Not long ago Barry Rubin sent interested bloggers a copy of his compendium, The Israel-Arab Reader, "a documentary history of the Middle East conflict." His only request was to place a link to the book on my blog, which I am happy to do without reservation.
the While many of us may have forgotten that we used to look up information in books, there are times where a hard copy readily available can be quite useful. For example, it may take a while to find the August 3, 1974 interview with George Habash where he stated his rationale for rejecting any peace settlement with Israel:
(pp. 168) "... the Palestinians revolution is strained and ends when it becomes a part of the political settlement presently proposed, and the continuity of the revolution is only ensured by resisting and fighting the proposed settlement plans."
I am tempted to say, "Plus ca change" but I already used up my French quota in my last post, so suffice to say, "the language may change but the sentiments remain."
It is nice to have the information available, chronologically presented, starting with the Bilu Group manifesto if 1882 and ending with President George W. Bush's address to the Annapolis conference last November.
If you are interested in the history of the conflict and would like to know what actually was said, when and by whom, without the imposition of current distortions to the historical record, this book is a very useful resource.
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