Rethinking the Middle East

ISBN-13: 9780714683461 / Angielski / Miękka / 2003 / 208 str.

Efraim Karsh

Opis

Rethinking the Middle East runs counter to the received wisdom in modern Middle East studies. This discipline has been dominated by what may be termed a culture of victimization; it views the local populations of the Middle East Arabs in particular as the hapless victims of alien encroachment, and blames the region's endemic malaise on Western political and cultural imperialism. The author contends that the influence of the Great Powers has not been the primary force behind the region's political development, nor the main cause of its famous volatility. He argues that the main impetus has been provided by regional factors; and that even at their weakest point in modern history - during the final stages of the Ottoman Empire - the peoples in the Middle East have played an active role in the restructuring of their region. Historical writing and popular beliefs concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict are re-examined in the light of this thesis.

Spis treści

1.Why the Middle East is so Volatile  2. Reactive Imperialism  3. Victim or Failed Aggressor? The Ottoman Entry into the First World War  4. Rethinking the Creation of the Modern Middle East  5. Cold War, Post-Cold War: Does it Make a Difference for the Middle East?  6. The Long Tail of Arab Anti-Semitism  7. The Collusion that never was - King Abdallah, the Jewish Agency, and the Partition of Palestine  8. Were the Palestinians Expelled?  9. The Palestinians and the Right of Return  10. Rewriting Israel's History  11. Revisionists, Arabists, and Pure Charlatans

O autorze

Efraim Karsh