Ezra's Bookshelf

A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

by Mark Tessler · 1018 pages · ~18.5 hrs

HistoryForeign Policy

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A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict provides one of the most comprehensive and balanced scholarly accounts of the conflict from its origins through the present day. Mark Tessler, professor of political science at the University of Michigan, traces developments from the nineteenth-century emergence of Zionism and Palestinian nationalism through decades of war, occupation, negotiation, and failed peace. The book draws on extensive primary sources and scholarship from multiple perspectives, avoiding the advocacy that characterizes much writing on the subject. Tessler examines the interests, perceptions, and constraints facing all parties—Israelis and Palestinians, Arab states and Western powers—without claiming moral equivalence or ignoring asymmetries of power. The narrative covers major events including the Balfour Declaration, the 1948 and 1967 wars, the first and second intifadas, the Oslo process, and subsequent developments. Tessler has updated the book through multiple editions to address ongoing events. For students and general readers seeking a thorough, scholarly introduction to the conflict's history and underlying dynamics, this work provides an essential foundation for informed engagement with one of the world's most contested disputes.

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