Deschutes Public Library

Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a primer, by Phyllis Bennis

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-216)

maps

no index present

non fiction

Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict

bibliography

1021214718

by Phyllis Bennis

a primer

Bennis answers basic questions about Israel and Israelis, Palestine and Palestinians, the US and the Middle East, Zionism and anti-Semitism; about complex issues ranging from the Oslo peace process to the election of Hamas to the Goldstone Report and Trump's move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Together her answers provide a comprehensive understanding of the longstanding Palestinian- Israeli conflict. --From publisher description

Part one. The crisis. Why is there so much violence in the Middle East? Isn't there violence on both sides? -- Why should we care about violence in the Middle East? -- Why is the Middle East so important to the US and internationally? -- What caused the Israeli-Palestinian crisis that began in 2000? -- Why is the violence so intense? -- Isn't Israel just trying to fight terrorism, as the US and the UK have tried to do in Afghanistan? -- Are all Palestinians terrorists or supporters of terrorism? -- Why are the Palestinians in Israel at all? -- Who are the Palestinians? Where did they come from? -- What are the occupied territories? -- What does "military occupation" mean? -- Who are the Israelis? Where did they come from? -- What's the difference between Jews and Israelis? -- Who are the Israeli settlers? Why are the Israeli settlements located outside Israel's borders? -- What do the Palestinians want? -- What does Israel want? -- Who controls the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip? -- Why does Israel still occupy those areas? -- If Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, why are there so many Palestinians in the eastern part of the city? -- Who are the Palestinian refugees and why are they still living in refugee camps? -- What is the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)? -- What is the Palestinian Authority (PA)? -- Who are the "suicide bombers" and why are they killing themselves and others? --Why are only Palestinians carrying out these suicide bombings? -- What is the Wall that Israel is building in the occupied territories? -- What does the rest of the world think about the Wall? -- Why do South African Nobel Peace Prize laureates Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former president Jimmy Carter, and others describe Israel's policies toward the Palestinians as "apartheid"? -- What is the significance of Yasir Arafat's death? -- What does the Israel-Palestinian conflict have to do with the US war in Iraq? -- What is the "transfer"? Why did talk of "transfer" of Palestinians increase during the build-up to war in Iraq? -- What was Israel's "convergence plan" for the West Bank, and why did President Bush endorse Israel's unilateral 2004 plans to annex much of the West Bank? -- What is Hamas? -- Why did the Palestinians choose Hamas in the January 2006 elections? -- What are Israel's "targeted assassinations"? -- Didn't Israel's occupation of Gaza end with its withdrawal of soldiers and settlers in 2005? -- Why did Hamas capture an Israeli soldier in June 2006 after Israel had withdrawn its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005? -- Doesn't Israel have the right to defend itself against Hamas in Gaza, as well as against Hezbollah in Lebanon?Part two. The other players: the role of the US, the UN, Arab States, and Europe. Why is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so important on the global stage? Why does the rest of the world care, and get so involved, in this conflict in such a small place? -- What is the international response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Is there international agreement? -- Why hasn't the US been part of that consensus? -- Why is the US the central player in the MIddle East? -- What explains the US-Israeli "special relationship"? -- Is the US an "honest broker" in the conflict? -- How does the US support Israel? -- Why was the Bush administration so much less involved than the Clinton administration in Israel-Palestine diplomacy? -- What was the George W. Bush administration's Middle East policy all about? -- Where does US aid to Israel fit in the broader scheme of US foreign aid? Does the US also provide aid to the Palestinians? -- Didn't the US support creation of the Palestinian Authority? Why did the US treat it differently than the PLO, which Washington usually tried to undermine or sideline? -- If not the US, then who else should be at the center of Middle East diplomacy? -- Didn't the United Nations create the State of Israel? Why didn't it create a State of Palestine too? Why doesn't it now? --Why is Israel so often criticized in the UN? Aren't other countries just as guilty of human rights violations? -- What is the role of the UN in the MIddle East these days? Why isn't the UN in charge of the overall peace process? -- Why is Israel isolated from Arab countries in the region and in the UN and other international forums? -- Since Jordan's population is about two-thirds Palestinian and there are 21 other Arab countries, why do the Palestinians insist on having a new state of their own? -- Don't the Arab countries want to destroy Israel and drive the Jews int the sea? -- How does Israel see its role in the Middle East region? -- What role does the European Union play in the conflict? Why doesn't it do more?Part three. Recent history: rising violence. Why did violence break out again in 2000? What is the second "intifada," and how is it different from the first intifada of 1987-1993? -- What was the "road map" that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, on the eve of the Iraq War, seemed so convinced would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? -- Did the road map have any potential to actually bring about a new peace process? -- These developments happened after the famous 1993 handshake on the White House lawn. Wasn't that supposed to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians? -- What was the Oslo process? How did the Oslo process start? -- Why didn't the Oslo process work? -- What were Oslo's "final status" issues? Why were they so difficult? -- Whose capital is Jerusalem? -- What happened to Israeli settlements and settlers during the years of the Oslo process? -- What would a Palestinian "state" as determined by Oslo/Camp David have looked like? -- What happened at Camp David? Why did it fail? -- Didn't Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak make the most generous offer in history to the Palestinians? Why did they reject it? -- What would a real, comprehensive peace have looked like at Camp David?Part four. Looking backward (1900-1991). What was the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991? -- What kind of diplomacy followed the Madrid conference? -- What happened to Israel and Palestine during the 1991 Gulf War? -- What was the first "intifada" all about? -- What were conditions like in the occupied territories before the first intifada? -- How did Israel come to be in control of the West bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem? -- What was the international community's response to the 1967 war? -- How did the US respond to the occupation? -- What was the 1982 Lebanon War all about? What was Ariel Sharon's role? -- What was the Sabra-Shatila massacre in Lebanon? -- Did the Palestinians demand national rights and an independent state before the 1967 war? -- How was the PLO viewed in the Arab Middle East, the UN, and in the rest of the world? -- What is Zionism? Do all Jews support Zionism?Part five. Recent developments: from 2007 to the present. What happened at the 2007 Annapolis Peace Conference and how was it significant? -- What is Iran's role in relation to Israel and the Palestinians? -- What were the reasons for and consequences of the Hamas-Fatah divide in 2007 and beyond? -- What is the significance of Israel's siege and its 2008-2009 military attack on Gaza? -- What happened in the February 2009 Israeli elections? -- What was the effect of the Arab Spring on Israel and Palestine? -- What was the importance of the 2011-2015 Palestinian campaign for membership in the United Nations, UNESCO, and the International Criminal Court? -- What was the Goldstone Report and why was is so important? -- What was Israel's attack on the Gaza flotilla all about? -- What were Israel's wars against Gaza in 2012 and 2014 about? -- What was the impact on Israel and the Palestinians of the civil war in Syria and the US anti-terrorism war? -- How has US policy toward Israel-Palestine changed under President Barack Obama? -- What was the significance of the widely-publicized tension between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu? -- Why did Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu come to address Congress in March 2015 and what did Iran have to do with it? -- What do the elections of 2015 show about politics in Israel? -- Is a two-state solution really fair, and is it still possible? --Why are Palestinians engaging in non-violent mobilizations and what is the global movement known as "BDS"? -- How was the Palestinian-Israeli conflict dealt with in the 2016 presidential election? -- What was the 2017 Fatah-Hamas reconciliation about, and did it succeed? -- What was Trump's Middle East policy, and how was it different from earlier US policy toward Israel and the Palestinians? -- What was Trump's goal in trying to bring Israel and Saudi Arabia together early in his presidency? -- What was the significance of the Trump administration's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the US embassy to Jerusalem? -- What were the Gaza "Great March of Return" protests of spring 2018 all about? How did Israel respond to those protests? -- What has changed in the US regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? -- What was the significance of the 2018 Basic Law making Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people?