Holy War, Holy Peace

Holy War, Holy Peace

Author: Marc Gopin

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0195146506

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The use of religion in inflaming the Palestinian/Israeli conflict represents one understanding of the Abrahamic traditions. Marc Goplin argues for a greater integration of the Middle East peace process with the region's religious groups.


The New Arab Wars

The New Arab Wars

Author: Marc Lynch

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2016-04-26

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1610396103

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Less than twenty-four months after the hope-filled Arab uprising, the popular movement had morphed into a dystopia of resurgent dictators, failed states, and civil wars. Egypt's epochal transition to democracy ended in a violent military coup. Yemen and Libya collapsed into civil war, while Bahrain erupted in smothering sectarian repression. Syria proved the greatest victim of all, ripped apart by internationally fueled insurgencies and an externally supported, bloody-minded regime. Amidst the chaos, a virulently militant group declared an Islamic State, seizing vast territories and inspiring terrorism across the globe. What happened? The New Arab Wars is a profound illumination of the causes of this nightmare. It details the costs of the poor choices made by regional actors, delivers a scathing analysis of Western misreadings of the conflict, and condemns international interference that has stoked the violence. Informed by commentators and analysts from the Arab world, Marc Lynch's narrative of a vital region's collapse is both wildly dramatic and likely to prove definitive. Most important, he shows that the region's upheavals have only just begun -- and that the hopes of Arab regimes and Western policy makers to retreat to old habits of authoritarian stability are doomed to fail.


The First World War in the Middle East

The First World War in the Middle East

Author: Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

Publisher: Hurst & Company Limited

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1849042748

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The First World War in the Middle East is an accessibly written military and social history of the clash of world empires in the Dardanelles, Egypt and Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia and the Caucasus. Coates Ulrichsen demonstrates how wartime exigencies shaped the parameters of the modern Middle East, and describes and assesses the major campaigns against the Ottoman Empire and Germany involving British and imperial troops from the French and Russian Empires, as well as their Arab and Armenian allies. Also documented are the enormous logistical demands placed on host societies by the Great Powers' conduct of industrialised warfare in hostile terrain. The resulting deepening of imperial penetration, and the extension of state controls across a heterogeneous sprawl of territories, generated a powerful backlash both during and immediately after the war, which played a pivotal role in shaping national identities as the Ottoman Empire was dismembered. This is a multidimensional account of the many seemingly discrete yet interlinked campaigns that resulted in one to one and a half million casualties. It details not just their military outcome but relates them to intelligence-gathering, industrial organisation, authoritarianism and the political economy of empires at war.


War over Peace

War over Peace

Author: Uri Ben-Eliezer

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2019-06-04

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0520973054

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Violence and war have raged between Zionists and Palestinians for over a century, ever since Zionists, trying to establish a nation-state in Palestine, were forced to confront the fact that the country was already populated. Covering every conflict in Israel’s history, War over Peace reveals that Israeli nationalism was born ethnic and militaristic and has embraced these characteristics to this day. In his sweeping and original synthesis, Uri Ben-Eliezer shows that this militaristic nationalism systematically drives Israel to find military solutions for its national problems, based on the idea that the homeland is sacred and the territory is indivisible. When Israelis opposed to this ideology brought about change during a period that led to the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, cultural and political forces, reinforced by religious and messianic elements, prevented the implementation of the agreements, which brought violence back in the form of new wars. War over Peace is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the role of ethnic nationalism and militarism in Israel as well as throughout the world.


War, Peace and Terror in the Middle East

War, Peace and Terror in the Middle East

Author: Raphael Israeli

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-03-18

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1135295549

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A collection of articles about the fateful issues of war and peace in the Middle East, especially the evasive brands of war - terrorism and incitement. Horrific words of incitement, followed by atrocious acts of terror, have occurred during the past few years. These have significantly eroded hope in the peace process that had been initiated by Sadat and Begin a quarter-century ago (1977). All efforts to duplicate that feat between Israel and Palestinians have ended in frustration so far, and it now seems that a tremendous amount of ground-work will have to be done before a new peace venture. This volume focuses on these themes and brings to bear both the benefit of the hindsight gained since the articles were published, and the insight that the current world crisis, occasioned by the terrorism and broadsides against Western culture that al-Qai'da and its allies have launched.


Peace Process

Peace Process

Author: William B. Quandt

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 520

ISBN-13: 9780520225152

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One message of Peace Process is that the United States has had, and will continue to have, a crucial role in helping Israel and her Arab neighbors reach peace. If American presidents play their role with skill, they can make a lasting contribution. But just as likely, they may misread the realities of the Middle East and add to the impasse by their own errors.


The Military Balance in the Middle East

The Military Balance in the Middle East

Author: Anthony H. Cordesman

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2004-09-30

Total Pages: 586

ISBN-13: 0313026769

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Noted Middle East military expert Anthony H. Cordesman details the complex trends that come into play in determining the military balance in a region that has become so critical to world peace. This ready resource provides a wealth of information on military expenditures and major arms systems, as well as qualitative trends, by country and by zone. However, as Cordesman stresses, because the greater Middle East is more a matter of rhetoric than military reality, mere data summarizing trends in 23 different countries is no substitute for a substantive explanation. Using tables, graphs, and charts, this study explores every aspect of the regional military balance with attention to sub-regional balances, internal civil conflicts, and low level border tensions. The Middle East is certainly one of the most militarized areas in the world, and changes in technology, access to weapons of mass destruction, and political instability contribute to a situation that has long been in constant flux. Some of the regional flashpoints covered in this study include the Maghreb (North Africa); the Arab-Israeli conflict (dominated by Israel versus Syria); and the Gulf (divided into those states that view Iran as the primary threat and those who lived in fear of Iraq). Internal conflicts, such as those in Mauritania, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Yemen, increasingly dominate regional tensions. In addition, border conflicts within the region and with neighboring countries could further aggravate the delicate balance.


The War for Palestine

The War for Palestine

Author: Eugene L. Rogan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 9780521794763

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The Arab-Israeli conflict is one of the most intense and intractable international conflicts of modern times. This book is about the historical roots of that conflict. It re-examines the history of 1948, the war in which the newly-born state of Israel defeated the Palestinians and the regular Arab armies of the neighbouring states so decisively. The book includes chapters on all the principal participants, on the reasons for the Palestinian exodus, and on the political and moral consequences of the war. The chapters are written by leading Arab, Israeli and western scholars who draw on primary sources in all relevant languages to offer alternative interpretations and new insights into this defining moment in Middle East history. The result is a major contribution to the literature on the 1948 war. It will command a wide audience from among students and general readers with an interest in the region.


Hamas, Popular Support and War in the Middle East

Hamas, Popular Support and War in the Middle East

Author: Richard Davis

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-02-05

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1317402596

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This book offers a new understanding of the nature of power-seeking insurgent groups by empirically examining the use of violence by Hamas in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. Though Hamas has learned to ride the tides of popular support, it remains suspended between its quest to achieve the values of its ardent supporters (reclamation of land through force) and the desire to grow popular support. This tension is reflected in how and when the group exercises violent resistance. The theoretical framework applied in this volume provides a simple construct to understand the dynamics that result in use and non-use of violence under changing environmental conditions by Hamas, but could be applied more broadly to other power-seeking insurgent groups, including ISIL. The book weaves together the dynamics between violent actions and internal and external influences on Hamas, including: expressed values of the group, Palestinian popular support measures, leaders’ personalities and innovation (weapons and tactics), Israeli influence and targeted killings, peace processes and conflicts in Gaza, Syria, Iraq and Egypt. With newly assembled datasets on Hamas’ violent acts and public statements, Israeli Targeted Killings, historical measures of popular support and extensive field interviews, the book offers a fresh perspective on insurgent group violence by demonstrating under what conditions the group exercises violence or refrains from doing so. This book will be of much interest to both policy makers and students of the Arab-Israeli conflict, political violence, Middle Eastern politics, security studies and international relations in general.