Neveen Mousaad, ed./coord., Women in Arts and Media: From Stereotyping to Change (Beirut: Center for Arab Unity Studies, 2021). 384 pp. ISBN 9789953829609Despite the progress made by Arab women’s movements since their inception in the nineteenth century in their quest to attain equal opportunities with men in all fields, women in the Arab world still feel some stagnation in achieving their goals. This is in large part due to the lack of effort exerted to bring about an actual change in the cultural field and the production of new societal behaviors, in addition to the few resources allocated to these efforts compared to other fields.Arab women, for example, have made progress in many areas, such as girls’ enrollment in education and their success in schools and universities, achieving an increased presence in public life, particularly in political life, and some limited progress in the field of integration into productive economic work. The cultural field, however, remains a major source of imbalance in the evolution of women’s actual progress.The main idea of this book originates from the fact that art and culture could play a major role in changing popular stereotypes about Arab women due to their wide permeability into different segments of society. Accordingly, the book analyzes the extent to which literature, art, and the media contribute to the production of a culture that represents a background of beliefs and traditions that molds prevailing behavioral patterns. It addresses, moreover, the relationship of art and culture in the propagation of stereotypical images of women from the perspective of heritage, literature, cinema, songs and salons, media, social networking sites, and advertisements.Furthermore, as the challenge lies in how to bring about change to these stereotypical images inherent in Arab mentality about Arab women, the book presents a set of recommendations that can pave the way for bringing about change. The most prominent of these are as follows:■■■■Awatef Abdel Rahman, The Dawn of the Arab Press and Contemporary Challenges (Cairo: Dar Al Arabi, 2021). 288 pp. ISBN 13 978-977-319-6578This book includes a set of topics that revolve around the problematic relationship of the Arab press with the political authorities in Arab countries. It deals with the Arab press since its emergence in the nineteenth century through the era of national struggle for independence and up to the present day.The book has nine chapters, the first of which deals with the contribution of the popular Arab press in the struggle against political authority in Arab countries. This chapter highlights the popular press that was launched after the 1908 Ottoman Constitution, which, in principle, emphasized freedom of the press and free education. However, unlike the official press, which remained in the hands of Arab rulers to serve the interests of the Ottomans and the Mandatory Western powers, the popular press was subjected to Ottoman and European regulations and laws that restricted its freedom, as it gave voice to demands of national and patriotic movements for independence, throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially after the end of World War I. Among the most prominent Arab popular press were the revolutionary press of both the Algerian revolution and the Palestinian resistance, in addition to the Lebanese press.The second chapter deals with women’s journalistic efforts and innovations, highlighting the impact of Western perspectives on some women’s magazines.The third chapter is concerned with Arab media in the applied and academic fields; while the fourth chapter examines the conflict between the press and ruling authorities, addressing legislation restricting freedom of the press.The fifth chapter focuses on media pluralism in the Arab world; while the sixth chapter is concerned with the media and the culture of civil society, examining the position of Arab governments towards civil society institutions. It also explores the factors that may hinder the establishment of an effective civil society in the Arab world, most notably, the absence of civil cultural institutions that emphasize equality, justice, freedom of expression, and political participation, not to mention the absence of media and communication awareness among most civil society organizations.The seventh chapter discusses the media images exchanged between the Arabs and the West, most notably the negative and stereotypical images related to Arab immigration, the Palestinian cause, the Arab–Zionist conflict, and the issue of terrorism, which the Western media regularly links to Arabs and Muslims.The eighth chapter deals with the role of the Arab press in the face of Arab normalization with Israel. It also deals with the issue of globalization which could affect Arab culture heritage.The final and ninth chapter focuses on Zionist attempts to penetrate Egypt, since the “Balfour Declaration” in 1917 and the role of the Egyptian press in the face of these attempts in addition to the role of the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate which took a decisive decision to boycott all forms of normalization with Israel until all the occupied Arab lands were recovered.■■■■Sayyar al-Jamil, King Faisal I, 1883–1933: His Historical Roles and Renaissance Projects (Beirut: Center for Arab Unity Studies, 2021). 432 pp. ISBN 9789953829548This book provides a detailed account of the experience of King Faisal I (1883–1933), and the historical dimensions of the Arab renaissance roles and projects that characterized his reign. The book narrates the dramatic events of the life of Faisal, with a reassessment of his decisive historical role in political events and its impact on the region before and after World War I until his death in 1933.Faisal was distinguished by his high-level combat leadership of a group of military officers who graduated from the Ottoman colleges of Istanbul. As the Arab revolution evolved and took action against the policies of the Ottoman federal government, Faisal became the main representative of the Arab cause by virtue of his political vitality and social status. He also found himself at the Versailles Peace Conference in Paris in 1919. Here he represented a leading Arab leader who came before the world with the project of the first independent Arab state represented by his government in Syria, which was later to be eliminated by the French when they occupied Lebanon and Syria. Faisal remained in the shadows for a while, becoming the first king of Iraq in 1921 and the founder of modern Iraq.The book does not seek, however, to glorify Faisal’s rule, or to criticize him and enumerate his mistakes, but rather to read his history and understand his projects that were inclined in favor of the Arabs regardless of the success or failure in his mission.The book responds to those who underestimate Faisal as a “Bedouin of the desert,” describing how he grew up with the Bedouins, but he was also the son of the ancient city “Mecca.” It also responds to the Turks who accuse the Arabs of collaborating with the Western allies to fight the Ottomans and expel them from the Hijaz and Syria, making clear that Faisal had tried for a long time to dissuade the Ottoman governor, Gamal Pasha, from his persecution of the Arabs and stop the execution of their youth, but his demands, and those of the Arabs in general, were always ignored or rejected leaving the Arabs no choice but to revolt against Ottoman rule.The book also responds to Iraqi critics who oppose Faisal because he was from the Hijaz, and that he was not Iraqi, emphasizing that the majority of Iraq’s notables supported the nomination of Faisal to ascend the throne of Iraq, and thus it was not accurate to assert that the appointment of Faisal was exclusively by the British.The author of the book believes that Faisal, who contributed effectively to the success of the Arab revolution against the Ottomans and ruled Greater Syria for two years (1918–20), achieved prominence and came to have a distinguished reputation by his participation in the Versailles Conference of 1919, before he ruled Iraq for nearly thirteen years (1921–33). For many historians, Faisal’s experiment in Syria failed because of the brutal French attack on Syria. However, he succeeded in his experience in ruling Iraq and became a symbol of Iraq’s unity and its contemporary renaissance, despite the opinion of some Iraqis to the contrary.■■■■Munir al-Hamash, Syria…Society, State, and “The Kurdish Problem” (Damascus: Dar City, 2021). 343 pp. ISBN 9789933933371This book deals with the Syrian crisis and the challenges facing the Syrian state, especially the issue of the Kurdish problem.The author of the book argues that the Syrian crisis, with its many ramifications, including the Kurdish question, is not an internal Syrian issue, but dates back to the ascendency of Western colonial powers which expanded in the Arab region to inherit the legacy of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. These powers took advantage of some internal factors—such as pluralism, class differences, and the deteriorating economic conditions to divide the region in line with their geopolitical goals and strategic interests, in addition to exploiting its natural resources.In this respect, the author argues that the colonial patterns of interventions in the Arab region have never changed and the attempts of external powers to intervene in the internal affairs of Arab countries, including Syria, have never abated. Accordingly, the interventions of regional and international powers (Turkey, Iran, Israel, Russia, and the United States) in Syria were expected due to its geopolitical location, especially the intervention in the Kurdish region that established an autonomous administration in northeastern Syria on the Turkish and Iraqi borders.This Kurdish region, which also constitutes a stockpile of vast natural resources, came under the protection of the US military, which intervened in Syria against international law, violating the principle of national sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Syria—under the pretext of defending the Kurds. For many observers, the main purpose of the US administration was to exploit Syria’s oil and gas resources and to strengthen the US position in Syria in any possible negotiations with Russia, Turkey, and Iran over issues that preserve its influence in Syria’s and Iraq’s future.■■■■Mohammed Mahfouz, The Contemporary Arab State: Between the Dialectics of Stability and Reform (Cairo: Rawafed, 2021). 479 pp. ISBN 9789777516013This book assumes that the process of state-building in the Arab region, maintaining its stability, and undertaking reforms, requires extensive efforts to liberate civil society and lift restrictions on its actions and effectiveness, as the state through its institutions cannot alone create all conditions for change and meet state-building requirements without the participation of civil society.The book has four chapters, the first of which deals with the religious and civil context and sources related to the basic functions of the state in the Arab region. It addresses the issues of Islam and the state in the Arab world, unity and pluralism in contemporary Islamic thought, religious–civil dialogue, the relationship of religious minorities to the state, political Islam, and the necessity for transition from fundamentalism to civil culture. The second chapter deals with the issue of sectarianism, the problems of unity and societal peace, the religious and civil dialectic, terrorism and state sabotage. The third chapter discusses the situation of the Arab state in light of the tension between politics and religion, human rights, development and freedom. The fourth chapter deals with the Arab Spring’s repercussions on citizenship in the Arab region. It discusses the issue of political stability and the prospects for the return of political tyranny.The author argues that the state’s institutions in the Islamic historical experience have played a key role in organizing people’s political, economic, cultural, and social lives, and the functions performed by the state in Islam indicate that it was a civil state rather than a theocracy. In other words, tasks and functions entrusted to the state in Islam have always been civil functions, aimed at contributing to securing the necessary needs of society, and working to create opportunities for progress and development.Accordingly, the author believes that it is necessary to define the functions of the state as an institution and administrative body, detached from religious and ideological functions. Maintaining borders, repelling external aggression, preserving public interests, and achieving social justice are among the basic functions that should be entrusted to the state in the Arab region in order to maintain peace and avoid any sort of violence, domination, and tyranny.■■■■Issa Fadel Al-Nazzal, Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Arab Lands (Beirut: Center for Arab Unity Studies, 2022). 430 pp. ISBN 9789953829593Since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel has sought to seize more Palestinian and Arab land in order to build as many settlements as possible to accommodate the increasing numbers of world Jewry who came to live in it. Accordingly, Israel has continued to aspire to occupy more Arab territory, and in pursuit of this aim it launched a war of expansion against its Arab neighbors in 1967, during which it managed to quadruple its territory at the expense of Arab countries. It then began building settlements on land occupied with the aim of creating new facts on the ground that serve its expansion project in the region, claiming that Arab land that it has occupied is “liberated territory” belonging to Israel, that is, the “the Greater State of Israel” extending from the Nile to the Euphrates.However, Israel has not been able to strictly adhere to its settlement policy in order to achieve its goals, most notably of which was to remove Egypt from the cycle of the Arab–Israeli conflict and create a no-go buffer zone within the Gaza Strip to improve Israel’s security and besiege the Strip, which remained dependent on Israel for its water, electricity, telecommunications, and other utilities. Hence, Israel decided to evacuate its settlements in the Sinai Peninsula after the peace agreement with Egypt in 1979, and also announced, according to a unilateral plan, its “disengagement” and the evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005. In fact, Israel was not able to protect a few thousand settlers in a dense Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.In contrast, Israel has been very active in the settlement of the Syrian Golan and the Palestinian West Bank, in preparation for their permanent annexation, with the support of former US President Donald Trump, who recognized Jerusalem as the eternal capital of “Israel” and the Golan Heights as Israeli land as well. He also presented the Palestinians in 2020 with a distorted map of the West Bank, from which the fertile Jordan Valley and about half of the rest of the West Bank were taken out for the benefit of Israel.This book affirms that in the absence of a comprehensive peace agreement that will end the Arab–Israeli conflict under United Nations resolutions, Israel will continue its settlement activities, and the people in occupied Arab land will have no choice but to resist.