Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017

I have just finished reading this book and here are some of my thoughts at this time. The book is expansive in historical scope, covering the 100 year period from 1917 to 2017. As such it gives you an excellent overview of how and where it all began and why we might be where we are today. It is very detailed, full of names and places, so I found it best not to try to focus deeply on every detail, instead to push on and try to gain an overall picture. I have found it very worthwhile reading this book and much of what is described I do recall hearing of via the news over the many decades that have passed ( I was 10 at the time of the '67 war). To re-visit these events by reading about them in detail is a sobering and thought-provoking experience and often upsetting as I read about the lives lost on both sides. But I feel it has been essential, especially at this time as we face the Trump plan and what might develop from it. When I had finished reading it, I put the book down realising I would not feel the same way again towards the state of Israel. It has been a wake-up call of sorts for me. I have always felt an affection for the Hebrew language and Judaism and have been learning to speak Hebrew for many years. I have also enjoyed reading the books of Martin Buber who wrote, amongst other things, a great deal about zionism and the Jewish connection to Israel. He was however an advocate of a much 'softer' zionism regarding Jews moving to live in Israel alongside the Arabs there, constantly raising the need for co-operation with the Arabs in those earlier pre-Israel days and raising concerns about the numbers of Jews moving there. Could this ever have worked, even had the will been there amongst earlier Jewish settlers? I don't know, and perhaps now I reflect that any settlement there, however cautious, might have been wrong. As my reading of the book progressed, I came to feel that once the foothold was there and the bullish manner of the settlement project established the Arabs were destined to lose their land. I found this depressing, especially regarding the illegal ongoing west bank settlements that have never abated up to this day. It seems to me that the best that there could have been for the Arabs was the UN partition plan of 1947. I am not widely read on this subject and so am not in a robust position to comment upon whether or not the book is overly biased toward favouring the Palestinian cause; my sense at this time is that it is slightly so, though I feel it is difficult not to be when the whole story is faced. Before reading this book I had read Martin Buber's book 'A land of two peoples' and Bernard Lewis's book 'Semites and anti-semites'. I read these to under-pin a little my reading of Ian Black's book, as I wanted to understand more of Buber's approach and also anti-semitism (which I find abhorrent and have never understood). At the end of the day, after reading Ian Black's book, I have found myself unable to reconcile the state of Israel as it exists today with the understandable desire for a safe Jewish homeland.

excellent book explains clearly how the situation came about and who helped it get there . well written and easy to read highly informative

Excellent book, really makes you understand the roots of the conflict.

The best book on the subject. I wish the author were alive to write about the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

Well researched, slightly light on the conclusion

A good overview of the ongoing conflicting the near east. Demonstrates the problems and issues clearly and without much of a bias to either side. Demonstrates the impossibilities of the situation clearly.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire had many dire consequences for the territories and populations carved up by the victors, but the attempt to reverse more than 2,500 years of change and dispersal by the Balfour declaration was perhaps the most unrealistic. This book is chronological and the fundamental problems with the project were clear early on. They have not gone away. What a mess. Generational changes and the death of dominant older figures result in shifts but where these will lead is terribly uncertain. Outside interference only seems to make things worse.

A very well written and enlightening book. Would strongly recommend

An account of almost incredible clarity. Detached, analytical and, thus, able to convey the complexity of a century old power struggle and the all too human feelings that continuously flow between reality and perception. What emerges is a history where everything is replicated for two, except the land, that remains one and contested. Moreover, the book discloses a pattern and demonstrates how this pattern has nothing to do with a solution.

Ciekawa pozycja.

Gostei muito do livro, muito completo e equilibrado. Serve para os que sabem pouco ou muito sobre a questão da Palestina. Mostra bem como se formou o péssimo relacionamento entre os povos e o quanto são inviáveis as soluções propostas.

This is excellently written history. You can see that the author worked as a journalist for years. Very accessible and informative. Recommended for students and the general reader.

Intreressante para quem goste de história