Avi Shlaim Research Articles

Contested Historical Interpretations of Palestine The Mandate Period and the 1948 War - Constructing Boundaries: Jewish and Arab Workers in Mandatory Palestine, by Deborah S. Bernstein. (SUNY Series in Israeli Studies) 277 pages, photos, notes, bibliography, index. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000. $23.95 (Cloth) ISBN 0-7914-4540-2 - The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948,

Contested Historical Interpretations of Palestine The Mandate Period and the 1948 War - Constructing Boundaries: Jewish and Arab Workers in Mandatory Palestine, by Deborah S. Bernstein. (SUNY Series in Israeli Studies) 277 pages, photos, notes, bibliography, index. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000. 55.00 (Cloth) ISBN 0-275-96638-0 - Volume 36 Issue 1

The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (review)

Reviewed by: The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World Efraim Karsh The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, by Avi Shlaim. New York: Norton, 2000. 688 pages. $29.95. In the summer of 1993 I participated in a discussion on the Arab-Israeli peace process at the annual conference of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. A Labor-led government headed by Yitzhak Rabin, the most dovish in Israel’s history, had come to power the previous year with the avowed commitment to peace-making. Yet my co- panelist, Avi Shlaim of Oxford University, remained unimpressed. “Let me tell you an anecdote,” he said by way of underscoring his scepticism. “When asked for his reaction to the change of regime in Israel, an old Palestinian said: ‘Do you see my left shoe? That is Yitzhak Rabin. Do you see my right shoe? That is Yitzhak Shamir. Two Yitzhaks, two shoes, so what’s the difference?’” For most people it would of course make a fundamental difference whether they put their right shoe on the left foot, and vice versa; indeed, it did not take long for this analogy to be wrong-footed by the Oslo Accords and the attendant peace process between Israel and its neighbours. But for Shlaim, there seems to be no real difference between left- and right-wing Israeli attitudes to the Arab world in general, and to the Palestinian people in particular. This viewpoint is vividly illustrated by the title of his latest study of Israel’s policy towards the Arab world—The Iron Wall, borrowed from a 1923 article by Zeev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky, founding father of Revisionist Zionism, the antecedent of today’s Likud Party. In that article Jabotinsky viewed the creation of an unassailable Zionist power base—political, diplomatic, and military—as the only way to convince the Arabs to desist from their effort to obliterate the Jewish national cause and to accept a negotiated settlement based on mutual equality and respect. But then Shlaim misinter preted this broad concept of power as a narrow and unwarranted obsession with military force, (mis)attributing it to both right- and left-wing Zionist/Israeli policies throughout the twentieth century. Shlaim reckons that Jabotinsky recognized Palestinian national rights, was categor ically opposed to their expulsion from Palestine, and was amenable to a negotiated settlement based on mutual respect of national and civilian rights once the latter had given up the hope of destroying Jewish nationalism. Yet this does not prevent him from portraying Zionist/Israeli history as a catalogue of recalcitrance, aggression, and undue obsession with military force. The Arabs’ outspoken commitment to the destruction of the Jewish national cause and their sustained violent attempts to achieve this goal from the early 1920s onwards are conveniently overlooked, as are Jewish attempts at peaceful coexistence. Instead, the reader comes out with a surrealistic impression of the conflict, where a small, fragile, and peace-loving Arab World is besieged by an aggressive and expansionist Jewish superpower. [End Page 132] In a brief point in time, after the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords, Shlaim sheds this indiscriminate approach by conceding that the differences between Labor and Likud are “quite profound, in the realms both of ideology and of practical policy” (p. 479). Yet he fails to trace these divergences to their real origins, well before the establishment of the State of Israel. Instead he views Labor and revisionist policies over this prolonged period as virtually identical, as if there is no difference between the former’s acceptance of the UN Partition Resolution of November 1947, with its expressed commitment to the creation of an Arab (i.e., Palestinian) state, and the latter’s rejection of this resolution; or between Labor’s adoption of the “land for peace” formula following the 1967 War and Likud’s commitment to the “Greater Israel” doctrine. But the most incredible charge levelled against the Zionist movement is its alleged “non-recognition of a Palestinian national entity,” dating back to Theodore Herzl, founder of political Zionism. But then again, Shlaim does not fail to demolish his own (mis)claim. First he concedes that it would have been virtually impossible for Herzl to...

The 'Haifa Turning Point': The British Administration and the Civil War in Palestine, December 1947-May 1948

On 14 May 1948, the mandate which had been awarded to Britain by the League of Nations to govern Palestine expired. The run-up to the end of British rule was marked by long months of a Palestinian civil war between Jews and Arabs, which significantly affected the manner in which Britain concluded its mission in Palestine. The war, which lasted from December 1947 until May 1948, was inevitably influenced by the fact that British rule, including the civil administration, the police, and the army, continued to exist formally until the middle of May. The prevailing argument in the research literature on this period is whether British policy during the civil war was a defined intention, and whether it was also implemented by the Administration in Palestine until the very day of the evacuation. Some have claimed that the British blatantly supported the Arabs, though others believe that they backed the Jews. A number of studies maintain that the British sought to bring about a situation of chaos, which would show up the irrelevance of the United Nations' partition plan. Be that as it may, all agree that Britain exercised a crucial impact, which was deliberate and conscious, on the events.' The research, primarily Israeli and British, on Britain's place in the Palestine war has come a long way, to the point where the question of whether the British supported the Jews or the Arabs is no longer addressed. Avi Shlaim is right when he says that during the war the British pursued a policy in Palestine that was neither anti-Zionist nor anti-Arab, but proBritish. British research (contrary to Israeli or Arab studies) also touches on the helplessness of Britain in the face of the war, although as a marginal issue, a kind of calculated risk, which was under control, that Britain assumed at the time. If a sense of helplessness manifested itself, Roger Louis, the prominent historian of the end of the British mandate of Palestine, mentions it as no more than a local weakness. Shlaim explains that it was an

KIRSTEN E. SCHULZE, Israel's Covert Diplomacy in Lebanon, St. Antony's Series (Houndmilles, Basingstoke, and London: Macmillan Press, 1998). Pp. 227. No price available.

This book addresses a topic that has aroused much interest since June 1982: the relations between Israel and the Maronite community in Lebanon and the historical and ideological origins of these relations. Brought to the fore by Israel's invasion of Lebanon, this relationship so far has been the subject of three major—and one should add, conflicting—contributions, by Benny Morris,1 Avi Shlaim,2 and Eyal Zisser.3 Morris's and Shlaim's works are quoted extensively in Kirsten Schulze's book; Zisser's is not even mentioned (though the author is quoted as a source). This, I believe, has much bearing on the validity of Schulze's arguments, because these studies represent two differing views with regard to the matter at stake: how should one interpret archival material and memoirs, place them in their rightful context, and form a firmly grounded opinion as to past events.

The iron wall: Israel and the Arab world

Avi Shlaim's Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World is the outstanding book on Israeli foreign policy, now thoroughly updated with a new preface and chapters on Israel's most recent leaders. In the 1920s, hard-line Zionists developed the doctrine of the 'Iron Wall': negotiations with the Arabs must always be from a position of military strength, and only when sufficiently strong Israel would be able to make peace with her Arab neighbours. This doctrine, argues Avi Shlaim, became central to Israeli policy; dissenters were marginalized and many opportunities to reconcile with Palestinian Arabs were lost. Drawing on a great deal of new material and interviews with many key participants, Shlaim places Israel's political and military actions under and uncompromising lens. His analysis will bring scant comfort to partisans on both sides, but it will be required reading for anyone interested in this fascinating and troubled region of the world. The Iron Wall is strikingly fair-minded, scholarly, cogently reasoned and makes enthralling ...reading. (Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph). Anyone wanting to understand the modern Middle East should start by reading this elegantly written and scrupulously researched book. (Trevor Royle, Sunday Herald). A milestone in modern scholarship of the Middle East. (Edward Said). Fascinating ...Shlaim presents compelling evidence for a revaluation of traditional Israeli history. (Ethan Bronner, New York Times Book Review). Avi Shlaim is Professor of International Relations at St. Antony's College, Oxford. His previous books include Collusion Across the Jordan (1988) and War and Peace in the Middle East (1995).

2. THE ISRAELI/PALESTINE QUESTION

1. Introduction: new historiographical orientation in the research on the Palestine Question Ilan Pappe Part 1 The History of Palestine rediscovered 2. Rediscovering Ottoman Palestine: writing Palestinians into history Beshara B. Doumani 3. The rise of the sanjak of Jerusalem in the late nineteenth century Butrus Abu-Manneh Part 2 The origins of Zionism in Palestine reconsidered 4. The colonization perspective in Israeli sociology Uri Ram 5. Zionism and colonialism: a comparative approach Gershon Shafir Part 3 The social history of the conflict 6. Railway workers and relational history: Arabs and Jews in British-ruled Palestine Zachary Lockman 7. The role of the Palestinian peasantry in the Great Revolt (1936-9) Ted Swedenburg Part 4 The new history of the 1948 war 8. The debate about 1948 Avi Shlaim 9. The causes and character of the Arab exodus from Palestine: the Israeli defense forces intelligence service analysis of June 1948 Benny Morris 10. A critique on Benny Morris Nur Masalha Part 5 Palestinians in Israel 11. The democratization of a traditional minority in an ethnic democracy: the Palestinians in Israel Nadim Rouhana and As'ad Ghanem Part 6 The Intifada in historical perspective 12. From salons to the popular committees: Palestinian women, 1919-89 Islad Jad

Israel, Jordan, and the Peace Process (review)

Book Reviews 121 Israel, Jordan, and the Peace Process, by Yehuda Lukacs. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997. 258 pp. $39.95. Since much of the literature on the Arab-Israeli conflict is focused on the Palestinian dimension, it is easy to overlook the other Arab factor in this drama, namely Jordan. Perhaps one reason for this is Jordan's contested claim in Palestine, although realism, as well as geopolitics, necessitates taking a closer look at this significant regional player. One could even go as far as saying that no political entity influenced this conflict as much as Jordan. Given its long tenure as the reigning power in the West Bank, as well as its control over the lives of many Jordanian Palestinians in the East Bank, Jordan's interests can neither be ignored nor side-stepped. . Because Jordan's relations with Israel, furthermore, were always shadowy and secretive, very little could be said about the nature of its actual long-term objectives in Eastern Palestine. Until the publication of Avi Shlaim's Collusion Across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine (1988), all information about covert Jordanian contacts with the Jewish state was confined to the realm of speculation and conjecture. There were even those who emphasized the significance of Egypt as the foremost regional player in this conflict. But Egypt's dispute with Israel lacked a territorial basis, as was proven following Israel's 1978 evacuation from Sinai. Thus, while Egypt often acted as a surrogate for the PLO in the international arena, Jordan acted as an alternative authority to the PLO. Professor Yehuda Lukacs's study, Israel, Jordan, and the Peace Process, is a valiant effort to shed new light on this tangled dimension of the conflict. If for nothing else, the study should be valued for underscoring the indispensability of Jordanian consent to the realiZation ofIsrael's policies in the West Bank following the 1967 June War. Indeed, he correctly points out that even though Israel exploited the illegitimacy of Jordan's 1948 takeover of Eastern Palestine, Israel also "regarded Jordan as the only interlocutor in the negotiations over the West Bank" (p. 48). What emerged between 1967 and the Intifada, he argues, was a cooperative arrangement between these two entities which precluded and dampened Israel's interest in concluding a permanent peace. The informality ofthis policy arose from the absence of an Israeli consensus on the future of the occupied territories. He lists four Israeli positions which emerged following the fall ofthe West Bank. First, there was Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres' "functionalist approach," which advocated the policy of"open bridges" towards Jordan in the absence of a formal peace treaty. The second position, the "territorialist" school of Yigal Allon, later supported by Yitzhak Rabin, called for continued Israeli control over the uninhabited areas of the West Bank in order to safeguard Israel's security. Menachem Begin, on the other hand, advocated the "annexationist" school while still a leader ofthe Gahal bloc. Begin's advocacy ofthis position stemmed from his view of the West Bank as part ofEretz Yisrael. Finally, there was the "reconciliationist" school 122 SHOFAR Summer 1999 Vol. 17, No.4 championed by the then foreign minister Abba Eban and dovish members of the Labor Party, as well as Meretz and other smaller leftist groups. These called for the return of much ofthe West Bank. to Jordan while maintaining small areas for defensive purposes. In the end, what prevailed was the policy of open bridges, which Israel hoped would ease the humanitarian and economic suffering of the Palestinians and prevent their gravitation towards the PLO. Jordan became also an administrative partner with Israel, managing the former civil administrative infrastructure and the Islamic legal and charitable systems. A period of "defacto peace" developed during which negotiations often took place face to face or through third parties. Among the many issues which came under discussion were the return of the 1967 refugees, dividing the waters of the Yarmuk River, and the Bank. Agreement of 1986. All ofthis, nevertheless, did not prevent the Jordanian monarch from searching for a way ofretrieving the West Bank.. Lukacs explains that what the King shared...

The "New Historians"

Writing about Zionist and Israeli history will never be the same, thanks to scholars such as Avi Shlaim, Benny Morris, and Ilan Pappe. In the late 1980s, their publications sparked a lively debate among Israeli historians and intellectuals that has now spread beyond the halls of academe. Soon dubbed the new historians, Shlaim (in Collusion Across the Jordan), Morris (in The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949), and Pappe (in Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-51)1 portrayed Israel's founding fathers as less than heroic and the state's very foundation as something other than a miraculous victory of beleaguered underdogs. It was not long before Shabtai Teveth, Ben-Gurion's official biographer, and others mounted a counterattack against these revisionist historians in a battle that spilled over from academic journals and

Pax Americana: War and Peace in the Middle East: A Critique of American Policy. . Avi Shlaim.

Pax Americana: War and Peace in the Middle East: A Critique of American Policy. . Avi Shlaim.

Collision versus Collusion: Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine. . Avi Shlaim.

Collision versus Collusion: Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine. . Avi Shlaim.

Collusion Across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine, by Avi Shlaim

Collusion Across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine, <i>by Avi Shlaim</i>

Reviews of Books

Journal Article Reviews of Books Get access Collusion across the Jordan. King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine. By AVI SHLAIM. (Oxford: Clarendon P., 1988; pp. x + 676. £35). WM. ROGER LOUIS WM. ROGER LOUIS University of Texas Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CIV, Issue CCCCXII, July 1989, Pages 708–710, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/CIV.CCCCXII.708 Published: 01 July 1989

Africa, Asia and the Pacific

Development Studies and Colonial Policy. Edited by Barbara Ingham and Colin Simmons African Economic History. By Ralph Austen The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 7, From 1905 to 1907. Edited by A.D. Roberts From Poverty to Famine in North Eastern Ethiopia: A Rural History, 1900–1935. By James McCann A History of the African People of South Africa: From the Early Iron Age to the 1970's. By Paul Maylam Life and Work of Dr. H.Th. Van Der Kemp, 1747–1811: Missionary Pioneer and Protagonist of Racial Equality in South Africa. By Ido H. Enklaar Genesis of Apartheid: British African Policy in the Colony of Natal 1845–1893. By Benjamin Kline Hidden Struggles in Rural South Africa: Politics &amp; Popular Movements in the Transkei &amp; Eastern Cape 1890–1930. By William Beinart and Colin Bundy The Politics of the South Africa Run. European Shipping and Pretoria. By G.R. Berridge The Politics of Race, Class and Nationalism in Twentieth Century South Africa. Edited by Shula Marks and Stanley Trapido Egypt after the Pharaohs. By A.K. Bowman Colonising Egypt. By Timothy Mitchell Collusion Across the Jordan. King Abdulah, The Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine. By Avi Shlaim Begin: an Anatomy of Leadership. By Sasson Sofer Arab Voices: The BBC Arabic Service 1938–1988. By Peter Partner Medieval Persia 1040–1797. By David Morgan Musaddiq, Iranian Nationalism, and Oil. Edited by James A. Bill and Wm. Roger Louis Banking and Oil: the history of the British Bank of the Middle East. Vol. II. By Geoffrey Jones The Mongols. By David Morgan Searches for an imaginary kingdom. The legend of the kingdom of Prester John. By L.N. Gumilev, translated by R.E.F. Smith The wonder that was India, II. A survey of the history and culture of the Indian sub‐continent from the coming of the Muslims to the British conquest 1200–1700. By S.A.A. Rizvi The Imperial Monetary System of Mughal India. Edited by John F. Richards The Economy of the Mughal Empire, c. 1595: A Statistical Study. By Shireen Moosvi The Peasant Armed: The Indian Rebellion of 1857. By Eric Stokes. Edited by C.A. Bayly From Sepoy to Subedar. Edited by James Lunt. Illustrated by Frank Wilson The Indian Army and the King's Enemies 1900–47. By Charles Chenevix‐Trench Evolution of the State Rank of India, Volume: The Roots, 1806–1876. By Amiya Kumar Bagchi An Economic History of India. By Dietmar Rothermund The Non‐official British in India to 1920. By Raymond K. Renford Bengal 1928–1934: The Politics of Protest. By Tanika Sarkar Holding India to the Empire: The British Conservative Party and the 1935 Constitution. By Carl Bridge The Origins of the Partition of India 1936–1947. By Anita Inder Singh Struggling and Ruling. The Indian National Congress 1885–1985. Edited by Jim Masselos Gandhi. Against the Tide. By Antony Copley Lions of Punjab: Culture in the Making. By Richard G. Fox Oxford University Papers on India, Volume I, Parts 1 &amp; 2. Edited by N.J. Allen, R.F. Gombrich, T. Raychaudhuri and C. Rizvi British Imperial Policy and Decolonisation 1938–64 Volume 1 1938–51. By A. Porter and A.J. Stockwell Viceroy's Agent. By Charles Chenevix Trench French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam 1857–1914. A Documentary Survey. By Patrick J.N. Tuck China: A Concise Cultural History. By A. Cotterell The Cambridge History of China: Volume I. The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C.‐A.D. 220. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century. By Susan Naquin and Evelyn S. Rawski An Introduction to the Civil Service of Sung China—with emphasis on its personnel administration. By William W. Lo The Cambridge History of China. Volume 7, The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part 1. Edited by Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett The Cambridge History of China, Volume 14, Part 1: The Emergence of Revolutionary China. Edited by Roderick MacFarquhar and John K. Fairbank Japan in Transition: From Tokugawa to Meiji. Edited by Marius B. Jansen and Gilbert Rozman Double Eagle and Rising Sun: The Russians and Japanese at Portsmouth in 1905. By Raymond A. Esthus Imperialist Japan: The Yen to Dominate. By Michael Montgomery Arthur Phillip: His Voyaging 1738–1814. By Alan Frost Australia. A Cultural History. By John Rickard Australia, 1788–1988. The Creation of a Nation. By Charles Wilson Long Division: State Schooling in South Australian Society. By Pavla Miller The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict. By James Belich

Book Reviews : The United States and the Berlin Blockade, 1948-1949, by Avi Shlaim, University of California Press, 1984, £29.25

Book Reviews : The United States and the Berlin Blockade, 1948-1949, by Avi Shlaim, University of California Press, 1984, £29.25

The United States and the Berlin blockade, 1948–1949: A Study in Crisis Decision‐Making, by Avi Shlaim. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1983, 463 pp. Price: $38.00

Journal of Policy Analysis and ManagementVolume 3, Issue 2 p. 314-314 Book Note The United States and the Berlin blockade, 1948–1949: A Study in Crisis Decision-Making, by Avi Shlaim. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1983, 463 pp. Price: $38.00 First published: Winter 1984 https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.4050030234AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume3, Issue2Winter 1984Pages 314-314 RelatedInformation

Review: The United States and the Berlin Blockade, 1948-1949: A Study in Crisis Decision-Making, by Avi Shlaim

Review: <i>The United States and the Berlin Blockade, 1948-1949: A Study in Crisis Decision-Making</i>, by Avi Shlaim

Documents on the foreign policy of Israel. Vol. 3: armistice negotiations with the Arab states, December 1948–July 1949

Journal Article Documents on the foreign policy of Israel. Vol. 3: armistice negotiations with the Arab states, December 1948–July 1949 Get access Documents on the foreign policy of Israel. Vol. 3: armistice negotiations with the Arab states, December 1948–July 1949. Edited by Yemima Rosenthal. Jerusalem: Israel State Archives. 1983. 2 parts, 758, 229pp. Index. $69.50. Avi Shlaim Avi Shlaim 1University of Reading Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 60, Issue 2, Spring 1984, Pages 343–344, https://doi.org/10.2307/2619126 Published: 01 April 1984

The EEC and Eastern Europe. Edited by Avi Shlaim and G. N. Yannopoulos. New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1978. viii, 251 pp. $35.00.

The EEC and Eastern Europe. Edited by Avi Shlaim and G. N. Yannopoulos. New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1978. viii, 251 pp. $35.00.

Radical Dissent in Contemporary Israeli Politics: Cracks in the Wall

Journal Article Radical Dissent in Contemporary Israeli Politics: Cracks in the Wall Get access Radical Dissent in Contemporary Israeli Politics: Cracks in the Wall. By David J. Schnall. New York: Praeger. 1979. (Distrib. in UK by Holt-Saunders, Eastbourne). 229 pp. £15.00. Avi Shlaim Avi Shlaim 1University of Reading Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 56, Issue 3, Summer 1980, Pages 539–540, https://doi.org/10.2307/2617444 Published: 01 July 1980

Conflict and Bargaining in the Middle East: An Israeli Perspective

Journal Article Conflict and Bargaining in the Middle East: An Israeli Perspective Get access Conflict and Bargaining in the Middle East: An Israeli Perspective. By Shlomo Aronson. Baltimore, London: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1978. 448 pp. £14.25. Avi Shlaim Avi Shlaim 1University of Reading Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 56, Issue 1, January 1980, Pages 175–176, https://doi.org/10.2307/2615787 Published: 01 January 1980