Research Catalog

The road not taken : early Arab-Israeli negotiations

Title: The road not taken : early Arab-Israeli negotiations / Itamar Rabinovich.
Author: Rabinovich, Itamar, 1942-
Publication: New York : Oxford University Press, 1991.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Book/Text	Use in library	DS126.92 .R33 1991	Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 259 pages; 22 cm

Summary

In the aftermath of the 1948 war, Rabinovich writes, the seeds of the present turmoil in the Middle East were sown: confused and debated borders, hundreds of thousands of Arab refugees, internal struggles over each government's political agenda. In 1949, the Arab world was divided as never before--Iraq and Transjordan were at odds with Saudi Arabia and Egypt--and each state wrestled with its own negotations with Israel. King Abdallah of Transjordan negotiated with Israel with an eye toward siezing what is now called the West Bank and--ultimately--the Hejaz in the Arabian Peninsula. The region's first military dictator, Husni al-Zaim of Syria, offered an intriguing, if illusory, opening, as he sought a permanent settlement with Israel so he could concentrate on internal issues. Zaim, the book shows, was allied to the U.S. intelligence community. Egypt approached the armistice talks with its own goals in mind, seeking the southern Negev desert and other gains. Behind the scenes stood the region's last imperial power, Great Britain, whose manipulations were suspected by all parties even where they did not exist. And farther back loomed the U.S., about to succeed Britain as the dominant Western power in the region. Within Israel, fierce debates raged over how to handle negotiations (echoing clearly in our own time), some favoring a settlement with Amman based on a recognition of Transjordan's annexation of the West Bank, others--like Ben-Gurion--advocating overtures to Egypt, as the region's most integrated and stable Arab state. With a keen analytical eye and detailed brushstrokes, Rabinovich paints a vivid portrait of these pivotal rounds of diplomacy from 1949 to 1952, showing how a permanent peace came within reach, only to slip away for years to come.

Subject

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 240-245) and index.

ISBN

0195060660
9780195060669

LCCN

90022368

OCLC

ocm22735067
22735067
SCSB-1930605

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library