The book is simply a collection of documents on the Arab-Israeli conflict, dating back to the British Mandate in Palestine. The editors included all the important papers such as the Balflour Declaration, the "White Paper," various UN declarations, and speeches made by both Arab and Israeli leaders. The latest documents it contains are those covering the Camp David meetings between President Clinton, barak, and Arafat near the end of Clinton's presidency. While it is not a history of the conflict (merely a collection of historical documents), it certainly can provide you with plenty of info on the subject.

Anyone who wants a truly honest vision of the Arab-Israeli conflict should consider this excellent 580-page Reader, last updated in 2001. It is divided into four sections each of which contains important writings from both sides (sometimes three or more) of the question and goes back more than a century.

The first, for example, runs from 1882 through the end of the British Mandate and includes 69 pages of writings, from the Bilu Group Manifesto, excerpts of Theodore Herzl's Jewish State and a 1905 French journal piece by Negib Azouri to the 1915 letter of Sir Henry McMahon to Hussein the Sherif of Mecca, the Peel Commission report, the US Special Committee on Palestine and the Partition Plan of the UN General Assembly.

The Third section runs from the Camp David Accords to Madrid, including statements from various commissions, the Arab League Jordanian Crown Prince Al-Hassan Bin Talal, and Lebanon and Israel's 1983 truce agreement. Also included is the Hamas charter, the Palestine National Council political resolution and declaration of independence of 1988 and Iraqi speech of Saddam Hussein as well as a 1991 U.S. letter of assurance to the Palestinians.

The Israel-Arab Reader's last section includes many Arab documents on Oslo and runs through 2001 statements by the Palestinian negotiating team and former President Bill Clinton.

It is hard to argue against reading important original documents, and forming your own opinion. Once you do, you will see many of the factors that have shaped the current Middle East as well as international and U.S. policy. Alyssa A. Lappen

From the Manifesto of the Bilu (1882) and Theodore Herzl's "Der Judenstaat" (The Jewish State) published in 1896, to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yassir Arafat speeches accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1994, this book contains an unique collection of documents that will provide the reader with a better understanding of the Middle East and the conflict between Arabs and Israelis. This last, and fifth, edition, published in 1995 adds new documents covering the most significant events of the 1990-1994 period, including the famous Palestinian-Israeli Declaration of Principles signed in the White House in September of 1993, and although the reader will not find in this edition, any document of later events, this book, already a classic, maintains its place as a documentary history of the Arab-Israeli conflict that is indispensable to understand current Middle East affairs. As they have done with previous editions, historians and Middle East specialist Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin present a selection of key documents that reflect the viewpoints of all involved parties in this dramatic history. A great reference book.

These stories are the equivalent of being hit on the head with a literary sledgehammer. The points that they make (the Arabs as The Other, the Holocaust as having an impact on modern Israeli society, etc.) are pretty obvious to anyone who has any knowledge of Israel or Jewish history. They occasionally read like writing class exercises, actually.

That being said, the stories are a good window into Israeli society and show elements which you don't see on the news. For excellent Israeli literature, though, I'd have to recommend Yaakov Shabtai, Amos Oz or A.B. Yehoshua.

This is a wonderful book of short stories which contradicts the sterotypical picture of Israelis so often portrayed in the nightly news. It shows (mostly from the female point of view) the nuances of many types of Israelis, from religious to secular, from Ashkenazi to Sephardic, from Arab to Jew. In particular, it brings out the human side of each of its characters and demonstrates that feelings change from time to time and situation to situation. These are beautiful studies of human interaction.

I have four favorite stories. In "A Room on the Roof", a woman's husband goes to Texas, and she decides to build a new room on the second story of her home while he's gone. Her Jewish contractor leaves her alone with three Arab laborers during the construction process. She is not sure to how to react to their presence near and in her home. "The Road to Cedar City" tells of an Israeli couple (Hassida and Yehiel) and their son Yuval who are traveling in the United States when their rented car breaks down. The wife is unhappy when she learns that she must share a ride in a minivan with another young Israeli couple and their baby who are from Jerusalem. A talkative minivan driver further complicates matters by running his mouth during the entire trip. "Mother's Photo Album" is about a Dr. Joshua Hoshen who looks into his mother's medical record after she is hospitalized in a mental institution. He pieces together her life from what he reads in her record and uses a photograph to help resolve his anguish about what he discovers. A most notable story is "The Homesick Scientist" in which eldery Zerubavel wlcomes his nephew, a well-known Israeli scientist who lives in the United States, as he returns to visit Israel after 21 years. His nephew had frequently spent summers with Zerubavel after Zerubavel's own son Uri had been killed while on reserve duty. Zerubavel, although he had eagerly anticipated his nephew's visit, isn't sure what his nephew's motives were for returning after such a long absence.

Great, tight, vivid, exact writing about the Important Things (universal concerns, issues, and feelings) in the mood of a calm and astute observer/chronicler -- with soul. Perfect. Although these stories are primarily concerned with Israelis, I encouraged an East Indian friend to read "The Homesick Scientist"; it spoke to him so deeply of his own private experience that he immediately ordered the book (from Amazon, of course).

This book gives the reader an inside look into an alternative theory of the Rabin assassination. While most of the book is believable, the author admits to using unnamed sources for certain parts of the book which drains some credibility from his theory. Regardless, the book does give a detailed examination of both the official and alternative theories of the Rabin assassination. If you are interested in Israeli politics, this book is a must read.

The night of the Rabin Assasination, disjointed factoids that appeared in all of the media led me immediately to conclude that the character assassination of the then accused murderer and the left's political machine smear of both the rightwing and the observant sector of the nation smelled of conspiracy and collaboration at the highest levels. Barry Chamish finds the loose ends, inconsistencies, contradictory testimony and evidence that abound regarding the assassination. My only regret is that while he presents the facts that clearly spell conspiracy, he doesn't come to a conclusion about who he suspects or knows is guilty of the actual murder. The book is explosive. I couldn't put it down. This and the book The Secret War Against the Jews are musts for people who want to really know all news fit to print and not what the powers that be want us to see. I'm ordering Barry's other books immediately. You should too. These are musts !!!

This book is a must for any serious student of the Middle East peace process and the history of Israel. Chamish reveals how the official story behind the Rabin murder cannot be true, and that, contrary to popular belief, Rabin was probably killed by people who were interested in promoting the peace process rather than stopping it.

Chamish offers some theories on what may have transpired behind the scenes. When you read the book, remember that the purpose of these theories are (probably not) to give 100% correct answers to everything that transpired, but to give you an idea of what MAY have happened. The book will raise more questions than it answers.