Enemies and neighbours : Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017

<p><b><i>ECONOMIST</i>, <i>SUNDAY TIMES</i>, <i>FINANCIAL TIMES</i> AND <i>GUARDIAN</i> BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017 <p>'Comprehensive and compelling ... A nuanced, landmark study that has deservedly wo ...

<p><b><i>ECONOMIST</i>, <i>SUNDAY TIMES</i>, <i>FINANCIAL TIMES</i> AND <i>GUARDIAN</i> BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017 <p>'Comprehensive and compelling ... A nuanced, landmark study that has deservedly won plaudits from both Palestinian and Israeli historians' Justin Marozzi, <i>The Times</i></b> <p>A century after Britain's Balfour Declaration promised a Jewish 'national home' in Palestine, veteran <i>Guardian</i> journalist Ian Black has produced a major new history of one of the most polarising conflicts of the modern age. <p>Drawing on a wide range of sources - from declassified documents to oral testimonies and his own decades of reporting - <i>Enemies and Neighbours</i> brings much-needed perspective and balance to the long and unresolved struggle between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land. <p>Beginning in the final years of Ottoman ruleand the British Mandate period, when Zionist immigration transformed Palestine in the face of mounting Arab opposition, the book re-examines the origins of what was a doomed relationship from the start. It sheds fresh light on critical events such as the Arab rebellion of the 1930s; Israel's independence and the Palestinian catastrophe (<i>Nakba</i> in Arabic) of 1948; the watershed of the 1967 war; two <i>Intifadas</i>; the Oslo Accords and Israel's shift to the right. It traces how - after five decades of occupation, ever-expanding Jewish settlements and the construction of the West Bank 'separation wall' - hopes for a two-state solution have all but disappeared, and explores what the future might hold. <p>Yet Black also goes beyond the most newsworthy events - wars, violence and peace initiatives - to capture thereality of everyday life on the ground in Jerusalem and Hebron, Tel Aviv, Ramallah, Haifa and Gaza, for both sides of an unequal struggle. Lucid, timelyand gripping, <i>Enemies and Neighbours</i> illuminates a bitter conflict that shows no sign of ending - which is why it is so essential that we understand it.</p>