Palestine in the Arab Dilemma

For a long time the understanding of the Palestinian question has been dominated by the views offered by the Arab governments on the Israeli establishment. But any close examination of the policies of the Arab regimes would reveal that they have done very little to alleviate the plight of the Palestinians. Since the defeat of the Arab regime in June 1967, an increasing number of Arab scholars and intellectuals have been seriously and independently involved in reassessing the political and social conditions of their societies. This book is part of that more general attempt to discover the deep-rooted causes of defeat and the general state of socio-economic underdevelopment of the Arab region. The central theme of the four essays in this study pertains to the fluctuating relationship between the Arab regimes and the Palestinian Resistance Movement. It is within this context that the first essay examines the various factors which shaped the relationship at different intervals. The second then goes on to present a case study of how the contradictions between the Arab regimes and the Resistance Movement operate in a crisis situation and reach the level of an armed confrontation. The third essay examines the prospects for peace and war in the region in the light of the political conditions given before Sadat’s visit to Israel. And finally the fourth essay is concerned with Sadat’s peace initiative and its consequences on the relations between Egypt and the Palestinian Resistance Movement.

This book is part of a series of works which the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) is publishing within the framework of a research programme financed by the Ford Foundation dedicated to the problems of the Mediterranean. Published also in Italian: Arabi e palestinesi: tra conflitto e convivenza, Bologna, Il mulino, 1979, 150 p. (Lo spettatore internazionale ; 48). Published also in the series "Routledge Library Editions: Israel and Palestine" (May 2015, ISBN 978-1-13-890420-0).