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Making sense
of any particular episode in the long and convoluted conflict
between Arabs and Israelis can seem a Sisyphean
task--engineering peace in the Middle East has become nearly
clichéd in its complexity, with each individual dispute
traceable back to years of anger,
mistrust, and mutual misunderstanding fueled by cycles of
violence and revenge. To add to this confusion, the historical
record has been colored by "emphatic partisanship by
commentators and historians from both sides, as well as by
foreign observers," adds Middle East historian Benny Morris.
So what Morris has undertaken in this volume--an inclusive,
dispassionate, and rigorous history of the conflict, from
Zionism's birth in the wake of the Russian pogroms through to
the uncertain prospects for peace in 1999--is no mean feat.
A calm, balanced voice (although a controversial one among
some who fear revisionism), Morris has previously proven his
scholarship with such definitive titles as Israel’s Borders
Wars and The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee. Righteous
Victims likewise doesn't waver in its task, methodically
unearthing the political and military roots of the struggle,
from early friction between Zionist "colonizers" and native
Arabs slowly through to the establishment of Israel and the
bloody wars and terrorism that followed. --Paul Hughes --This
text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this
title.
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