NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
Fall 2003
POL U470 Arab-Israeli Conflict
Prof. Yoram Meital
Class: Tuesday and Friday,11:45-1:25
317 Meserve Hall
Office Hrs: Tuesday 1600-1900
Course Description For more than five decades developments in the Arab-Israeli conflict has had an enormous impact on the Middle East and global politics. This course examines the history of the conflict from 1947/8 till today. We will explore how domestic politics as well as regional and international forces are central in understanding the dynamics of the conflict, including the major actors and events. Throughout the course, emphasis will be on the debate between traditional (
old
) and innovative (
new
) approaches to the study of this conflict.
Course requirements Class attendance is mandatory. Students will be evaluated on the basis of participation in the class discussions, reading of required materials (20%), first essay (20%), one presentation (book review) before the class (20%), and final critical (written) essay (40%). The subject of the written essay is: The Camp David Summit (July 2003): A Critical Essay. The
purpose of the essay is to synthesize course readings, classroom discussions and additional sources (see list in page 3). •
The book review is a joint effort of two students.
•
The book review (4-6 typed double-spaced pages) due exactly one week before the date of your class presentation.
•
The critical essay (10-15 typed double-spaced pages, font 12) due Monday, December 8, 2003 .
•
The book review and the critical essay must be typed double-spaced, and include footnotes. Submit: one
hard copy
and one send as an attachment file to my email
address: (
[email protected]). •
No late book review will be accepted.
•
Late critical essay will be marked down.
•
All academic rules and norms of the Department of Political Science must be respected.
Required Readings The course textbooks are: •
Charles Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict: A History With Documents ( Boston, MA : Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001, fourth edition).
•
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 ( New York : Vintage Books, 2001).
A packet of the syllabus reading (articles and book chapters) is available at Gnomon Copies at 325 Huntington Avenue .
A Statement on Academic Honesty The Department of Political Science takes very seriously the issue of academic honesty. Any student who cheats on an exam or in the preparation and writing of a course assignment at
minimum will fail the assignment in question. What is more, the Department can recommend that the student be put on academic probation (as outlined in the University s Code of Conduct). Individual faculty, with the support of the Department, can impose harsher penalties as they deem necessary. Cheating includes plagiarism, which is defined broadly as taking ideas, concepts, or actual words of another person and passing them off as your own work. This includes, for example, buying a term paper or pulling material off of the Internet. To restate the point: academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Students who cheat on a quiz or plagiarize on a take-home exam at minimum will fail the assignment and will be subject to further disciplinary action. This is your only formal warning. Valid use of materials will be explained in class. If you are found to have cheated or plagiarized in any way on an assignment in this course you will fail the course and will be brought before the university authorities for further sanction. Plagiarism is defined as the use of words written by others without proper citation. This extends to materials taken off of the Internet. I will explain this far more thoroughly in class, but regard this syllabus as formal warning of my policy.SHORT GUIDE TO WRITING AN ESSAY
Your goal is to develop an argument, which consists of the following components: a claim, reasoning to support that claim, evidence to support it, conclusion about the claim. •
Try for a strong opening, the better to lure the reader.
•
Situate particular statements or points from the book/article within the author s overall argument. This serves to contextualize your focus (i.e., avoid taking the arguments out of context).
•
Support your argument with some examples from the text (and other relevant materials) to illustrate what you mean to say.
•
Briefly identify the work(s) and author(s) under discussion within your text, so we ll know what text you
re addressing (underline or italicize Book Titles, put quotations
around "Article Titles"). •
Locate quotations (give page number; if unclear from context, give author and title).
•
As a rule, put punctuation inside quotations: "xxxxx." "xxxx," "xxxx?" "xxxxx" (p. x).
•
Do you make a point? Avoid leaving your readers in confusion, or in "so-what?" land.
•
Push your analysis and explore the implications of your argument (for domestic/regional politics, for international relations, for everyday life, for culture, etc.).
•
Wrap up the end of your paper by tying it back to your starting point. This will confirm
your thesis point, reminds the reader of what you aimed to address, and shows how far your argument has taken you. •
Proofread your essay. Try having someone else read it aloud to you and listen for clarity, persuasiveness, awkward sentence structure, poor grammar, etc.
The Camp David Summit(July 2003): A critical essay SOURCES
1. Benny Morris,
An interview with Ehud Barak,
The New York Review of Books, June
13, 2002. 2. Benny Morris and Ehud Barak,
Camp David and after - continued
The New York
Review of Books, June 27, 2002. 3. Benny Morris,
The rejection: bleak conclusions from the history of a people,
The
New Republic, April 21 & 28, 2003. 4. Robert Malley,
Fictions about the failure at Camp David
, The New York Times, July
8, 2001. 5. Robert Malley and Hussein Agha,
A reply to Ehud Barak,
The New York Review of
Books, June 13, 2002. 6. ---,
A reply,
The New York Review of Books, June 27, 2002.
7. Deborah Sontag,
Quest for Mideast Peace: How and Why It Failed
, The New York
Times, July 26, 2001.
Course Schedule WEEK 1: THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT a. Mark Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), 7-108. Focus on pages 36-68, 96-108.
WEEK 2: THE EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST a. Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (New York: Warner Books, 1991), 265352. Focus on pages 279-332.
WEEK 3: THE ROAD TO PARTITION a.
Charles Smith, Palestineand the Arab-Israeli Conflict ( Boston: Bedford , 2001), 109195. Focus on pages 109-144, 167-195.
WEEK 4: THE 1948 WAR AND THE HISTORIOGRAPHICAL DEBATE a. Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 18812001 ( New York : Vintage Books, 2001), 161-189. b. Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World ( London : Allen Lane , 2000), 28-53. BOOK REVIEWS: • •
Morris Rogan
WEEK 5: ARAB REVOLUTIONS AND THE CONFILCT WITH ISRAEL a. P.J. Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation (New York: St. Martin s Press, 1978), 225261. b. Keith Kyle, Suez (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1991), 477-548. FILM: Nasser 56
WEEK 6: 1967 WAR: REGIONAL WATERSHED a. Morris, Righteous Victims, 302-346. b. Fouad Ajami, The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice Since 1967 (Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 24-75. BOOK REVIEWS: •
Kerr
•
Oren
WEEK 7: POST WAR DIPLOMACY: KHARTOUM & 242 RESOLUTIONS a. Yoram Meital, The Khartoum Conference and Egyptian Policy After the 1967 War: A Reexamination . Middle East Journal, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Winter 2000), 64-82. b. David Korn, Stalemate: the War of Attrition and great power diplomacy in the Middle East, 1967-1970 (Boulder: Westview, 1992), 31-45. c. U.N. Security Council Resolution 242: A Case Study in Diplomatic Ambiguity (Washington: Georgetown University, 1981), 3-51.
WEEK 8: THE 1973 WAR: TURNING THE FACE INWARD a. Morris, Righteous Victims, 389-443. b. Reem Saad, War in the Social Memory of Egyptian Peasants, in: Steven Heydemann (ed.), War, Institutions, and Social Change in the Middle East ( Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 240-257. BOOK REVIEW: •
Waterbury
WEEK 9: THE MAKING OF THE CAMP DAVID COALITION a. Yoram Meital, Egypt s Struggle for Peace: Continuity and Change, 1967-1977 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997), 131-172. b. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 395-405. BOOK REVIEWS: • • •
Boutros Boutros-Ghali Dayan Quandt ( Camp David)
WEEK 10: BACK TO THE HEART OF THE CONFLICT a. Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 533-599. b. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 406-441.
BOOK REVIEWS: • • •
Newman Mdfai Alasdair
WEEK 11: THE OSLOPROCESS a. Shlaim, The Iron Wall, 502-545, 564-595. BOOK REVIEWS: • • •
Said Makovsky Peres
WEEK 12: PEACE AND NORMALIZATION: THE ARAB DISCOURSE a. Mohamed Heikal, Secret Channels: The Inside Story of Arab-Israeli Peace Negotiations (London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1996), 447-482. b. Fouad Ajami, The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation's Odyssey (New York: Pantheon Books, 1998), Chapter 5. BOOK REVIEW:
WEEK 13: CAMP DAVID II AND THE SECOND INTIFADA a. Charles Enderlin, Shattered Dreams: The Failure of the Peace Process in the Middle East 1995-2002 ( New York : Other Press, 2003(, 177-260. b. Road Map, 20 December 2002. PRESENTATIONS 1. Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Through Secret Channels (Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing, 1995). 2. Naseer Aruri, Dishonest Broker: America 's Role in Israel and Palestine ( Cambridge : South End Press, 2003). 3. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egypt's Road to Jerusalem: A Diplomat's Story of the Struggle
for Peace in the Middle East (New York: Random House, 1997). 4. Moshe Dayan, Breakthrough: A Personal Account of the Egypt-Israel Peace Negotiations (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981). 5. Malcolm Kerr, The Arab Cold War, 1958-1967: Gamal 'Abd al-Nasir and his Rivals, 1958-1970 (London: Oxford University Press, 1971). 6. Madiha Rashid al-Madfai, Jordan, the United States, and the Middle East Peace Process, 1974-1991 (Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1993). 7. David Makovsky, Making Peace with the PLO: The Rabin Government's Road to the OsloAccord (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996). 8. Alasdair Drysdale, Raymond Hinnebusch, Syriaand the Middle East Peace Process (New York : Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1991). 9. Ann Mosely Lesch,
Transition to Palestinian Self-Government: Practical Steps Toward
Israeli-Palestinian Peace - Report of a Study Group of the Middle East Program Committee on International Security Studies, American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992).
10. Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). 11. David Newman, Population, Settlement, and Conflict: Israel and the West Bank (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). 12. Michael Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East ( New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). 13. Amos Oz, Under This Blazing Light: Essays (translation: Nicholas de Lange) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). 14. Shimon Peres, The New Middle East (New York: Henry Holt, 1993). 15. William Quandt B., Decade of Decisions: American Policy toward the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1967-1976 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977). 16. William Quandt B., Camp David: Peacemaking and Politics (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1986). 17. William Quandt B., Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967 ( Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, 2001). 18. Eugene Rogan L. and Avi Shlaim (eds.), The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 ( Cambridge [ England]: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
19. Edward Said W., The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestine SelfDetermination, 1969-1994 (New York: Vintage Books, 1995). 20. Yezid Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State: the Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). 21. Saad Shazly, The Crossing of Suez : The October War (London: Third World Centre, 1980). 22. Shibley Telhami, Power and Leadership in International Bargaining: The Path to the Camp David Accords (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990). 23. John Waterbury, Egypt : Burdens of the Past, Options for the Future (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978).
Tel: 972-8-6472538 Fax: 972-8-6472922 EMail:
[email protected] Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
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