Neil Caplan - Contested Histories: The Israel Palestine Conflict

1. Chapter 2
2. Chapter 6

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 5
4. Chapter 6
5. Chapter 7
6. Chapter 11

The volumes in this series select some of the most controversial episodes in history and consider their divergent, even starkly incompatible representations. The aim is not merely to demonstrate that history is argument without end, but to show that study even of contradictory conceptions can be fruitful: that the jettisoning of one thesis or presentation leaves behind something of value.

Contesting the Crusades
Norman Housley

Contesting the German Empire 18711918
Matthew Jefferies

Vietnam: Explaining Americas Lost War
Gary R. Hess

Contesting the French Revolution
Paul Hanson

Contesting the Renaissance
William Caferro

The IsraelPalestine Conflict: Contested Histories, Second Edition
Neil Caplan

Contesting the Reformation
C. Scott Dixon

Vietnam: Explaining Americas Lost War, Second Edition
Gary R. Hess

Second Edition

Neil Caplan

This edition first published 2020
2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Edition History
WileyBlackwell (1e, 2009)

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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data
Names: Caplan, Neil, 1945 author.
Title: The IsraelPalestine conflict : contested histories / Neil Caplan.
Description: Second edition. | Hoboken : Wiley, 2019. | Series: Contesting the past | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019030495 (print) | LCCN 2019030496 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119523871 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119524038 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119524014 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: JewishArab relations. | ArabIsraeli conflict. | IsraelForeign relationsArab countries. | Arab countriesForeign relationsIsrael.
Classification: LCC DS119.7 .C3195 2019 (print) | LCC DS119.7 (ebook) | DDC 956.04dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019030495
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019030496

Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: Istimages/Shutterstock

Dedicated with deep sadness to the many victims of this and other conflicts

The June 1967 war in the Middle East marked my personal awakening, as a graduate student searching for an area of doctoral research, to the complexities of the ArabIsraeli conflict. My first impulse was a problemsolving one, flowing naturally from local experience as my own country, Canada, was celebrating its centennial and engaging in lively public debates about how the English and French nations could continue living harmoniously under a single federal rgime. But a year of exploratory reading and study in London unexpectedly sparked in me a fascination with the historical origins and development of the ArabIsraeli conflict, totally shifting my focus from the future to the past.

Since that time I have been researching, writing, and teaching almost exclusively about the history, diplomacy, and psychology of this dispute. Digging in archives through primary sources and writing articles and monographs for a scholarly audience are the activities I have enjoyed best as I became a selftrained historian. At the same time I also developed a deep interest in and respect for the psychosocial complexities of this protracted conflict.