Praise for Enemies and Neighbors: Financial Times, Economist, and Sunday Times best books of the year
Picked by Sebastian Faulks for the Guardian’s best books of the year
“Black . . . argues in this sweeping history that Zionism and Palestinian nationalism were irreconcilable from the start, and that peace is as remote as ever.”―New York Times Book Review, “Editors’ Choice”
“Comprehensive and compelling . . . A nuanced, landmark study that has deservedly won plaudits from both Palestinian and Israeli historians.”―Sunday Times (UK)
“[A] wonderful new history . . . Black sprinkles his book with fascinating nuggets . . . For its clarity and balance . . . Black’s work stands tall in a field that is likely to continue growing.”―Economist
“A history of the Arab-Israeli conflict . . . that has achieved the rare distinction of being acclaimed by both Israeli and Palestinian historians for its rigor and impartiality.”―Financial Times, “best books of 2017: politics”
“Ian Black brings a fresh perspective to one of the most closely studied conflicts on Earth, unpacking its complexities with clarity and candour . . . [An] excellent new history.”―Observer (UK)
“Quietly compelling. . . merits close reading for its rich detail and rare subtlety. Denies made-up minds their soothing certainties . . . a reading of uncommon clarity, informed by extensive research and keen insight.”―Spectator (UK)
“A remarkable book that combines sharp insight with absolute impartiality on one of the world’s most complex and intractable conflicts. Black captures the voices of the Palestinians and Israelis with equal compassion, and holds their leaders to account with equal severity. An outstanding accomplishment.”―Eugene Rogan, author of The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, 1914-1920 and The Arabs: A History
“In a conflict like this, it is impossible to understand the present without being familiar with the past, and this superbly researched and highly readable book helps the reader to do just that. Even those who are well read on the subject will find new insights that had escaped them.”―Raja Shehadeh, author of Where the Line Is Drawn: A Tale of Crossings, Friendships, and Fifty Years of Occupation in Israel-Palestine and Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape
“When Israeli and Palestinian historians eventually sit down together to compose a single narrative to replace their bitterly conflicting histories, they will find that Ian Black’s book has already done it for them. It is a tragic tale, full of blood, agony and missed opportunities, but this brilliant, dispassionate work leaves us, curiously, optimistic―for he shows us that there is a middle ground.”―Meron Benvenisti, author of Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948
“In a field where one has gotten used to one-sided ‘narratives,’ it is refreshing to come across a historical account that simply lays down the facts, gory and tragic as these may be. This book is a must-read for those who, still entertaining hope for a sane exit from the conflict, need to be shocked out of their stupor.”―Sari Nusseibeh, author of The Story of Reason in Islam and Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life
“In its fine balance of historical sweep and telling detail, in its sharp analysis of social, economic, and political forces, and in its exceptional fairness to all sides, Ian Black's thorough and incisive history of the struggle between Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel is the book every student of this conflict should read first. A remarkable achievement.”―Nathan Thrall, author of The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine
“The hundred years’ war for Palestine has produced numerous books; Ian Black has written one of the finest and told the story right up to the present day. Enemies and Neighbors displays an admirable ability to present this enormously complicated and tragic conflict in a lucid and riveting style―and pays unusually close attention to how both sides, Arabs and Jews, have seen it at different periods.”―Tom Segev, author of One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate
“Ian Black draws on decades of experience as a journalist in Palestine and Israel to offer a nuanced and thorough account of the century-old conflict over Palestine. A readable and fair assessment of why this conflict has continued unabated for so long.”―Rashid Khalidi, author of Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East
“This detailed and objective account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from 1917 onwards catalogues, in the most enlightening way, the appalling violence and hatred that lie at the heart of today’s dangerous stalemate in the peace process.”―Jeremy Greenstock, former British ambassador to the United Nations
“A tremendous amount of research has gone into Enemies and Neighbors; the writing is straightforward, fast-paced and lucid; and it pulled me right to the end, despite the heavy nature of its topic. An excellent read that offers a true portrayal of the situation.”―Fida Jiryis, Palestinian writer, contributor to Kingdom of Olives and Ash
“An astute, evenhanded study on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration that rehashes the history of the Palestinian-Jewish divide . . . It is a familiar story, but Black tells it cogently and evenly . . . A lucid, fair-minded primer for the new generation of leaders.”―Kirkus Reviews
“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a long history . . . Readers are in dire need of a guide to the complex struggle; now we have one with Black’s exceptional history . . . Black goes beyond the ongoing political dialog to peer into the everyday life of average Israeli and Palestinian citizens . . . A valuable work for anyone interested in trying to untangle the complexities of this ceaseless struggle.”―Library Journal
“A comprehensive new history of the Israel-Palestine conflict . . . A meticulous, blow-by-blow chronicle of the events of the past hundred years in the Holy Land, drawing as scrupulously as its author can on sources from both sides of the conflict.”―Irish Times
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The 67 typewritten words of the Balfour Declaration combined considerations of imperial planning, wartime propaganda, biblical resonances, a colonial mindset―as well as evident sympathy for the Zionist idea. With them, as Arthur Koestler was to quip memorably―neatly encapsulating the attendant and continuing controversy―“one nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.” Lloyd George highlighted sympathy for the Jews as his principal motivation. But the decisive calculations were political, primarily the wish to outsmart the French in post-war arrangements in the Levant and the impulse to use Palestine's strategic location―its “fatal geography”―to protect Egypt, the Suez Canal and the route to India. Other judgements have placed greater emphasis on the need to mobilise Jewish public opinion behind the then flagging Allied war effort. As Balfour told the war cabinet at its decisive meeting on October 31: “If we could make a declaration favourable to such an ideal [Zionism], we should be able to carry on extremely useful propaganda both in Russia and in America.” Historians have spent decades debating the connections and contradictions between Balfour's public pledge to the Zionists, the secret 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement between Britain, France and Russia about post-war spheres of influence in the Middle East, and pledges about Arab independence made by the British in 1915 to encourage Sharif Hussein of Mecca to launch his “revolt in the desert” against the Turks.
The truth, buried in imprecise definitions, misunderstandings and duplicity, remains elusive. The consequences of the declaration are still being played out.
