The PLO and Israel: From Armed Conflict to Political Solution [Hardcover]

Avraham Sela (Editor), Moshe Ma'oz (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312129068 | ISBN-13: 978-0312129064 | Publication Date: October 15, 1997

The crucial political influence of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and its relationship to Israel form the focus this volume. It examines not only the history of the PLO and its conflict with Israel, but also the transition by the PLO from the national liberation movement of the Palestinian people to a functioning governing body.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the Harry S Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem organized a major international conference to bring together leading Palestinian, Israeli, and other scholars. Coincidentally, just before the conference convened, the Israel-PLO Oslo Accords of September 1993 were announced, giving the conferees a new context for their examination of the relationship between the PLO and Israel. Unfortunately, most of the papers (the basis for the book's various chapters) are very scholarly and recondite in their approach, resulting in a book that doesn't really present new material or insights, talks "at" and not "with" the reader, and devotes only part of the last paper to any sort of prognostication for future relations. Recommended only for the largest academic libraries.?David P. Snider, Casa Grande P.L., Ariz.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (October 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312129068
• ISBN-13: 978-0312129064
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,207,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars PLO and Israel: From Armed Conflict to Political Solution, July 28, 2001

By 

Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum, Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The PLO and Israel: From Armed Conflict to Political Solution (Hardcover)

An all-star cast of sixteen academics, all but one either Palestinian or Israeli, attended a 1994 conference at Hebrew University; The PLO and Israel memorializes their deliberations. The book bears close attention because, with only some exceptions (fine chapters by Hillel Frisch, Galia Golan, Meir Litvak, Shaul Mishal, Barry Rubin), one of Israels leading institutions has issued a document that for all intents and purposes serves as Palestinian propaganda. In this it represents the thinking of Israels elite.

The apologetics begin in the subtitle, where the main question roiling Israel public life (are negotiations with the Palestinians leading to peace or not?) is flat-out assumed (of course it is). They continue in the introduction by Sela, where he deems the post-1967 PLO an authentic Palestinian national organization, refers to intransigent Israeli hostility to the PLO (but not PLO hostility to Israel), and adopts such PLO terminology as the Palestinian revolution. From here the drumbeat goes on. Muhammad Muslih learnedly details the PLOs numerous peace initiatives between 1974 and 1988. Manuel Hassassians chapter on PLO changes in the thirty years to 1994 is subtitled a democracy in the making. The editors assure us that the PLO now adheres to the norms of international legitimacy. Eyad El Sarraj describes the sort of ecstasy induced by the intifada. And Baruch Kimmerling finds in the election of Binyamin Netanyahu proof that the Israeli Jews were not ripe for a reasonable settlement with the Palestinians.

Middle East Quarterly, June 1998