Reddit reviews One Palestine, Complete

The conflict is too politicized to find an 'unbiased' primer. You largely have to read the histories, be very critical in your thinking as you do so, and do background checks on who is telling you what and consider why they might lean towards a certain viewpoint.

I'm not sure where you want to start from... you could start with the Old Testament. But presuming you're looking for a more recent analysis, Tom Segev's One Palestine, Complete might be a good starting point. It deals with the time frame of 1917-1948, i.e. the critical few decades just before the creation of Israel.

I'll begin by noting that anti-Semitism was not historically prevalent among the Arabs to the degree it is today. The Qur'an offers protected status to the Jews, and members of that people rose to high positions in the governments and societies of various Islamic lands--notably Cordoba.

The Qur'an does make reference to three Jewish tribes that lived in the city of Yathrib (now called Medina). These tribes were each expelled for various reasons, mostly relating to betraying the conditions of the Constitution of Medina. You can find out more about each of those tribes by following these links: Banu Qurayza; Banu Qaynuqah; Banu Nadir. Now, most Qur'anic injunctions against Jews refered specifically to members of these tribes but not all Muslims have seen it that way historically.

Now, for modern anti-semitism, there are various reasons.

Firstly, there is the complexity of the current Middle East's political and national divisions. It was not the Arabs who divided the ME into Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and so forth. The English and French did this according to the provisions of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Sadly, they paid no attention to the desires of the people whose land they were dividing, nor did they consider ethnic, tribal and cultural differences in carving up the land. This created a fairly tense political climate. Complicating matters, Britain had promised to return all this land to the Arabs in return for their help against the Ottomans in WW1. However, simultaneously, Britain also offered this land, in spirit, to the Jews involved in the quest for a Jewish homeland, in the Balfour Declaration. All of this served to create a rather hostile climate, struggles for power and authority, and so forth.

Next comes changes in Jewish migration to the Holy Land. Before WW2 many Jews had returned there, and were living (generally peacefully) with their Arab neighbours. Jewish novelist Leon Uris offers a fictionalized account of such in his novel Exodus. While there were ocassional squabbles, and sometimes outright revolts things didn't really come to a head until just after WW2, when, instead of a few dozen Jews arriving at a time, hundreds--and then thousands--began to show. The driving need for a safe haven, underscored by the horrors of the Holocaust, drove many Zionist Jews to desperation. The tactics of groups such as Irgun and Lehi certainly involved terrorism, and were condemned by prominent Jews like Albert Einstein. More on this violence here.

The unilateral foundation of Israel in 1948 was the last straw for many Arabs. Not only were the Palestinians now displaced, but lands that had been Arab for a long time, and which were to be returned to the Arabs, were taken away. Since then US financial and military aid has made Israel a force to reckoned with, and has continued to foster anti-Israeli sentiment.

Additionally, the Israelis have proven to be capable soldiers, scoring victories in the 1948 war; The Six Day War; The Yom Kippur War and so on. These wins for Israel were stinging defeats for the Arabs, who still remember.

Now, over the last 50 or 60 years Arab nations have used the existence of Israel as a means to motivate their people and deflect criticism from government. When people have become angered with a regime in power, those regimes often use Israel as a geo-political boogeyman. Playing off the sense of community that exists among many Muslims allows ME governments to generate sympathy for the Palestinians and, therefore, anger towards the Israelis. In the ME, just as in the West, people don't always distinguish between "Jewish" and "Israeli", though the two terms are not synonyms.

Now, all this covers the basics, and only the absolute basics. If you want more I'll provide you a deeper examination of the topic.

Some additional reading, in addition to wikipedia:

Herf, Jeffrey The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World

Lewis, Bernard The Jews of Islam

Segev, Tom One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate

Shipler, David Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land

Stillman, Norman The Jews of Arab Lands.

Yeah, the history of the foundation of Israel is much more complex than you'd think.

I recommend One Palestine, Complete for a thorough and impartial, if rather dry, discussion of the period.

Hello! I'll suggest the following:

1. Please watch the 8-part Israel/Palestine for Critical Thinkers. It is a good starting point, detailing the genesis of the conflict (it stops short before WWII, though).
   
   
2. Read the following books:
   
   

• Tom Segev's One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate
  
• Jonathan Schneer's The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
  
• Scott Anderson's Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East
  
• James Barr's A Line in the Sand: The Anglo-French Struggle for the Middle East, 1914-1948, and
  
• Hillel Cohen's Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929 and Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948.
  
  I hope this will help you understand the conflict. Have a enlightening read~!
  

This is my favorite book on Mandatory Palestine: One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate. Segev was a journalist for Ha'aretz and he writes incredibly engaging social history as only a journalist can.

/u/gingerkid1234 did a fantastic job summarizing the political developments in the 20s, 30s and 40s, but if you want some social history from the period, I like Segev.

EDIT: Ignore the 3.5 star rating on Amazon: most of the 1 star reviews are from people who are pissed off that Segev wrote a book with "Palestine" in the title. The book is very solid, and the history is very good. It's not chronological political history, but you will have a feel for what life was like.

I'd recommend One Palestine, Complete.

http://www.amazon.com/One-Palestine-Complete-British-Mandate/dp/0805065873

It covers how the Middle-East was split up after WW1 and looks into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, by Tom Segev

http://www.amazon.com/One-Palestine-Complete-British-Mandate/dp/0805065873

"Tom Segev is one of Israel's most notable historians and journalists--one of the few to strive for any sense of objectivity in his writings--so a new book by him is always worth waiting for. One Palestine, Complete is a detailed account of Palestine under British rule from 1917 to 1948, the critical period in the modern history of the region that led up to the creation of the state of Israel. Segev begins by carefully detailing Britain's well-known inconsistencies in dealing with both the Jews and the Arabs--to both of whom it had appeared to promise, if not the world, at least the country after independence was granted--and goes on to make a convincing case that because Palestine fell into the category of an emotional rather than self-interested colonial possession, the Brits hoped the situation would unwind to everyone's advantage."