1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War
This history of the foundational war in the Arab-Israeli conflict is groundbreaking, objective, and deeply revisionist. A riveting account of the military engagements, it also focuses on the war's political dimensions. Benny Morris probes the motives and aims of the protagonists on the basis of newly opened Israeli and Western documentation. The Arab sidewhere the archives are still closedis illuminated with the help of intelligence and diplomatic materials. Morris stresses the jihadi character of the two-stage Arab assault on the Jewish community in Palestine. Throughout, he examines the dialectic between the war's military and political developments and highlights the military impetus in the creation of the refugee problem, which was a by-product of the disintegration of Palestinian Arab society. The book thoroughly investigates the role of the Great PowersBritain, the United States, and the Soviet Unionin shaping the conflict and its tentative termination in 1949. Morris looks both at high politics and general staff decision-making processes and at the nitty-gritty of combat in the successive battles that resulted in the emergence of the State of Israel and the humiliation of the Arab world, a humiliation that underlies the continued Arab antagonism toward Israel.
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - twp77 - LibraryThingMorris does a good job of exploring the various battles of the 1948 war in minute detail including excellent maps which make the troop movements, take overs and losses easy to follow, even for someone ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - bobbrussack - LibraryThing"Realpolitik," according to Wikipedia, "refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on practical considerations, rather than ideological notions." In the Middle East, of course, politics is ... Read full review
Contents
1 | |
37 | |
3 The First Stage of the Civil War November 1947March 1948
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75 |
4 The Second Stage of the Civil War AprilmidMay 1948
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113 |
5 The PanArab Invasion 15 May11 June 1948
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180 |
6 The First Truce 11 June8 July 1948 the International Community and the War
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264 |
Illustrations
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272 |
7 The Ten Days and After
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273 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abdullah al-Qastal Alexandroni Brigade Allon April Arab armies Arab leaders Arab League Arab Legion armored cars arms artillery attack Aviv Battalion battle Beit Ben-Gurion Bernadotte Bevin Brigade Britain British Cabinet meeting Carmeli Brigade command conflict conquered conquest December Defense Deir DFPI East Egypt Egyptian field fight fighting fire first five fled flight force Galilee Gaza Givcati Glubb Golani Haganah Haifa Hebrew HIS-AD Husseini Iaffa Ianuary IDFA Iewish Iewish Agency Iews Ilan inhabitants invasion Iordan Iordanian Iraq Iraqi Israel Israeli Iuly Iune Kibbutz Kirkbride Latrun Lebanese Lebanon Legion military militia minister mortars Muslim Negev November October officer officials ofthe Operation Operation Hiram Operation Yoav Palestine Palestinian Arab Palmah partition political protocol ofCabinet Rafah Report road Safad Shertok soldiers Syrian Tel Aviv territory thousand town troops truce United Nations UNSCOP villages West Bank West Ierusalem Yadin Yiftah Yishuv Zionist