The Six Day War was the climax in the deterioration of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This study deals with such issues as: the relevance of the Filastin problem as key to understanding the descent to war; the pivotal Syrian water struggle as a key motivating factor; and, the Hashemite regime's response to Palestinians' heightened national awakening.

The Six Day War was the climax in the deterioration of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This study deals with such issues as: the relevance of the Filastin problem as key to understanding the descent to war; the pivotal Syrian water struggle as a key motivating factor; and, the Hashemite regime's response to Palestinians' heightened national awakening.

A former Israeli intelligence officer offers a fresh understanding of the complex history and politics of the Middle East in this new analysis. In this book, Moshe Shemesh looks at the formative years of the Palestinian national movement that emerged following the 1948 War and traces the leaders, their objectives, and their weaknesses, fragmentation, and conflicts with their neighbors. He follows the formation of the Sons of Nakba, the establishment of Fatah, the reframing of Jordan as analogous with the Palestinian cause, and the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its new expression of nationalism until the 1967 War. With unprecedented access to Arabic sources, Shemesh provides new perspectives on inter-Arab politics and the history of the intractable Arab-Israeli conflict.

The June 1967 war was a watershed in the history of the modern Middle East. In six days, the Israelis defeated the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian armies, seizing large portions of their territories. Two veteran scholars of the Middle East bring together some of the most knowledgeable experts in their fields to reassess the origins and the legacies of the war. Each chapter takes a different perspective from the vantage point of a different participant, those that actually took part in the war and also the world powers that played important roles behind the scenes. Their conclusions make for sober reading. At the heart of the story was the incompetence of the Egyptian leadership and the rivalry between various Arab players who were deeply suspicious of each other's motives. Israel, on the other side, gained a resounding victory for which, despite previous assessments to the contrary, there was no master plan.

Photographs of objects one sees everyday that contain the shapes of letters of the alphabet.

Based on primary sources, this volume studies the Palestinian Entity with special reference to the PLO in an integrated fashion, investigating the complex mutual influences of the development of the Palestinian national movement, the politics within the Arab arena and that of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It examines the commitment of the Arab world to the Palestinian national movement, in relation to the movement's dependence on the Arab position and on continued Arab support. Moshe Shemesh analyses the processes which led to the establishment of the PLO in 1964 and the take over of the PLO by the Palestinian fidai organisations in 1968-69. Dr. Shemesh also studies the development of the Palestinian national movement, especially in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, between 1968-74 under the leadership of the Fatah, which has become its 'backbone'. He analyses the significance of the PLO's turn in strategy of June 1974, and the resolutions of the Rabat Arab summit in October 1974, which recognised the PLO as 'the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people'.

This book is the only work of its kind devoted exclusively to the institutional framework of Palestinian politics from 1856 until December 1920, when the third Palestinian Arab Congress was held in Haifa to decide the future of Palestine. Muslih's book is also the first to present in detail the ideologies of Ottomanism and Arab nationalism and the ways in which they relate to Palestine. In the groundbreaking analysis that considers the entire context of Arab politics, Muhammad Muslih articulates a new interpretation for the emergence of Palestinian nationalism, and one which will forster a better understanding of centuries-old attachment of the Arab Palestinians to their land and their struggle for its independence.