The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East

Description

A myth-breaking general history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Gun and the Olive Branch traces events right back to the 1880s to show how Arab violence, although often cruel and fanatical, is a response to the challenge of repeated aggression. Banned from six Arab countries, kidnapped twice, David Hirst, former Middle East correspondent of the Guardian, is the ideal chronicler of this terrible and seemingly insoluble conflict. The new edition of this 'definitive' (Irish Times) study brings the story right up to date. Amongst the many topics that are subjected to Hirst's piercing analysis are: the Oslo peace process, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the destabilising effect of Jewish settlement in the territories, the second Intifada and the terrifying rise of the suicide bombers, the growing power of the Israel lobby - Jewish and Christian fundamentalist - in the United States, the growth of dissent in Israel and among sections of America's Jewish population, the showdown between Sharon and Arafat and the spectre of nuclear catastrophe that threatens to destroy the region. s reporting has earned him curses, expulsion and respect in virtually every country in the region.' Guardian

Fifty-year resident of Beirut and long-time former Middle East correspondent of the Guardian, David Hirst has lived through or reported on most of the events he describes in Beware of Small States. The Gun and the Olive Branch, his seminal history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, was first published in 1977 and updated in new editions in 1984 and 2003.