The Arab-Israeli Conflict

A book dealing with so complex a topic has a basic duty to children: to explain clearly the fundamental reason for the conflict, its historical course and the issues that make resolution today seem so impossible. This book fails that challenge. Its choice of double page spreads shows the less important trees rather than the wood itself. It omits those maps that are essential to understanding how the mess has progressively deepened from the failed partition plan of 1947, through Israel’s capture of the last remaining parts of Palestine in 1967, to its expropriation of so much land leaving only a series of Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank today. The key issues, which should have been at the heart of this book, are not properly addressed: Israel’s search for security, the status of Jerusalem, Israel’s illegal settlements, the refugee question and most importantly how a viable state for the Palestinians can possibly now be created.