The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations
- ISBN13: 9780385516112
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
In a provocative, timely book, a noted journalist and expert on Arab-American affairs overturns long-held Western myths about the Arab world, and offers a doctrine to help the United States correct its assumptions concerning the region.
Wanting to know why September 11 happened, journalist Lee Smith moved to Cairo. There, he discovered that the standard explanation-a clash of East and West led to the attacks-was simply not the case. As Smith outlines in The Strong Horse, the problems of the Middle East have little to do with Israel, the United States, or the West in general. The strife exists within the Arab world itself.
Through clear-eyed analysis, Smith explodes the many myths permeating Americans’ understanding of the Arab world: colonialism spurred the region’s ongoing turmoil; Arab liberalism is waiting for U.S. intervention; technology and democracy can be transforming. In response to these untruths, Smith offers what he terms the “Strong Horse Doctrine”-that Arabs want to align themselves with strength, power, and violence. Given America’s ongoing interest in the Middle East, Smith says America needs to be the strong horse in order to reclaim its role there, and only by understanding the nature of the region’s ancient conflict can we succeed.
The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations
Categories: Products Tags: Arab, Brand New, Cairo, Civilizations, Clash, Horse, Israel, Lee Smith, Mark, Middle East, Politics, power, remainder mark, Strong, U.S., United States, western myths, World
The 50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs
Amazon.com
The conflict in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors is given comprehensive treatment in this two-video set produced by PBS. Using archival footage and extensive interviews with participants, the production begins by explaining conditions in Palestine at the end of World War II and the crisis created by the exodus of European Jews who went to the Middle East after the Holocaust. The withdrawal of the British, who had controlled Palestine for decades, is detailed, as is the creation of the state of Israel. Much of the region’s history is complex, with the local struggles being conducted at times as a part of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union, but these videos do an admirable job of explaining the complexities of the situation. The segment on the Six Day War, for example, is masterful, with the scenes shifting from Israel to Egypt to Washington to Moscow, the story developing before the viewer’s eyes. The 50 Years War is often a tale of mistrust and betrayal, but this production strives to present a balanced view of history, and is not only impressive for its command of the facts but for its skillful and often dramatic presentation of history. –Robert J. McNamara
Categories: Abu Dhabi Events Tags: Arabs, conflict in the middle east, creation of the state of israel, Egypt, History, Israel, Middle East, Moscow, Palestine, Robert J. McNamara, United States, war, Washington, Years
1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War
- ISBN13: 9780300151121
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
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 side—where the archives are still closed—is 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 Powers—Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union—in 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.
Categories: Abu Dhabi Events Tags: arab israeli conflict, arab israeli war, ArabIsraeli, Brand New, First, History, Israel, Mark, Morris, Palestine, United States, war
