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ISRAEL BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, 1948–56

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2004

Avi Shlaim
Affiliation:
A Professor at St. Antony's College, Oxford OX2 6JF, United Kingdom; e-mail: avi.shlaim@sant.ox.ac.uk

Extract

The two main issues in Israel's foreign policy are relations with the Arab world and relations with the Great Powers, and there is extensive literature on both. But whereas the literature on relations with the Great Powers is marked by a broad consensus, the literature on relations with the Arab world is dominated by a deep and often acrimonious debate. A major landmark in the evolution of this debate was the emergence in the late 1980s of a school of “new,” or revisionist, Israeli historians. Among the members of this group were Simha Flapan, Benny Morris, Ilan Pappe, and the present author. We were called the “new historians” because we challenged the traditional Zionist narrative of the birth of Israel and of the first Arab–Israeli war. The momentous events that unfolded in 1948 were the main focus of the debate. Subsequent books by some of these authors extended the critique of Israel's policy in the conflict to the post-independence period. The debate between the “old” and the “new” historians has been going on for nearly two decades, and it is still going strong.

Type
REVIEW ARTICLES
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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