War Without End: Israelis, Palestinians, and the Struggle for a Promised Land

by Anton La Guardia

Overview

The struggles of the Israelis and Palestinians - with their terrible histories of disaster and redemption - command the obsessive attention of the world. Statesmen tinker with peace plans for the Middle East and generals worry about future wars there. Religious leaders stoke the violent passions of the devout while pilgrims flock to find God and archaeologists dig to find the origins of His revelations. All this goes on under the watchful eye of an army of reporters, observers, diplomatic envoys, and aid workers.

Between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, dreams and ideals collide with the reality of violent nationalist struggle, and God's name is invoked in defense of the jealousies of men. With the experienced journalist's eye for irony, anecdote, and telling detail, Anton La Guardia offers an intimate look into the Israelis as they come to terms with the "post-Zionist" demolition of national myths, and the Palestinians as they try to build their own state. A classic in the making, War Without End is the definitive book on Israel and her people.

" … this slender book will be indispensable to anyone trying to understand current events in Israel and the Middle East." - Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312316334
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/23/2003
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Anton La Guardia was Middle East correspondent for the Daily Telegraph from 1990 to 1998 and is now Diplomatic Editor. He lives in London and War Without End is his first book.

Table of Contents

	Illustrations	ix
	Preface	xi
	Foreword to American Edition	xvii
	Foreword to the American Paperback Edition	xxi
	Maps	xxiii
1	A Small Country with a Big History	1
2	One God, Many Religions	16
3	Every Man Under His Vine	62
4	The Hundred Years War	105
5	Victims of Victims	154
6	The Tribes of Israel	212
7	The Curse of Peace	261
8	Among the Nations	371
	Epilogue	392
	Chronology	401
	Bibliography	407
	Index	419

Editorial Reviews

An excellent, balanced survey of the troubled relations between Middle East neighbors over the last half-century. Scanning the news of the latest intifada, La Guardia, a correspondent and editor for London's Daily Telegraph, pointedly wonders, "How did it all go so wrong? How did the hope engendered by that handshake between Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin on the South Lawn of the White House turn to despair?" He gives a protracted, thoughtful answer that finds fault on many sides of the long struggle between Israel and Palestine-many sides, for there are not just two, as he takes pains to show. Neither Israel nor the Palestinian community is in any way monolithic, and neighboring countries have occasionally attempted to find advantage in their endless troubles and sometimes been caught up in the mess. For example, La Guardia writes, the Palestinian Black September terrorist movement, responsible for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, originally devoted itself to waging war on Jordan, whose army had massacred thousands of Palestinians during an uprising two years earlier. Mixing historical narrative with on-the-ground reportage, the author addresses such issues as the Israeli right's campaign of expansion into Palestinian territories, the virulent anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial of the Arab press, the conflict between Zionists and Jewish fundamentalists, power struggles within the Palestinian Authority (one Palestinian leader observes that the latest intifada is a rebellion against both Israel and Arafat), and the baffling bonds that keep Israelis and Palestinians at such close quarters despite all the hatred. None of what La Guardia turns up is hopeful, and none of itinspires much confidence in the leadership on either side of the battle. Regrettably timely reading that also makes a welcome contribution to the literature of strife.

Kirkus Reviews