The Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Palestine War 1948
by Efraim Karsh

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Book Reviews of The Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Palestine War 1948

Book Review: Priceless, concise study of the Middle East conflict.
Summary: 5 Stars

This is an essential reference for any student of the Middle East and will hold the reader's attention from beginning to end. The reader cannot fail to be impressed at the scholarly manner in which this subject is addressed.

Examined in detail are the origins and progressions of the conflict between the Jewish & Arab populations of 'British' Mandatory Palestine, prior to the re-birth of the Jewish state in 1948, together with an in-depth study of the subsequent Arab invasion of Israel by the armies of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

This study describes the latter invasion of the Jewish state following an Arab decision to reject the UN Resolution calling for the partition of 'Palestine' into two independent states, (one Arab & one Jewish with Jerusalem as an 'international' city, with all citizens having the right of either Jewish or Arab citizenship).

Efraim Karsh provides excellent background material so relevant to any serious or sincere understanding of this time in history. He makes an essential reference to a direct quotation at the time of the public declaration of Jamal Al-Hussein, the Vice-president of the A.H.C. (Arab High Committee - the effective Palestinian-Arab 'government');-

"We are sadly and PERMANENTLY determined to fight to the last man against the existence in our country of ANY Jewish state, no matter how small it is..."

Karsh also quotes with similar relevancy the chilling indictment of the prevalent hatred towards the Jews, still so soon after the Holocaust, when he makes reference to the general public circular of the same Arab High Committee which publicly declared;-

"The Arabs have taken into their own hands, the FINAL SOLUTION of the Jewish problem. The problem will be solved only in blood and fire. The Jews will be driven out."

The book illustrates the subsequent ensuing conflict as being clearly based upon an intended genocide and which resulted in the loss of some 1% of the fledgling Jewish states' population.

In further illustration of the context of the struggles in this land, Karsh proceeds to illustrate that the roots of this conflict and unrest stretch way back to the Roman destruction of Jewish statehood in the Land that subsequently became known later as 'Palestine'.

Karsh declares that, despite having had a continuous presence in their own homeland without at any time having this presence severed, the Jews became a numerical minority under a long succession of foreign occupiers during the next 1,900 years or so. Such foreign occupiers including the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottoman Turks, the British and the Arabs. Highlighted is the fact that, despite these periods of foreign occupation, the Jews never gave up their claim/right to their homeland. Facts illustrated by Karsh by long forgotten or sidestepped by the international community.

Returning to the time of the British Mandate, Karsh also documents the Jewish immigration into Palestine and the treatment of what the British classed as 'illegal immigrants' by the British forces occupying Palestine at that time. The provision of British concentration camps on Cyprus for those Jews 'caught' and the Arab-Jewish-British struggles in the Land also being demonstrated.

Details and maps and plentifully provided and commendable detail is included relating to both sides in the conflict, plus the inevitable consequences & conclusions pertaining to the conflict itself are studied.

Karsh shows another oft-forgotten factor in that around the time of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which supported a Jewish homeland in then Palestine, resident Arabs actually welcomed the moves. Palestinian Arab residents having been recently subject to Ottoman rule and most of these Arab residents viewed themselves as subjects of the Ottoman empire and were themselves totally impervious to the nationalistic tendencies of small 'extremist' groups. Hence the increasing Jewish presence of the post First World War years encountered little widespread opposition.

Of course events rapidly changed and Karsh documents these commendably, including how Britain (granted the League of Nations Mandate at San Remo in 1920) reneged on it's agreement to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Britain, with a stroke of a pen, giving the huge majority of then Palestine to the formation of the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. Britain, in furtherance of it's policy of Arab appeasement, proceeding to greatly restrict further Jewish immigration into the remnant of Palestine....the rest is history.

This is highly recommended, essential reading on the Palestinian-Israeli issue and is a priceless addition to anyone's library.

Approaching only 100 pages or so, this study is precise, concise and provides easy reference to those who do not wish to delve through enormous lengthy studies.

As one of a relatively new series of books, I can only recommend and encourage Karsh and other authors to publish additional such precise studies in this same series on the just as relevant issues surrounding the 1967 Six Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, 1982 Lebanon conflict, plus the Palestinian intifadas and parallel issues.

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