Georgetown University The Arab-Israeli Conflict 1917-2010 Spring Term 2011 Class 444: Monday, Wednesday 2:40-3:55 pm Room ICC 104 Syllabus
Professor Amatzia Baram E-mail: baram@research.haifa.ac.il; [email protected] Office Hours: Monday, 1.30-2.30 pm, Tuesday 2-3pm or by appointment Office: room 653, 6th floor, ICC Building Phone: (H) 202 640 1962 Office: 202 687 8389
Course Description:
This course deals with the most central issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict in both historical and contemporary terms. The first and briefest part of the course deals with the growing clash between the Zionist Yishuv and Arabs of Palestine. It will follow its path since World War One from acceptance to discord and into a long-term conflict. We will begin by examining the roots of Jewish and Arab nationalisms, rival claims to Palestine, and growing conflict during the period of the British Mandate, including the growing involvement of Arab states.
The second and main part of this course will cover the years 1947-1985, analyzing the causes and effects of six wars between Israel and the Arab states; those of 1948, 1956, 1967, 1969-70, 1973 and 1982, and the circumstances that made possible the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979. This stage of the course will also examine the impact of regional and global factors, such as inter-Arab rivalry and the Cold War.
The third part of the course, time allowing, will begin with Israel’s withdrawal from most of the Lebanese territories (1985) that was followed by the Palestinian intifada of 1987-1993 and then deal with the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles of September 1993 (the Oslo Agreement) and the Israeli-Jordanian peace agreement of 1994. The course concludes with an examination of the evolution of the conflict since the mid-1990s; topics to be included in the last few class meetings are the 2000 Camp David Summit, the Israeli separation fence, the main issues that need to be resolved (Jerusalem, territorial borders, Arab and Jewish refugees, security arrangements), the involvement of Hizballah and war of 2006, and the rise of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Not every unit (one – sixteen) represents a class session. Some units represent two, or even three class sessions.
Course Requirements: Mid-term exam (20% of final grade). Exam date: Monday February 28. Essay, eight to ten-pages 1½ lines space (20% of final grade, topics to be announced). Due date: Wednesday, April 20. 2
Final examination (60% of final grade) most likely: during the first half of May. No date is known yet. Class attendance is mandatory.
Principal Texts: the first three books should be bought by the students.
1. Ian J. Bickerton and Carla L. Klausner, A History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (5th Edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007). [Includes texts of documents]. The 2009 & 2010 editions are definitely good, but the pages numbers may change very slightly. Please use common sense to identify the right pages – the topics we need for each class are mentioned in the syllabus below. Even the 2005 & 2006 editions are usable, with the same adjustments of pages. 2. Mark Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, second edition, 2009). The first edition (1994) is adequate as well for almost all the course. 3. Walter Laqueur, Barry Rubin (eds.), The Israel-Arab Reader (NY, Penguin Books, fifthe edition,1995). The seventh edition (2008) is adequate, but some page numbers are slightly different. Please take notice.
Recommended: Martin Gilbert, Israel: A History (NY, William Morrow, 1998).
Kenneth Stein, The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984).
Documents: Students will be expected to read at home the documents mentioned in the curriculum. If only possible please bring to class the documents mentioned. The intention is to read and analyze some of them together.
Sequence of Lectures and Reading Assignments:
1. An introductory Discussion: Who are the Jews and Arabs? What are the sources of modern Jewish, Arab and Palestinian-Arab Nationalism?
Required reading:
Bickerton and Klausner, 1-33.
Tessler, 7-126.
Recommended: Shlomo Avineri, “Introduction”, in his The Making of Modern Zionism: The Intellectual Origins of the Jewish State (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981), pp. 3-13. 3
Israel Kolatt, "The Zionist Movement and the Arabs," Studies in Zionism 3, 5 (1982), 129-157.
David Waines, “The Failure of the Nationalist Resistance,” in Ibrahim Abu- Lughod (ed.), The Transformation of Palestine (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1971), 217-228.
2. WWI: Agreements, Declarations, Successful Jewish-Arab Post-War Negotiations and Yet: A Conflict in Palestine is Born 1915-1920
Required Reading:
Bickerton and Klausner, 34-41 (Covers period ending with “Post-War Settlement”: the Weizmann-Feisal agreement of January 1919 and the King- Crane Report).
Documents:
Bickerton-Klausner 55-62; Laqueur & Rubin, pp. 11-17. (The McMahon- Hussein letters; the Balfour Declaration; the Feisal-Weizman Agreement; the King-Crane Commission Recommendations). Recommended document: read also, Ibid, Feisal’s letter to Supreme Court Judge Lewis Frankfurter.
Recommended Reading: Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present ( NY, W. W. Norton, 1st edition January 16, 2007), 778 pp.
Tessler, 126-157.
3. Toward WWII: The British Palestine Mandate and a Growing Jewish- Arab Separation and Confrontation 1920-1939
Required:
Bickerton and Klausner, 41-53.
Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 157-246. See the map on p. 247. This is a heavy load. If you do not manage to read all try to read as much as you can, and take notes in class.
Documents: Bickerton-Klausner pp. 62-64; or Laqueur & Rubin, pp. 48-49, 60-64 (Churchill White paper 1922; the 1937 Peel Commission; the 1939 White Paper).
Recommended:
Kenneth Stein, The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984). 4
Comment: Stein provides by far the best analysis of the land issue in Mandatory Palestine ever published. It is based on the original British Mandatory documents, on internal documents of the Jewish institutions that dealt with land purchase and on other primary sources. However, due to its volume it cannot be required reading.
4. The Second World War and Beyond 1939-1948; Civil War and the End of the Mandate
Required:
Bickerton and Klausner, 65-88.
Tessler, pp. 246-271.
Documents:
Bickerton and Klausner, 89-95 (Rudolf Hess on the “Final Solution” for the Jewish problem; Declaration of May, 1942 at the Biltmor Hotel, mainly articles 5&7; The Zionist Case: Golda Meir; The Palestine Arab Case: Jamal Husseini [pay attention to the approach of each to the opposite side]; UNSCOP’s Plan of Partition, mainly articles 1-5, 10, 11). Laqueur and Rubin, pp. 68-72 (Adolph Hitler’s meeting and agreement with the Grand Mufti of Palestine, al- Haj Amin al-Husseini, Nov. 1941); pp. 95-96 (UN General Assembly “Partition Resolution”, Nov. 1947 ). Tessler, p. 247 (Jewish land ownership by 1947).
Recommended:
Michael Cohen, The Origins and Evolution of the Arab-Zionist Conflict (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 93-132. (Chapter Three, the part: “The 1939 White Paper and WWII”, and Chapter Four).
Walter Laqueur, A History of Zionism (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972), 528-562.
Steven Spiegel, The Other Arab-Israeli Conflict (University of Chicago Press, 1985), 16-39: on the US position over the partition, declaration of Israel independence.
Audio-Visual:
PBS Production: The Fifty Year War Part One: the UN Special Committee on Palestine – UNSCOP – June-August 1947; the struggle in the UN over the Partition Plan; the Jewish-Arab civil war; Pres. Harry S. Truman versus Secretary of State Marshall; the Jewish and Arab calculations on the eve of the Arab invasion of Palestine. 5
5. 1948-49: Creation of Israel, the Arab Invasion, the First Arab-Israeli War and the Genesis of the Refugees Problem
Required:
Bickerton and Klausner, 96-108.
Yoav Gelber, “The Israeli-Arab War of 1948” [pdf], in Jewish Virtual Library Publications, Israel Studies: Table of Contents
Documents:
Bickerton and Klausner, pp. 109-111 (Israel’s Proclamation of Independence; UN General Assembly Resolution 194, Dec. 11, 1948). Food for thought: 1. Why was it not implemented in 1948-49? 2. Sixty two years later: what are the obstacles on the way of agreeing to it by both sides? 3. Between 1948 and 2011: have more recent refugees been added to the list? 4. Do you know of similar large-scale refugee problems in Europe after WWI and WW2 and in India 1947-48?
Internet-Google: both documents are to be found there too.
Recommended:
Benny Morris, 1948 the First Arab Israeli War (Yale University Press, 2008) 544 pp.
Yoav Gelber, Palestine 1948: War, Escape and the Emergence of the Palestinian Refugee Problem (Sussex University Press, 2005, 2007).
Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 273-284.
Audio-Visual:
PBS: The Fifty Year War Part Two: the 1948 War and its immediate aftermath 6. 1949-1956: From Secret Negotiations to a Second Arab-Israeli War: The Sinai Campaign and its Aftermath
Required: Bickerton and Klausner, 112-128. . Nadav Safran, Israel the Embattled Ally (Cambridge Mass, Harvard University Press, 1981), pp. 224-239 (on Israel’s security theory and practice 1949-1967).
Documents: Bickerton and Klausner,128-132 (Nasser Justifying Nationalization of Suez Canal; Anthony Eden on Nasser; Abba Eban in the UN explaining the war; Nasser’s response to the Anglo-French Ultimatum, Nov. 1956). 6
Audio-Visual:
PBS The Fifty Year War, Part Three (Nasser explains his 1952 revolution; attempts at an Israeli-Egyptian settlement; cross-border terrorist attacks from Egypt and Jordan and an Israeli reprisal: the massacre in Qibyah; Israeli sabotage in Cairo; the Soviet arms deal with Egypt; Nasser nationalizes the Suez canal; The Sinai campaign).
Recommended: Itamar Rabinovich, The Road Not Taken (Oxford University Press, 1991), 209-222 Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 336-357.
Zach Levey, Israel and the Western Powers, 1952-1960 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 7-79.
7. The Road to the Six Day War and the 1967 Turning Point
Required:
David Tal, “The Six Day War”, in Jewish Virtual LibraryPublications (Google).
Bickerton and Klausner, 133-150.
Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 373-375, on the PLO; 409-410, the Khartoum Arab summit; 414-422, UNSC Resolution 242. . Documents:
Bickerton & Klausner, pp. 153-154: UN Security Council Resolution 242; “Principles Guiding Israel’s policy … PM Eshkol, August 9, 1967”; Resolutions of the Khartoum [Summit] Conference. Laqueur & Rubin, 149-150; 152-155 (Nasser’s speech and Heikal’s article in al-Ahram leading to the Six Day War);
Recommended: Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 357-422. Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Yezid Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 71-142.
William B. Quandt, Decade of Decisions: American Policy Toward the Arab- Israeli Conflict (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1977), Chapter 2, pp. 37-71, The June 1967 War; Chapter 3: pp. 72-104, The Rogers Initiative 1969-1970. 7
Audio-visual:
PBS, 50 Year War: the Soviets deceive Egypt; Nasser’s brinkmanship; American equivocation (President Johnson, Secretary of Defense McNamara, others) and Israeli fears of a new Holocaust; General (Ret.) Moshe Dayan to Defense, the three hour war and total Arab defeat; The Soviets gear up for a massive areal strike on Israel, the US responds by alerting the Sixth Fleet; a ceasefire in a transformed Middle East; the Three “Nos” of Khartoum and a new stalemate.
Food for Thought for Next Class: Having retained the Sinai, the Golan and the West Bank and Gaza after the UNSC issued Resolution 242: was Israel in breach of a binding Security Council resolution?
8. Resolutions 242 and 338 in light of the UN Charter
Required Documents:
Laqueur and Rubin, pp. 217-218; 310: UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, (). Bickerton and Klausner, 175-176: UN Security Council Resolution 338, October 22, 1973. Or: in the internet.
Bruno Simma (Ed.), The Charter of the UN: A Commentary (NY, Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. XXV-XXVII OR: the UN Charter in the internet. Please photocopy Article 25; Chapter VI Articles 33, 36; Chapter VII Articles 41, 42, 44. Apply the UN Charter’s above mentioned clauses to UNSC 242 (Nov. 22, 1967), then to UNSC 338 (Oct. 22, 1973). Are both Resolutions binding and therefore actionable? Neither? One of them only? Why?
In class we shall read a corrective letter in the matter sent to Dr. Amatzia Baram by Eugene V. Rostow, Dean of Yale Law School 1955-1965 and, in 1967, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under President Lyndon B. Johnson.
9. 1968-73: The War of Attrition; The Rogers Plan; the New PLO and its Radical Flank-the Popular Front; the Jordanian-PLO Crisis, and the Yom Kippur (October) War of 1973
Required:
Uri Bar-Joseph, “The 1973 Yom Kippur War”, in Jewish Virtual Library, (Google).
Bickerton and Klausner, 153-173. 8
Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 399-464 (ending with Black September); 474-481 (the 1973 war and the Israeli-Egyptian disengagement agreements). See also the map of the Israeli-Egyptian Disengagement of Forces Agreement, p. 482.
Documents Bickerton and Klausner, 173-176: The PLO Covenant of 1968 (mainly Articles 1-3, 6, 9, 15, 19, 20, 21, 27,28); Arab Heads of State Declaration at Rabat, 1974.
Recommended: Matti Steinberg, “The World of [George] Habash’s Popular Front”, in The Jerusalem Quarterly,47, Summer 1988, pp. 3-26. (On the PFLP).
Helena Cobban, The Palestinian Liberation Organisation: People, Power and Politics (Cambridge University Press, Middle East Library, 1985) pp. 21-56 (the PLO from its inception to 1973).
Walid W. Kazziha, Revolutionary Transformation in the Arab World: Habash and his Comrades from Nationalism to Marxism ((London, Tonbridge, Charles Knight & Co, 1975).
William B. Quandt, pp. 72-104.
Audio-Visual:
PBS 5: [Pt. 2, beginning] Nasser’s death; Sadat turns to the US, offers an arrangement with Israel and is rejected; the preparations for the war; The Egyptians and Syrians attack, Israel’s total surprise; Egypt deceives Syria; super-powers involvement-Kissinger saves the 3rd Egyptian Army; Ceasefire and the 101 km negotiations;
PBS 6: [Pt. 1, after 1.37 hours] The War of Attrition; the Palestinian National Charter; the Israeli failure in Karameh; Palestinian designs on the Hashemite Kingdom and Black September 1970 sucking in Syria, US, Israel, Nasser’s Egypt (interviewed: the King, Palestinian leaders; Henry Kissinger; Pres. Nixon; Syria Minister of Defense; Israel’s Airforce commander; Sudan’s Numeiri. Missing: Nasser. Why?). The slaughter of the Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich 1972 and Israel’s reprisal.
10. 1974-1979: The Road to Camp David and Israeli-Egyptian Peace
Required:
Bickerton and Klausner, 178-193.
Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg and Neil Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 28-42. 9
Documents:
Laqueur and Rubin, pp. 405, 407, 408: the Camp David Framework for Peace: photocopy only A. The West Bank & Gaza, only clauses 1a; B. Egypt- Israel; C.2,3,5,6). pp. 409, 410 (Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty). Bickerton and Klausner, 198-201: Camp David agreement-the same clauses; the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.
Recommended:
Bickerton and Klausner, 195-198: speeches at the UN by Arafat and Tekoa.
Kenneth W. Stein, Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Begin, and the Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace (New York: Routledge, 1999), 187-268.
William B. Quandt, pp. 187-206 (the end of the war and the Americans saving the Egyptian 3rd Army)m .
Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 481-531. (PLO 1974 conference [“Oil Drop”]; Hawatmah’s “dialogue”; Arafat UN speech and UNGA Zionism=Racism Resolution).
Audio-Visual:
PBS 7: The 1975 civil war in Lebanon and terrorist raids from Lebanon into Israel; the Israeli-Lebanese Christian alliance.
PBS 8: Sadat’s peace initiative (Nov. 1977) and Begin’s acceptance; Israeli fears of a trap; Sadat’s visit to Israel; amp David and the peace agreement. Interviewed: Sadat, Begin, Pres. Carter, Sharon, Arab reactions, Sadat is assassinated.
11. The 1982 Lebanon War and its Aftermath: Sharon’s “Grand Strategy” and its collapse
Required:
Bickerton and Klausner, 205-219.
Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg and Neil Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities, 43-56: Sharon’s still-born Israel-Lebanon peace agreement.
Documents: 10
Laqueur & Rubin, pp. 446 (12th Arab Summit Conference [in Fez], Sept. 1982, only p. 446, beginning with “Out of the conference’s belief in the ability of the Arab nation…” and including articles 1-8).
Bickerton and Klausner, 229-230 the same 1982 Fez Summit, points 1-8.
Food for Thought: can you identify a vaguely-implied Arab promise to recognize Israel?
Compare to the next Arab Summit offer to Israel: Tessler (2009 edition), p. 827 – the February-March 2002 Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and Arab League Peace Plan. Can you identify differences?
Recommended:
Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State, pp. 522-543 (A step-by-step analysis of the Lebanon war from the Palestinian point of view). Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 568-599.
Audio-Visual: PBS 9: The Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the massacre of Sabra & Shatilah, Israeli anti-Government demonstrations; the PLO evacuating Beirut; the US gets involved (interviewed: Arik Sharon, Arafat among others).
12. 1987-1996: From the Intifada to Madrid and Oslo
Required:
Bickerton and Klausner, 219-229; 237-258.
Tessler, 677-706; 717-727; 736-748: the Intifada, suppression attempts, PLO metamorphosis?; the Gulf War of 1991 and PLO Isolation.
Documents:
Laqueur & Rubin, pp. 501-502 (Israel-Jordan: the London Document of April 11, 1987); pp. 527-528 (King Hussein’ Disengagement from the West Bank. Only from “In view of this line of thought…” to: “They naturally do not relate … to the Jordanian citizens of Palestinian origins in the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan”); pp. 529-537 (Hamas Charter, Aug. 1988).
Bickerton and Klausner, 230-231: “Hussein’s Renunciation…” (the same as in Laqueur & Rubin “King Hussein’s Disengagement …”, but somewhat differently arranged. Please read the whole document there). 234-235: PLO Acceptance of …Resolutions 242 & 338”, Nov. 1988. “Arafat Statement on Israel & Terrorism”, Dec. 1988. 261-262: Arafat to Rabin, Rabin to Arafat, Sept. 9, 1993. 266-268: Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles. 11
Recommended:
*Ephraim Inbar, "Israel's Small War: The Military Response to the Intifada," Armed Forces and Society 18, 1 (Fall 1991), 29-50.
Itamar Rabinovich, Waging Peace: Israel and the Arabs at the End of the Century (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999), 41-81.
Zittrain Eisenberg and Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace, 75-126.
Audio-visual:
PBS 10: King Hussein and Foreign Secretary Shimon Peres on the London agreement; Secretary of State George Schultz tries to help; Prime Minister Shamir standing on his hind legs. The Intifada breaks out in Dec. 1987, Arafat caught by surprise. Israeli attempts at suppression; The Intifada is dying, with US encouragement Arafat is pushed to imply an end to terrorism and recognition of Israel, but short of expected by US. Saddam invade Kuwait (Augt. 1990), the Gulf War and missiles on Tel Aviv & Haifa. The Madrid Middle East conference of 1991 and the stalemated Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Washington, DC; the “Track Two” avenue to Israeli-PLO recognition in Oslo and its convoluted outcome; the Israeli-Jordanian peace, Oct. 26, 1994.
PBS 11: a new (and failed) attempt at a peace agreement with Syria; Oct. 1998 American crushing pressure at Wye Plantation on PM Netanyahu to give more territory to Arafat.
13. From Oslo to Camp David 2000 and the Second (“Al-Aqsa”) Intifada
Required:
Bickerton and Klausner, 272-292; 304-334.
Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 782-818.
Documents: Laqueu & Rubin, 549-550: PM Barak on his principles before the Camp David conference – see the five points, middle of page 550. 551-553: US President Bill Clinton After the [Failed] Camp David peace Talks. Read carefully, analyze: whom does the President accuse of the failure of the talks, albeit by implication? 562-564: Clinton’s Plan for Peace, Dec. 23, 2000: Analyze: what are the President’s solutions to the core problems of the Arab-Israeli conflict: territory, security, Jerusalem, refugees. 567- 572: the Palestinian response to Clinton’s proposal, January 2, 2001. What seems to be the greatest reservations on their part? 12
Recommended:
Yezid Sayigh, "Arafat and the Anatomy of a Revolt," Survival 43, 3 (Autumn 2001), 47-60.
14. 2000-2010: The February-March 2002 Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and Arab League Peace Plan. The “Quartet” Failed Road map to Peace; Sharon’s Withdrawal from and Hamas Takeover in Gaza; Arafat’s death; Hizballah in Lebanon; the peace strategy of President Obama 2008; the debacle; the peace-strategy of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 2010.
Required:
Bickerton and Klausner, 343-378.
Tessler, (2009 edition), 819-847. See p. 827 the Arab Peace Plan.
The Clinton Strategy – a source will be provided.
Documents: Laqueur & Rubin, 583-584: Arab league Beirut Declaration, March 28, 2002. Analyze: why was it ignored by the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon? 589-591: President G.W. Bush letter to PM Sharon, April 14, 2004: is there in this letter any contradiction to the Clinton proposals? . Recommended: Shaul Mishal and Avraham Sela, The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence, and Coexistence (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 147-172.
Shimon Shapira, “The Origins of Hizballah”, in The Jerusalem Quarterly, No. 46, Spring 1988, pp. 115-130 Augustus Richard Norton, Hezbollah: A Short History (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2007), 187 pages.
Jonathan Spyer: "Lebanon 2006: Unfinished War," Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal 12, 1, (March 2008 – see online).
Emmanuel Dubois, “Operation ‘Cast Lead’ in Gaza: Analysis and Prospects”, in European Strategic Intelligence & Security Center (ESISC), March 1, 2009
15. OPTIONAL: Time Allowing The Historiography of the 1948 War
Required Reading:
Avraham Sela, “Arab Historiography of the 1948 War”, in J. Silberstein (ed.), New Perspective on Israeli History (NYU Press, 1991), pp. 124-154;
Benny Morris, “1948 and After: Israel and the Palestinians, Ibid. pp. 1-34. 13
16. Conclusion
Abraham Ben-Zvi, “The United States and Israel: 1948-2008” (April 2009), Jewish Virtual Library Publications (Google). [Isr_US 48_008]