Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017, by Ian Black

May 30, 2024 20:08

Another history of the Israel-Palestine Conflict with no solutions.


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bunnynumber13 June 3 2024, 20:12:35 UTC
Is there any historical book out there that examines the Israel-Palestinian conflict in a fairly balanced, neutral manner? I would like to a read a book about the conflict but I don't want to be told what to think, I just want the facts. I suppose in this day and age that's not easy to find.

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inverarity June 3 2024, 20:38:35 UTC
I think this book tries to do that. The problem, as I've noted in reviews of several previous books on the subject, is that it's basically impossible to be completely "neutral." Just describing "facts" is difficult enough - you could write nothing but a timeline of known historical events but it would be very lacking in explanatory power. As soon as you try to investigate the hows and whys and causes and effects, you are deep into highly contested narratives. Even historians doing their best to be balanced will find themselves satisfying no one because of what they left out, because of what they accept as fact and what they question, etc. But I am still looking for this "neutral" unicorn!

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