Palestine 1948: War, Escape And The Emergence Of The Palestinian Refugee Problem [Paperback]

Yoav Gelber (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1845190750 | ISBN-13: 978-1845190750 | Publication Date: April 2006 | Edition: 2nd

Since the 1970s, the Latin Based on new or newly interpreted Israeli, British and Arab documents, this book attempts to integrate present controversies concerning the development of the Jewish-Palestinian war from December 1947 to mid-May 1948 and the consecutive Israeli-Arab war. It follows the organization of both sides at the beginning of the war and the shaping of their respective war policies. Further, it describes the creation of the invading coalition and its disintegration in the wake of the Arab armies' military failure. The book stresses mainly the processes that led Palestinian society to its collapse and mass flight and the Israeli reactions and policies that turned this temporary escape into a long-lasting refugee problem. Emphasizing the different historical and cultural perspectives of the adversaries and the context of the war's development, it criticises the approach of the Israeli 'New Historians' who tend to isolate the refugee problem from the broader issues of the war and treat it separately. Includes a glossary of Arab/Israeli wartime operations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Recommended for its contribution to a continuing debate over a controversial issue..." -- Choice. "There have been flashier histories of Israel's war of independence, and longer ones, but none as well informed, more sensible and more compelling than Gelber's magisterial account..." -- Middle East Quarterly. "Yoav Gelber's contribution to the literature on 1948 is useful for its detailed chronology of 'Israel's most significant and triumphal' campaign against the Arabs... The book's value lies in its shedding light on the loose alliances unfolding in the Middle East." -- Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Oxford University Press.

About the Author

Yoav Gelber is Professor of History at the University of Haifa and Head of the Herzl Institute for Research and Study of Zionism. He is the author of a number of books on Middle East affairs, including: Israeli-Jordanian Dialogue: Cooperation, Conspiracy, or Collusion? (Sussex Academic, 2004); and Jewish-Transjordanian Relations, 1921-1948 (Frank Cass, 1997).

Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: Sussex Academic Pr; 2nd edition (April 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845190750
• ISBN-13: 978-1845190750
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,145,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A magisterial account..., October 28, 2005

By 

Jazz It Up Baby - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Palestine, 1948: War, Escape and the Emergence of the Palestinian Refugee Problem (Hardcover)

There have been flashier histories of Israel's war of independence and longer ones, but none as well informed, more sensible, and more compelling that Gelber's magisterial account. Making full use of the archives and blending them into a lively account, he provides enough specifics to make the hostilities come alive without ever bogging down in detail. He also dismisses with grace and ease the "particularly irritating" work of the self-styled New Historians, which he finds "one-sided and incomplete." The book's only defect is being published in a limited edition and at a vastly too-high price; let's hope an inexpensive paperback follows soon.

Gelber argues that the first phase of the war began just one day after the United Nations decision to partition Palestine on November 29, 1947 and continued through to the British retreat on May 15, 1948. During that half-year, a civil war took place within the boundaries of Mandatory Palestine, with the British not willing to expend lives to stop it. The Zionists won this round with an ease that astounded them almost as much as the Arabs, an ease which Gelber attributes not to their greater martial abilities but to the vast infrastructural superiority they enjoyed. He also makes the interesting point that the voluntary Arab flight from the contested areas fit into a cultural pattern; historically by-standers to the wars of their rulers, the farmers and townspeople escaped the hostilities temporary, then returned when the fighting ended. But Zionists came out of a Europe context in which abandoning the land was tantamount to forfeiting it.

The second round began with the Arab armies' invasion on May 15. Those armies were almost as ill-prepared for fighting as the Palestinians had been and, like them, were soundly defeated, with shuddering consequences for all the regimes involved. But don't be satisfied with this potted version - read the full version Gelber so capably recounts in Palestine 1948.

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars comprehensive coverage!, April 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Palestine, 1948: War, Escape and the Emergence of the Palestinian Refugee Problem (Hardcover)

An amazing up to date account on the history of the israeli palestinian conflict, albeit a fat fat book!