Historical Dictionary of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (2nd edition)

摘要

Readers who are familiar with the Rowman & Littlefield Dictionaries will recognise the format of this book. Professor Kumaraswamy, who is the sole author as far as one can tell, includes a map section, an extended chronology and an historical introduction. At the end, there is a full bibliography (of which more below). No index, no documents, no illustrations. The meat in the sandwich is a big collection of historical entries. As regards coverage, strictly speaking the professor would be justified in confining his work to the period after 1948, when Israel came into existence -but he does not. He also devotes some attention to the British mandate: the Balfour Declaration, the King-Crane Report, the Arab revolt of 1936, the Passfield White paper. For most of the time, however, Kumaraswamy points his spotlight on the past 30 years. Arafat, Shamir, Rabin, Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu are the stars of this production. All in all, students of the world's most intractable problem will agree that he has compiled rather a good book: clear, concise and well-organised.