Customer Reviews

The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Complete History of the Struggle and the Efforts to Resolve It (Routledge Historical Atlases)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This little volume is one of the best books ever written on the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is almost all maps.

The book starts with some maps that show the ancient borders of Israel. That allows the reader to see what borders Diaspora Jews associated with the word "Israel." And in fact, one can see where in this region Jews tried to settle after being expelled from Spain and elsewhere near the end of the fifteenth century.

Next it shows the places where Jews began settling starting with the advent of modern Zionism in around 1880. I found this part fascinating. The book explains that the Jews purchased their land from Turks and Arabs at high prices. Given that, one can see the hypocrisy of Arabs complaining that the Jews stole their land, and that the land ought to be given to those who were the majority in 1880. Even more interesting, Jews were easily the majority in what is now "East Jerusalem" in 1880, but very few Arabs would want to assign that land to Israel today: more likely they would complain that the place is being "judaized!"

The book continues past World War 1, showing proposed boundaries of the region where Jewish settlement would be permitted and encouraged, promises made by Britain in order to acquire the Mandate over the area. As we discover, Britain broke these promises to the Jews and to the international community, after Arab aggression against the Jews in 1920, 1921, 1929, and 1936-1939. Gilbert is to be commended for giving a detailed accounting of the violence.

The maps continue with great effect, showing all of Israel's wars and battles with Arab terrorism, along with borders suggested by various peace plans, right through Camp David and Taba in 2000.

There are a few omissions in this book. The most serious is simply leaving out the entire Jewish revolt against the British and their perfidious White Paper of 1939. We don't see the routes of boats like the Patria or even the Exodus. The omission is all the more serious given Gilbert's background in both British and Jewish history. Of course, strictly speaking, these incidents were part of a conflict between Jews and British, not Jews and Arabs, but I think they are an integral part of the overall picture.

Finally, a few maps are a little silly, such as showing the travels of US Secretaries of State Baker and Christopher in the Middle East in the early 1990s.

Nevertheless, all in all, it is a wonderful resource and I highly recommend it.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is a fiercely debated topic with numerous accusations constantly being thrown back and forth. For someone just beginning to study the Arab-Israeli conflict, it can be overwhelming. This book is a collection of maps drafted by a professional cartographer to show the real dimensions of treaties, ceasefires, boycotts, and other historical moments in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Would you like to know exactly which land the Oslo Agreements included?

Would you like to know which parts of the Middle East belonged to biblical Israel?

Would you like to know which parts of Britain's Palestine Mandate they forbid Jews to dwell or buy land on?

This resource can answer all those question and more graphically showing you the exact boundaries of, countries involved in, and other important aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict. I particularly found this resource helpful in disputing allegations by people that "such-and such a percentage" of the land was to be given up in a treaty such as the original U.N. plan for Palestine or under the Oslo Agreements. After showing my fellow debater the actual maps, the arguments were ended since I was in possession of hard fact thanks to this fine reference book.

Sir Martin Gilbert is a well-acclaimed British scholar, who has written numerous titles in the Historical Atlas series, extensively written about the Arab-Israeli conflict, and was also officially appointed to write the biography of Sir Winston Churchill.

I have reviewed the 1984 Fourth Edition, but several editions have since come out with updated information and additional maps to reflect more recent developments. I recommend getting the most recent edition available.

I highly recommend this outstanding resource for anyone studying the Arab-Israeli conflict, whether pro-Arab or pro-Israeli.

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

I have been reading different books on the Arab-Israeli conflict and I found this book very helpful in visualizing not only maps but also key dates in the history of this conflict.

I highly recommend this book as an additional reference for better understanding this conflict that continues to affect our world.

This set of maps is an invaluable resource for understanding the Arab- Israel conflict. It shows the historical claims of the sides, where the lines have been drawn and where they are drawn now. It is instructive in showing how the Arab side might had it been ready for peace had an even more miniscule Israel as its neighbor than the little Israel it has today. The irony that the Arab nation which has such a superabundance of Land should have made ' Land the sole issue ' when it might have devoted its efforts to internal development cannot escape one who looks at the map of the area.

A priceless study and reference to the `age-old' Arab-Israeli conflict by Sir Martin Gilbert, a renown expert on the subject.

The whole history of the Arab-Jewish conflict is traced in detail, especially from the turn of the 20th Century right through to the recent so-called `peace process'.

Approximately 150 detailed maps are provided, depicting wars, violence, political `agreements', negotiations and cease-fires, all together with their dates and context.

Of particular note are the maps surrounding the `plans' for Palestine surrounding the Balfour Declaration of 1917, maps outlining the land promised to the Jews through British pledges for the provision of a Jewish homeland and the subsequent `border changes' due to large areas of this impending Jewish land being `ceded' for the creation of the Arab state of Transjordan.

Some very useful maps are even provided dated 1,000BC to 636AD pertaining to the Jewish presence in `Palestine' before the Arab conquest. The Jewish presence is also documented in `Palestine' from the Arab conquest of 636AD to 1914 and onwards.

Comprising some 180 pages, this is a must-have reference for any serious student in this subject. These historic maps can only be a thorn in the side of the `new-historians' who seek to de-Judaize the Promised Land. Highly recommended.

Another recommended work by Sir Martin Gilbert is "Exile And Return; The Struggle For A Homeland".

Great timetable illustrated by detailed maps and explanations from the Ottoman Empire split-up to today, Colorful maps.

Open this book on any page and you'll find one of more than 150 maps imparting great wisdom, and a depth of understanding rarely presented in the evening news. Only three maps concern periods before the twentieth century. The third shows the Turkish conquerors' vilayet re-districting of the Holy Land in 1888, plus areas of Arab-Jewish conflict during the last three decades of Ottoman rule.

The book's fourth map clearly outlines the areas excluded in 1915 from the independence promised by the British to the Arabs, and requested by Hussein of Mecca for Arab cantons. Neither side mentioned southern Palestine, the Mutasarriflik of Jerusalem or the Jewish people--at all.

Further maps also evidence the eagerness of Arab property owners to sell waste land to Jewish settlers at very high prices, for very large tracts were made available.

Still others show the locations of Arab attacks on Jewish communities beginning in 1882. Through 1914, bands of Arabs assaulted at least 10 Jewish settlements between Jaffa and Jerusalem and in the Jezreel Valley.

From 1920 on, the maps show progressively more attacks, in which Arab assailants destroyed the new landowners' forests, wheat fields, orange groves and cattle, burned and stoned their shops and factories--and murdered unarmed Jews.

A March 1920 attack by a large number of Halsa Arabs on the Jews in Tel Hai killed six; an April 1920 attack on B'nai Yehuda killed one. In May 1921, Arab riots prompted Britain, the League of Nations' trustee of all Middle Eastern Mandates, to end Jewish immigration and "close settlement of the land" throughout Transjordan, both of which the League had sought, with Arab approval, only a few years earlier. Only these attacks, and the Arab 1929 riots that killed 20 Jewish children and elders in Safed, 7 in Hacarmel, 6 in Motza, 1 in Hulda, 6 in Tel Aviv, 2 in Beer Toviya--and 59 in Hebron-- persuaded previously passive Jewish farmers to take up arms, thereby defying British prohibitions against Jewish self-defense.

The fact is, Arab riots occurred well in advance of Israel's creation. They took scores of Jewish civilian lives. And then (in 1921)--as now--the only Arabs killed by Jews were killed in counter-attacks that followed the initial Arab assaults.

All this shows clearly on the maps before reaching page 14.

From here, the pictorials exhibit the precise dimensions of the 1936 Arab riots, with one page devoted to each of four months. The casualties to Jewish life and property were massive and nationwide. More riots in 1937 and 1938 followed.

Most enlightening of all, however, are those maps detailing the various partition plans over the years. The first of these, which the Jewish people accepted, and the Arabs rejected, was the 1937 Peel Commission proposal. The Peel Commission envisioned a tiny Jewish State, an L-shaped affair perhaps 6 or 8 miles-wide along the Mediterranean coast, from south of Rehovot to a few miles north of Acre with a northern corridor no more than 30 miles deep running from the coast, and inland on a border south of Afula to Beit Shean. Even this, the Jewish people accepted, and Arabs rejected.

But the Peel proposal was most remarkable for something else it inherently acknowledged: Jerusalem was not a "traditionally Arab city," as modern-day news repeatedly misinforms us. Its population--which was centered in the Old City--was predominantly Jewish. Christians and Muslims were minorities.

Thus the Peel Commission assigned Jerusalem, Bethlehem and a roughly oval-shaped area surrounding them, to an international trust to be managed by Britain for the League of Nations.

When that plan foundered on the Arab refusals, two subsequent 1938 partition plans proposed assigning even larger areas to the international trust. The more significant of the pair was the British Woodhead plan, as it was none too sympathetic to Zioninsts. Nevertheless, Woodhead expanded the international area encompassing Jerusalem and Bethlehem to include "traditionally Arab Ramallah" as well.

It is a lot more difficult after consulting this book, to lay blame for the Arab Israeli conflict solely on Israel's doorstep. The pictures tell the story, which naturally makes this volume unpopular with anti-Israel polemicists.

Much daylight needs to shine on these facts: Israel could and would have been much smaller than it is today if only Arabs had in 1937 accepted any Jewish state. They didn't, although none of the current issues even existed in 1937. But then, they had begun attacking Jewish farmers decades before Israel had any borders at all. These points are very telling indeed.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

Gilbert's precision and attention to detail makes this book an invaluable resource. This book helps give the reader an overview of a complex, winding history in short space. For those who accuse him of partiality perhaps they can suggest a satisfactory alternative, or provide specific examples?
Highly recommended as an introduction or for reference for one more familiar with region.

I got access to a copy of this book because it is the only reference I have found so far which has a map of Israeli settlements in the Sinai during Israel's occupation of the land there.

Overall I found the book extremely useful. The terrorist activity which the Arabs participated in and the number of Israelis (and Arab bystanders) murdered is listed, maps showing the conduct of the forgotten War of Attrition, peace proposals rejected by the Arab hardliners because they would recognize Israel's existence, missile attacks against the Holy land during Operation Desert Storm, etc. etc. all very well done.

There seems to be some angst from some other reviewers that this book does not show "the Arab side" or acknowledges "Palestine's existence." On the contrary, I find this book as balanced as it can be considering that some of the subject matter involves terrorists who murder not just women and children in "the Zionist entity" but also fellow Arabs who think they might get more by negotiating or even complying with agreements they already have with Israel. Having lived in the region for some years I have nothing but sympathy for the common fellaheen but this does not mar my recognition of the history in this book.

I say this book is so biased I couldn't even finish it. So if you are pro- israel regardless of the truth this book is great for you, if you are seeking the truth don't waste your time on this book.