Alan Dowty ist ein herausragender Politikwissenschaftler, dessen Werk sich hauptsächlich auf die komplexen Dynamiken Israels und des israelisch-palästinensischen Konflikts konzentriert. Seine wissenschaftliche Arbeit befasst sich mit den vielschichtigen politischen Landschaften und historischen Wurzeln, die diesem andauernden Streit zugrunde liegen. Dowtys Analysen werden für ihre Tiefe und ihr Engagement für das Verständnis der grundlegenden Faktoren, die die regionale Stabilität prägen, anerkannt. Sein Ansatz untersucht häufig das Zusammenspiel zwischen der inneren israelischen Politik und äußeren Einflüssen, die den Konflikt weiterhin formen. Sein Grundstudium absolvierte er am Shimer College und sein Aufbaustudium an der University of Chicago.
In this revised fifth edition, Alan Dowty explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict's unique intensity and resistance to resolution. He provides a historical perspective, debunking myths of an "age-old" clash and presenting both sides' viewpoints. The book offers a clear framework for understanding the evolving dynamics and recent developments in the conflict.
When did the Arab-Israeli conflict begin? Some discussions focus on the 1967 war, some go back to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and others look to the beginning of the British Mandate in 1922. Alan Dowty, however, traces the earliest roots of the conflict to the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, arguing that this historical approach highlights constant clashes between religious and ethnic groups in Palestine. He demonstrates that existing Arab residents viewed new Jewish settlers as European and shares evidence of overwhelming hostility to foreigners from European lands. He shows that Jewish settlers had tremendous incentive to minimize all obstacles to settlement, including the inconvenient hostility of the existing population. Dowty's thorough research reveals how events that occurred over 125 years ago shaped the implacable conflict that dominates the Middle East today.
How did a community of a few thousand Jewish refugees become, in little over a century, a modern nation-state and homeland of half the world's Jews? Has modern Israel fulfilled the Zionist vision of becoming a nation like other nations, or is it still, in Biblical terns, a people that dwells alone?Alan Dowty distils over half a century of study as an inside/outside analyst of Israel in tracing this remarkable story. It begins in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, when Jews fleeing Russian persecution established a renewed Jewish presence in their historic homeland. It continues through harsh struggle and in deep-rooted conflict with another people that sees Israel/Palestine equally as their homeland. Immensely successful by most standards, Israel today remains a center of contention and is still torn between its hard-earned role as a normal nation and the call of its particularistic, and unique, Jewish history.