It’s probably to my shame, but I’m not an especially
political animal. But the recent violence in the Middle East has persuaded me
finally to try to grasp something of what’s going on. And now that I’ve read
Martin Bunton’s The Palestinian–Israeli
Conflict: A Very Short Introduction, I feel that I have a basic
understanding of why this area of the world in particular is so volatile.
The
Palestinian–Israeli Conflict concentrates on events in historic Palestine
from 1897 to 2007, from Ottoman Palestine through to the present-day attempts
to reach a mutually satisfactory end to the tensions. In the concluding
chapter, Bunton briefly outlines the period from 2007 to 2012 and offers some
thoughts on what steps could be taken to achieve peace.
Bunton’s approach is to focus on the political angles and
avoid any religious ones apart from where necessary. I dare say that some will
find this disappointing, but it seems right to me that Bunton should have organised
his material in this way – assuming, of course, that he is correct to say in
the first place that the earliest Zionists weren’t concerned to ensure that the
ancient lands of Judea and Samaria formed part of any new Jewish state. And so
what comes across clearly to me in The
Palestinian–Israeli Conflict is the sheer desperation of the human need for
a home and for roots. On the basis of Bunton’s commentary, I can empathise to
an extent with both the Israelis and the Palestinians, even as I lament the
ways in which both sides have pursued their goals, and am angered by the
egregious effects of empire that have treated this region as little more than a
plaything for larger or more powerful nations seeking mainly to secure their
own interests.
The Palestinian–Israeli
Conflict is not perfect – Bunton’s prose is often too dry for me, and some
of the maps and diagrams could have been much clearer – but I thoroughly
recommend it as a helpful introduction to the matter.
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