Revolution Until Victory?: The Politics and History of the PLO (A selection of the History Book Club) [Paperback]

Barry Rubin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674768043 | ISBN-13: 978-0674768048 | Publication Date: September 1, 1996

This account of the PLO's ideology, strategy, tactics, its relationship to other Arab states, and its confrontations with Israel, documents how the PLO was transformed from revolutionary organization into the administrator of its own territory.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is the best and clearest political and historical analysis of the Palestine Liberation Organization to appear to date. Rubin, author of Cauldron of Turmoil: America in the Middle East ( LJ 12/92) provides richly detailed examination of how a group of Palestinians, not part of the old guard dominated by the prominent Jerusalem families, created an organization to fulfill a political agenda and achieve a grandiose objective: to establish a Palestinian Arab state in the place of the already existing state of Israel. He examines how the organization groped for a method of operation, fruitlessly employing terrorism, then searching for a more acceptable approach after the 1983 war, and finally moving toward a more diplomatic approach and facing the dilemma of the intifada as a non-PLO initiative. Rubin's effort takes the reader up through the agreement signed with the Israelis in Washington in Sepember 1993. Well suited for a wide range of audiences. See also Shimon Peres's The New Middle East , reviewed above.--Ed.
- Sanford R. Silverburg, Catawba Coll., Salisbury, N.C .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

As a concise documentary work, [this book] elegantly and thoroughly chronicles the history of the PLO, noting the ideological and operative distinctions between its principal component, Fatah, and other more radical branches.
--David B. Green (New York Times Book Review )

Rubin...meticulously traces the agonizingly erratic course by which the PLO finally arrived at the negotiating table. He also seeks to explain the PLO's seeming inability to abandon maximalist aims--the recovery of all of Palestine and the eradication of the Israeli state...A lucid and concise...account of the PLO leadership's management of Palestinian fortunes during the era now coming to a close.
--Shaul Bakhash (Newsday )

Provides an excellent guide to PLO intentions. In compact and readable form, Rubin reliably reviews three decades worth of PLO complexities. More than that, he breaks new ground by getting behind the PLO's external face--the personality of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and the record of terror--and concentrating on its internal dynamics...In short, if you want to read one study about the elusive organization called the Palestine Liberation Organization, Revolution Until Victory? is the way to go.
--Daniel Pipes (Washington Times )

Barry Rubin has a justified reputation as a quick study and a flowing writer...[This] is the best early analysis of the makings of the Israeli-PLO accords.
--Michael Widlanski (Jerusalem Post )

An excellent and timely analytical political history of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), one which investigates and interprets its political circumstances, strategies, and doctrines from an inception in the late 1950s to the earthshaking events of 1993 culminating in the Rabin-Arafat handshake on the White House lawn. Above all, it provides the reader a vivid portrayal of the seemingly endless twistings and turnings and reversals of PLO policies.
--Robert E. Harkavy (Political Science Quarterly )

The question remains: why did the PLO choose the path of accommodation rather than that of armed struggle? The answers are found in Barry Rubin's Revolution Until Victory...an impressive analysis of that Palestinian umbrella group.
--Sheldon Kirshner (Canadian Jewish News )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674768043
• ISBN-13: 978-0674768048
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,845,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolution Until Victory, July 16, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Revolution Until Victory?: The Politics and History of the PLO (Hardcover)

Since 1967, the burning question of the Arab-Israel conflict has been, Will the Arabs accept the Jewish state's existence? Answering it has proven difficult. The September 13th accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) makes this issue all the more pressing. What do the Palestinians intend-a temporary cease-fire or a true peace? Have they had a change of heart or are they biding their time to strike again? Rubin's timely Revolution Until Victory? a history of the PLO, provides an excellent guide to PLO intentions. In compact and readable form, he reliably reviews three decades' worth of PLO complexities. More than that, he breaks new ground by getting behind the PLO's external face-the personality of Yasir Arafat or the record of terror-and concentrating instead on its internal dynamics. Calling the PLO's structure "a central factor in shaping its destiny," Rubin explains how relations between constituent groups and with outside forces molded its history. This approach allows him to make sense of much that had hitherto been mysterious, including the PLO's pattern of inconsistency, extremism, and self-defeat. It also permits him to hint at implications about its future course. In short, if you are prepared to read just one study about the elusive organization called the Palestine Liberation Organization, Revolution Until Victory? is the place to go.

Middle East Quarterly, September 1994