Over seven years ago, this book was first published as the Palestine–Israeli conflict intensified. In the second edition, published in 2003, we discussed further events that had profoundly affected Middle East politics: in particular, the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had focused international attention on the significance of the struggle between Israelis and Palestinians. In the subsequent four years, major events have taken place in the Holy Land: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a severe stroke and was replaced by Ehud Olmert; Yasser Arafat died and Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian Authority; Israel launched an offensive against Hezbollah; and most recently Hamas won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Today there is a major struggle between Hamas and Fatah for the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people. This revised version of our book highlights these most recent developments while presenting a history of the struggle between Jews and Palestinians for the land of their ancestors.
Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Dawoud El-Alami, 2008