Copyright

Avi Shlaim

Published On

2023-06-26

Page Range

pp. 69–82

Language

  • English

Print Length

14 pages

Media

Illustrations1

5. Reflections on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

  • Avi Shlaim (author)
Chapter of: For Palestine: Essays from the Tom Hurndall Memorial Lecture Group(pp. 69–82)
In this chapter I argue that the state of Israel is legitimate, but only within its original boundaries and that the Palestinians are the main victims of the conflict, victims of Israeli colonialism. The history of the region over the last sixty years can be convincingly explained in terms of the strategy of the ‘iron wall’, first expounded by Jabotinsky, which advocates negotiation only from a position of unassailable strength. The basic deal of ‘land for peace’ expressed in UN Resolution 242 was sound, but never effectively implemented and Rabin, the only Israeli prime minister prepared to negotiate, was murdered. The recent, brutal onslaughts on Gaza give little grounds for optimism.

Contributors

Avi Shlaim

(author)
Emeritus Professor of International Relations at University of Oxford
Fellow at British Academy

Avi Shlaim, who gave the fifth Hurndall Memorial Lecture in 2009, is an Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. His books include War and Peace in the Middle East: A Concise History (1995); The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (2014); Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace (2007); and Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations (2009).