attention to the emergence of a coherent Palestinian national identity following the 1948 War and its consequences for the then-dominant Palestinian ayan class and neighboring Arab regimes. Thoroughly enjoyed!

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful, deep, compassionate account of the conflict. Weaving long term and specific events, it reminds us that such conflicts draw both from broad historical context and our shared humanity.

Main flaw: it ends only a few years after the Olso Accords - in a bright era of rapprochement, before the assassination of Rabin, the return of Likud, the 2nd intifada, the withdrawal from Gaza, and of course the rise of Hamas.

[Sam Maloney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an olllld read for me, but this book definitely had some influence on me

[Marcela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in college and considering how difficult it can be to find “unbiased” books, this one felt very neutral. It’s a good resource that’s dense with facts and dates.

[Jonathan Sweedler]

From Ezra Klein 11/3/23 - Amaney Jamal - She polled Gazans on Oct 6. Here's what she found.

[Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lengthy read, but if you want to understand the conflict, it's the one to read.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 / 5.0

Well balanced and easy to follow despite the complicated subject matter. Nice critical evaluations of all parties' actions and motives capture the complexity of the conflict.

[Michael Greer · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good and thorough chronological history up until the point of publication

[Layla Chammas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot give it my 5 stars for the immense stress this class as cause me. But I wouldn’t have finished it if it was bad.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balanced, not biased.

[Einar Steinn Valgarðsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grundvallarfræðirit fyrir alla sem vilja kynna sér sögu og bakgrunn átakanna og fólksins. Rekur sögu gyðinga og araba, sögu svæðisins og hreyfinga, sér í er skoðuð þróun zíonismans annars vegar og arabískrar þjóðernishyggju hins vegar og þannig er jafnframt rakin saga Ísraela og Palestínumanna, þegar nær dregur átökunum, og rætur þeirra. Yfirgripsmikið verk, ítarlegt og áreiðanlegt, höfundur lýsir sjálfur nálgun sinni sem "objective without detachment". Bókin líður einungis fyrir það að henni lýkur þegar Oslóarsamkomulagið er í höfn, en höfundi fyrirgefst að binda meiri vonir við það en varð raunin. Kort hefði sömuleiðis mátt vanda betur og ljósmyndir hefðu ekki sakað. Það sem vekur sérstaka athygli þegar bókin er lesin eru hliðstæðurnar í sögu deiluaðilanna. Það væri þannig óskandi að betri þekking á sögu andstæðingsins og samkennd gæti stuðlað að frekari vonum um frið. Allt í allt er A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict eftir Mark A. Tessler afbragðs bók og afar mikilvæg lesning fyrir alla sem vilja kynna sér ástandið og söguna í þaula.

[Zack Fishman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book looking for a comprehensive and fair source on the conflict's history, and it absolutely succeeded in that regard. It provided more information on the subject that I could ever have asked for, from the origins of Jews & Muslims to the start of Hamas' control in Gaza in 2006. The whole book is presented from Tessler's stated view that both peoples deserve to live in peace in the region, which leads to a balanced yet clear-eyed discussion of many perspectives on some of the history's most controversial issues — a refreshing break from the "pro-Palestinians" v. "pro-Israel" fight that dominates many of today's discussions. In short, the book left me feeling well-informed, and confident that the facts I had weren't distorted to fit a narrative.

It's worth warning reading this textbook cover-to-cover takes a very, very long time, and several times I exercised my liberty to breeze through sections that I didn't consider interesting to save some. Still, the time I invested into learning with this book felt absolutely worthwhile.

[Y. Chang]

Serves well as an introduction to the complex history of the I-P conflict.

[newt g]

It's my understanding that there's a WAR going on right now - am I right in this? Two wars?!?

[Anna Reins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for a class. Not an interesting read, but a great in-depth explanation of this conflict.