LAILA PARSONS, The Druze Between Palestine and Israel, 1947–49, St Antony's Series (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000). Pp. 197. $65.00 cloth.

Abstract

Laila Parsons situates her study alongside those of the so-called new historians of the Arab– Israeli conflict who in recent years have rewritten large parts of the dominant narratives of the “traditionalist” historians. One of elements of these narratives has been the assumption that the struggle between Arabs and Jews was a starkly bipolar affair, with a relatively small number of Jews in conflict with a much larger, monolithic population of Arabs. Recent “revisionist” works, however, have shown that this interpretation is inaccurate. For example, an integral part of Zionist policy was to make contact with various Arab leaders and groups before, during, and after the emergence of the State of Israel and forge relationships that could advance the movement's geopolitical agenda. Scholars who have worked on this question include Avi Shlaim (Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine and The Politics of Partition: King Abdullah, the Zionists and Palestine, 1921–1951) and Kirsten Schulze (Israel's Covert Diplomacy in Lebanon). In The Druze Between Palestine and Israel, a compact and narrowly focused study based on the author's doctoral thesis, Parsons skillfully employs archival sources in Israel, as well as published accounts in English, Arabic, and Hebrew, to show how Zionist officials developed relationships with Druze leaders and representatives and how these links could benefit both sides.