Bridging the Gap [Hardcover]

Shai Feldman (Author), Abdullah Toukan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0847685500 | ISBN-13: 978-0847685509 | Publication Date: March 1997

A path-breaking collaboration between an Israeli arms control expert and a Jordanian policy advisor, this concise book offers a frank assessment of Arab and Israeli perceptions of their security problems. Building on the bilateral and multilateral peace process, the authors propose a set of measures to increase trust between the two sides and break out of the security dilemma in which a move by one side to strengthen itself provokes the other side to do the same.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book is of critical historical importance. Feldman and Toukan have raised Arab-Israeli mutual exploration to a new and exceptionally sensitive level. They have demonstrated thoughtfully and brilliantly that a new era of Mideast analysis has begun . . . must reading for policymakers and students of the area alike. This is a wise, stimulating, and incisive volume . . . should be thoroughly discussed in future regional security talks. (Spiegel, Steven L. )

A few procedural points that could reap real gains. A timely reminder that Israelis and Arabs are talking. (Foreign Affairs )

This book is a triumph for Middle East security—a unique collaboration between two scholars across the Arab-Israeli divide. The remarkable effort made by Feldman and Toukan—sons of two former adversary states—should serve as a model for peacemaking in other regions. (Graham T. Allison )

An unprecedented collaborative effort. . . . The authors use a simple but effective format. . . . The book has considerable merit. (Yosef Lapid The Ethnic Conflict Research Digest )

Offers an insightful and well-written overview of the security perceptions of Middle East states and effectively outlines the persisting dilemmas and opposing perspectives. (Mela Notes 71-72 )

A must for any serious student of current Middle Eastern security issues . . . incisive and visionary . . . Its collaborative production by two prominent Arab and Israeli strategic analysts makes its achievement even more remarkable. (Roscoe S. Suddarth )

About the Author

Shai Feldman is senior research fellow at the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Abdullah Toukan is science advisor to King Hussein of Jordan.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847685500
• ISBN-13: 978-0847685509
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,123,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bridging the Gap, February 13, 2001

By 

Christine Saalbach (San Antonio TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bridging the Gap: A Future Security Architecture for the Middle East (Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict) (Paperback)

Bridging the Gap is a truly unusual book written by an unlikely duo who, if they met at a cocktail party, would soon be scrapping about politics, religion and national boundaries - an Israeli scholar (Shai Feldman) and a Jordanian scholar (Abdullah Toukan). The book is one of a series funded by the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict. In this formal setting, the two authors have collaborated on peace-making and peace-keeping policies.

Together, Feldman and Toukan write the opening chapter. First, they define the Middle East as all nations west to Morocco, east to Iran, north to Syria, and south to Yemen. This area contains five percent of the world's population, sixty percent of the world's known oil reserves, and thirty percent of the world's arms imports. The area is plagued with a shortage of water and with refugee problems. Despite deep hostilities between Arabs and Israelis that have their roots in ancient history, there are real attempts at peacemaking between Israel and Palestine, Israel and Jordan, and Israel and Egypt. The Arms Control and Regional Security (ACRS) working group, with members from Israel, Palestine and thirteen other Middle Eastern nations, has been negotiating to reduce suspicion and promote dialogue.

The early 1990's brought drastic changes to the Middle East. First, there was the end of the Cold War, changing attitudes between the former USSR and the US. Soviet Jews were permitted to emigrate to Israel, bringing their talents and skills.

Second, the Gulf War changed attitudes of the Arab countries toward each other. Where they had forsworn to defend each other from a common enemy, they had not reckoned that the challenge would come from within when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. When the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasir Arafat supported Iraq's action, the PLO gained the ire of their Arab allies. In spite of such obvious disagreement, peace negotiations began in 1992 and have continued even after unsettling incidents such as the murder of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 and acts of Islamic terrorism.

Toukan counters Feldman's viewpoint with statistics from Israel's wars of 1948, 1956, 1968-70 and 1973, all of which involved their territorial expansion. The Arab world views Israel as dangerously aggressive and expansionist.

In the end, Feldman and Toukan come together to summarize the difficulties that negotiations bring. At the same time, they recognize that continuing negotiations are necessary for the mutual survival of Israel and the Arab countries. They would prefer that Syria, Lebanon and Iran be involved in ACRS talks. Actions have been accomplished to remove media attention away from the talks, so that they may freely continue without public scrutiny and pressure. Unfortunately, the lack of media attention has also kept the public ignorant about successful progress in the talks. One of the more unusual agreements made at ACRS talks was to revise school textbooks to remove myths and built-in prejudices. This will certainly help to reduce the paranoia.

An index of abbreviations used in the book is included, a glossary, and a thorough index. The book lacks a map of the Middle East. I referred often to the abbreviation index and glossary, and would have found a map just as handy. While reading about disturbing, current Middle Eastern events in the newspaper, it is comforting to know that the negotiations described in Bridging the Gap still continue.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous analysis of Arab and Israeli security concerns, April 24, 2001

By 

J. Rabideau (Stuck in the Loser State) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bridging the Gap: A Future Security Architecture for the Middle East (Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict) (Paperback)

Undeniably Feldman and Toukan's collaboration upon this project, funded through the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, is unlikely. What emerges out of this unlikely collaboration, though, is an incredibly lucid, exceptionally concise...well, pithy, even...expatiation of the continuing general security aims of both the Israeli state and those of the Arab world-at-large.

Shai Feldman provides a deeply rational historiographic explanation for Israeli defense policy, looking at the origins of the "self-help" policy, and clearly identifying major security aims. Abdullah Toukan provides an equally lucid accounting of the origins and nature of Arab security concerns. The individual analyses of the respective frameworks are perhaps the clearest available.

Where this work is perhaps lacking, though, is in the collaborative fourth chapter, dealing with the construction of a collective security framework for the region. This is more a collection of ideas upon possible avenues than the firm laying-out of a security architecture. The authors open by reiterating the respective Arab and Israeli security concerns, and then segue into an analysis where the primary recommendations consist wholly of the need to sustain and enhance discussions (i.e. demonstrate tangible progress) upon arms control and regional security.

Ultimately, the architecture that is developed is somewhat dated, particularly in terms of specifics (book written in 1996-7), but the analysis of security concerns is so even-handed and concise as to make this book an undeniably worthwhile and valuable resource for persons interested in better understanding the uneasy nature of the security dynamic in the Arab-Israeli disputes.