The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood - Softcover

Rashid Khalidi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1851685820 ISBN 13: 9781851685820

Publisher: Viva Books, 2010

Synopsis

In The Iron Cage, Rashid Khalidi, one of the most respected historians and political observers of the Middle East, presents a succinct and insightful history of the Palestinian people and their leadership in the twentieth century. Ranging from the Palestinian struggle against colonial rule and the beginnings of the "Iron Cage", through the eras of the PLO, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas, this is an unflinching and sobering critique of the Palestinian failure to achieve statehood, as well as a balanced account of the odds ranged against them. At a time when lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis seems virtually unattainable, understanding the roots of the longest-running conflict in the Middle East is an essential step in restoring hope to the region. Rashid Khalidi s engrossing narrative of this tortuous history is required reading for anyone concerned about peace in the Middle East.

About this title

About the Author:

Rashid Khalidi, author of Resurrecting Empire and Palestinian Identity, holds the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies at Columbia University, where he heads the Middle East Institute. He has written more than eighty articles [and five books] on Middle Eastern history and politics, as well as op-ed pieces in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and The Nation. He lives in New York.

From Publishers Weekly:

Historian Khalidi (Resurrecting Empire), a leading expert on the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, brings vital perspective to Palestinian attempts to achieve independence and statehood. Admirably synthesizing the latest scholarship and concentrating on the period of the British Mandate (1920–1948) established by the League of Nations after WWI, Khalidi describes the process by which a newly arrived European Jewish minority overcame, with help from its imperial ally, the claims and rights of the native Arab majority in what became Israel and the occupied territories. Khalidi shows Palestinians under the mandate facing comparatively severe systemic, institutional and constitutional obstacles to the development of any para-state structure—contrary to British promises of Arab independence and Article 4 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. Meanwhile, the Jewish minority could count on a system biased in its favor to develop the structures that became those of the Israeli government in 1948 amid violent expulsion of over half the indigenous population. In bringing this narrative up to the present, Khalidi rigorously details the missteps of the Palestinians and their leadership. Khalidi curiously refrains from drawing any detailed proposal of his own to resolve the ongoing conflict, but his first-rate and up-to-date historical and political analysis of the Palestinian predicament remains illuminating. (Oct.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Viva Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1851685820
• ISBN 13: 9781851685820
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 328