Middle East history

Israel's Founding Contradictions Haunt 75th Anniversary

by Bernard Avishai

A bargain of tolerance between secular bourgeois and religious supremacist wings of Israeli society is being renegotiated by the right wing. Are concessions to religious groups made by David Ben-Gurion at the founding the root of conflict?

Iraq's Militarized Politics Keep the Country in Turmoil

by Simona Foltyn

Sectarian divisions and easy access to weapons have ensured that force remains a determinative factor in Iraqi politics.   

I Resigned from the Carter Center over "Apartheid" Charge; I was Wrong

by Steve Berman

American supporters of Israel have blamed the former president as a messenger about the consequences of the occupation; it's time to consider the message. 

Two Books on Israeli Nationalism Show a Growing Divide on Zionism in America

by Ari Hoffman

Books by Omri Boehm and Yossi Shain take diametrically opposed positions on the historical and contemporary merits of Zionism as institutionalized in the Israeli state, and signal the growth of a polarization in the American Jewish community. 

Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Letter to University of Washington

The association is concerned that the University of Washington defunded an endowed chair in Israel Studies after donors complained about the faculty member's statements as a private citizen criticizing Israeli policies in Gaza. 

Ghosts in the Mirror: France's Crusade Against Former Nazis in the Algerian Insurgency

by Danny Orbach

Nazi fugitives and mercenaries took on an outsize significance in the strategic imaginations of both French and West German governments and intelligence agencies in the Cold War; they were most influential not through their actions but through distorting government policy through these delusions of power.

Martin Indyk Writes the Palestinians Out of the History of Kissinger's Middle East Diplomacy

by James R. Stocker

Martin Indyk’s new work offers a vivid portrait of the former Secretary of State’s Arab-Israeli diplomacy, but he completely misses one of the most important parts of this policy – the Palestinians.

Haaretz Editorial: Israel Must Acknowledge War Crimes in 1948 Fight for Independence

"It is time to acknowledge the truth, and first to publish the report by the first attorney general, Yaakov-Shimshon Shapira, on the massacres of the dark autumn of 1948... and to hold a penetrating public discussion of their implications today."

Opinion: The Palestinian Political Class has Become a Heavy Burden on the People

Two observers of the Palestinian political scene argue that the leading factions of Hamas and Fatah are more motivated to maintain their own power than to support a growing, youth-led Palestinian movement for justice. 

Solomon's Peace Accord

by David Marks

Can Israelis and Palestinians imagine and implement a Solomonic peace? 

The Unbearable Easiness of Killing

by Arie M. Dubnov

"As a colleague justly commented, it is only helpful to call a situation ‘complicated’ if one is committed to unfolding the package, willing to examine its contents and prepared to be surprised by what one finds hidden inside."

Because of Palestine

by N.A. Mansour

"It is because I am Palestinian that I can tell you that objectivity—in history-writing, in the archives, in museums—does not exist."

The Settler Colonialist Frame Helps Clarify What's at Stake in the Middle East for Israelis, Palestinians, and Peace

by Jeff Kolnick

Looking at the recent resurgence of armed conflict between Israel and Hamas as part of a project of settler colonialism clarifies the nature of the conflict, and suggests that the immediate cessation of eviction of Palestinians is essential for peace. 

How Napoleon’s Legacy Explains the Middle East’s Conflicts

by Yoav Tenembaum

An international relations scholar argues that the Middle East can be explained through the division of "revolutionary" and "status quo" interests that dates to Napoleon's challenges to the European imperial order. How other nations respond to the conflict will follow whether they favor the status quo. 

Republicans are Far More Radical than Democrats on Israel

by Max Boot

Post columnist Max Boot surveys the bipartisan field of US policy toward Israel and concludes that the absolute support for the Israeli right from the Republicans, driven by the importance of evangelical voters, is wholly unprecedented. 

In Israel, the Violent Legacy of 1948

by Benny Morris

"The chaos in the towns of Lydda, Ramle, Haifa, Umm al-Fahm and Acre is a dim echo of the civil war between Palestine’s Jewish and Arab communities that engulfed the country during the first months of the 1948 war."

What Liberal Comparisons between Bush-Cheney and Trump Get Wrong

by Joseph Stieb

Liberal critics of Liz Cheney have suggested she's a hypocrite, blasting Trump's "Big Lie" while having championed the deceptions that led to the Iraq War. This is an imperfect comparison, which ignores the real lessons of Iraq – that fixing the fact-finding process to fit a policy is a common and continuing danger. 

This is a War Israel Can’t Win

by Max Boot

Post columnist Max Boot argues that the current cycle of attacks and reprisals are symbolic political gestures, and that Israel should declare that it's made its point and resume the work of political normalization with its Arab neighbors and political concessions with the Palestinian Authority that marginalize Hamas.

Rashid Khalidi on Palestinian History: From The Ottoman Empire to Settler Colonialism

Middle East historian Rashid Khalidi speaks with Pacifica Radio's Politics and Letters on the history of Palestine.

In Israel’s Rising Violence, Ripples From 1948

The eruption of communal violence between Jews and Arabs in Israeli towns with mixed populations is a legacy of the events of 1948, when, in the context of war, many towns' Arab populations were purged (historians debate the degree to which this was planned, or part of Israeli state policy).