Chapter 1 Introduction: The Uses and Misuses of the Past Part 2 The Arab World: Imagining the Past, Defining the Present, Anticipating the Future Chapter 3 The Arab Nation-State: Marking Modern Identities by Embracing Pasts Real and Imagined Chapter 4 Defining Arab Palestine: Historical Geography, Imagined Polities, and Sacred Space Chapter 5 "My Land [Biladi]": The Formation of Palestinian National Consciousness and the Quest for a Modern Nation-State Chapter 6 The Call to Arms: A Mark of Palestinian Nationhood Chapter 7 The Islamic Movement: Traditional Islam and Palestinian Nationalism after 1987 Chapter 8 Haunted by the Past: The Islamists and the Peace Process Part 9 The Modern State of Israel: Integrating Pasts Real and Imagined Chapter 10 A Lexicon of Near Eastern Identities: The Jewish People by Various Names and Foundational Narratives Chapter 11 Jews, Arabs and Modern Biblical Scholarship: Academic Politics and the Politics of National Consciousness Chapter 12 The Emergence of Zionism: A Secular and Humanist Narrative Chapter 13 Return, Reclaim and Reconstitute Chapter 14 Accommodation with the Arabs of Palestine Chapter 15 Epilogue
Jacob Lassner is professor of Jewish civilization in the departments of history and religion at Northwestern University. He is the author of seven books, most recently, The Middle East Remembered: Forged Identities, Competing Narratives, Contested Spaces and numerous articles on Jewish-Muslim relations and Near Eastern History. S. Ilan Troen is the Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair in Israel Studies at Brandeis University and the Sam and Anna Lopin Professor in Modern History, emeritus, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is the founding editor of Israel Studies (Indiana University Press), the leading journal in the field, and the author or editor of ten books on American, Jewish and Israeli History. His most recent book is Imagining Zion: Dreams, Designs and Realities in a Century of Jewish Settlement.
This impressive book deals with a significant topic that has not
been studied before in a methodical and comprehensive manner. This
comprehensive and comparative study extensively adds to our
understanding of the two communities and their enduring conflict.
This book should be read and digested by all those who are
interested in these communities and their complex historical
clash.
*Gabriel (Gabi) Sheffer, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem*
This truly wonderful work should be essential reading for any
serious scholar in Middle Eastern studies.
*Khaleel Mohammed, San Diego State University*
Lassner and Troen have produced nothing less than a definitive
prolegomenon to the Arab-Israel conflict and other current
conflicts involving Muslims and Jews. They show that historical
memory matters a great deal; it is neither irrelevant nor
determinative, and not all historical communities are "imagined."
Written in an exceptionally reader-friendly style, Jews and Muslims
in the Arab World is a unique and riveting narrative, fair to both
traditions, that anyone with even a mild interest will have trouble
putting down.
*Alan Dowty, University of Notre Dame*
A fascinating study of the interface between memory and politics as
reflected in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By providing a
refreshing look at the pious myths bedeviling Middle Eastern
politics, Lassner and Troen show with meticulous scholarship how
both Arab nationalism as well as Zionism re-fashioned ancient
traditions to legitimize modern political claims. With critical
empathy to both sides, the authors warn against simplistic
diplomatic attempts to solve the conflict without taking into
account these deeply-held beliefs and traditions. At the same time,
they call on both sides to listen to the voice of the Other and
realize that history is not a seamless coat, but a multi-faceted
mosaic, in which accepting the legitimacy of the other side does
not by and in itself undermine one's own narrative.
*Shlomo Avineri, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem*
Jews and Muslims in the Arab World shows why the Jewish and
Palestinian struggles for self-determination have played such a
central role in the history of these two peoples and how that
history has provided the resources for both continuing the conflict
and changing its configuration. Anyone interested in understanding
the antipathy between Israelis and Palestinians and between Jews
and Muslims will find no clearer introduction or explanation.
*Donna Robinson Divine, Smith College*
This is an eloquent, clear-eyed examination of the way in which the
principal parties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their
partisans have understood, used, and misused history, religion, and
collective memory in their perceptions of themselves, their
adversaries, and the very essence of their relation. The authors'
calm and reasoned voices leave the reader neither naively
optimistic nor hopelessly pessimistic. This book ought to be
required reading for anyone interested in the contemporary Middle
East, and not least among those who should read this wise and
informative book are the people of that troubled region
themselves.
*Norman A. Stillman, University of Oklahoma*
This is a remarkable work of scholarship and a valuable
contribution to our understanding of the conflict.
*Jewish Book World*
Scholars Jacob Lassner and S. Ilan Troen step forward with a
masterly, majestic, original and thought-provoking volume....the
authors deserve praise....Never before has the chasm which
separates the Muslim world from its rivals been described more
eloquently than it is in this book. It can only be hoped that this
splendid volume, written by authors with an extraordinary knowledge
of Islam and the Arab world, will do much to expose the naivete of
those who constantly beat their breat in contrition before those
who seek the destruction of the Jewish state.
*Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs*
An excellent and unorthodox volume on Israel and the Arabs. This is
not just another book on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The authors,
whose objective is to reinterpret developments in the Arab-Israeli
conflict, go about their corrective task with impressive erudition
and forthrightness. The authors have written two books grafted into
one, providing a unique culturally informed overview of the
Arab-Israeli conflict. They have produced an essential and long
overdue complement to existing scholarship on the subject. This is
truly an important book.
*Journal of Israeli History: Politics, Society, Culture*
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