A History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

by Ian J. Bickerton, Carla L. Klausner

This concise and comprehensive survey presents balanced, impartial, and well-illustrated coverage of the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The authors identify and examine the issues and themes that have characterized and defined the conflict over the past century. The Sixth Edition examines many of the developments that have occurred during the first decade of the 21st century.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Israel, Middle East, World History, School

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Ian James Bickerton was educated at the University of Adelaide in South Australia, where he gained his B.A. with Honors in History. He received his M.A. at Kansas State University before completing his Ph.D. at the Claremont Graduate School, CA. He is a member of the School of History at the University of New South Wales, and has taught the history of the modern U.S.A., the history of U.S. foreign relations, and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He has also taught at the University of California Santa Barbara, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and he has lectured in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and Israel.

Ian has traveled widely in the U.S. carried out research in most U.S. presidential libraries (where he met President Harry. S. Truman) and Israeli State Archives, and during the past decade has taught U.S exchange students in Florence, Italy.

Reviews

[Jesse Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very comprehensive look at the conflict

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid overview of the conflict with lots of detail and regional context. The addition of primary sources is helpful for the reader to form his own opinion on the prevailing issues of the conflict. I've read extensively on the issues surrounding Israel/Palestine over the past decade and the portrayal of history and the author's tone skews more favorably toward Israel, but it is hardly a biased polemic against Palestinians. Bickerton at times down plays some of the more heavy handed actions of the IDF and Israeli intelligence, some of the more egregious revolve around Unit 101 in the 1950s and the Sabra and Shatilla massacre. He does not adequately discuss the more fanatical elements in the settler community and their connections to political power while he often emphasizes some of the more heinous actions of terrorist groups like Hamas and PIJ. In my view, none of this appears to be malicious and he mentions early on that there is significant debate about the history of the conflict among laymen, politicians, and historians.

Overall this is a good book. It is meant to be a textbook used in the classroom and stylistically it fits the mold. However, if you are looking for a textbook-like overview of the conflict there are better books to be found.

[Dave Harmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

there's a lot wrong then about this and most of its propaganda from one side or the other. this is a good honest middle ground both sides non tendentious history of the facts

[Mohammed omran · Rating 1 out of 5]

حجم القوات الجوية البريطانية فى الغزو :
9 أسراب قاذفات فى مالطة
9 أسراب قاذفات + 2 سرب مقاتلات + 7 أسراب نقل جوي فى قبرص
5 أسراب مقاتلات + 2 سرب استطلاع + 1 سرب إمداد جوي فى أكروتيرى
3 حاملة طائرات عليها 13 سرب مقاتلات قاذفة
إجمالي حجم القوات 48 سرباً


حجم القوات الجوية الفرنسية :
6 أسراب مقاتلات + 3 أسراب نقل جوي فى اللد وحيفا
3 أسراب مقاتلات + 3 أسراب استطلاع فى أكروتيرى
6 أسراب نقل جوي فى تمبو
حاملة طائرات عليها 3 أسراب مقاتلات قاذفة
إجمالي حجم القوات 24 سرباً


حجم القوات الجوية الإسرائيلية :
9 أسراب مقاتلات
7 أسراب مقاتلات قاذفة
4 أسراب قاذفات
3 أسراب نقل جوي
3 أسراب استطلاع
إجمالي حجم القوات 26 سرباً
تلك الجحافل البربريه الاستعماريه جاءت لتغتصب قناه السويس ولكن سقطت في بورسعيد

[Zach S · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I had actually read the 8th Edition, which isn't on Good Reads as of writing this review. The 8th edition covers up until late 2017 and is 587 pages. Depressing as usual and only more dreadful knowing how these circumstances have come to turn out. I particularly liked this history textbook because each chapter has transcriptions of speeches/documents/ letters around the events at the end of each chapter. Overall 4/5.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and I think relatively unbiased. I would have to look at other sources to see if there was a bias. This book went into the history of the conflict to provide good context for the present state of the middle East. I highly recommend it if you're looking to better understand the Arab Israeli conflict and the middle east.

[D]

School

[Noelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe the author did an excellent job of presenting the material in an unbiased manner. The information was interesting and provided a good baseline for understanding the troubles that have plagued the region for centuries.

[R. Michael Litchfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good concise history of the conflict. It's far from comprehensive but that would really take volumes. Not biased in the least (If that's even possible). Lots of good stuff about the post-Oslo II events that don't get covered in other books.

[Nandita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historically succinct and goes up until events in 2009. Includes various documents from 1900's. A must read for anyone interested for a fact-based account of the events that led up to the current state of the conflict.

[Hadi]

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 second 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/...