ISRAEL AND THE ARABS

by Maxime Rodinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 23, 1968

An exceptionally lucid history of Jewish nationalism, Arab nationalism, the clashes between the two and the larger political developments which conditioned them. Rodinson is the head of the Sorbonne's Middle Eastern Ethology department, a Jew who claims that ""Zionism has inadmissibly reinterpreted, religious aspirations in terms of modern nationalism,"" a leftist who doubts that the struggle is Arab socialism versus Israeli colonialism. The first two chapters go up to the foundation of Israel. Other recent from-Abraham-to-1949 accounts (Samuel, Gervasi, Warburg) seem dull and superficial by comparison. And the remainder of the book offers greater political detachment and synthetic grasp than Laquer's Road to Jerusalem (1968, p. 229), one of the few surveys in its class. Rodinson is strong on basic intra-Israeli trends as well as Arab divisions; Soviet opportunism is scored, U.S. policy discussed briefly and casually. Stressing the elemental fact that Arabs have been fighting against ""unaccepted foreign domination"" of their territory, Rodinson cuts through cant about ""the Semitic peoples,"" distinguishes between traditional anti-Semitism (of which he gives a brilliant history) and anti-Zionism ""with anti-Semitic flareups,"" and concludes that one can ask, but not demand, that the Arabs accept the fait accompli of their loss. On the other hand he argues that, contra over-schematized theories of imperialism. Israel is not an exploitative tentacle of the capitalist world. The style is good and the use of analogy both clear and subtle.

Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION