The War for Palestine. Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations. Middle East Policy Council. Dr.
Shlaim is a fellow of St. Antony’s College and a professor of international relations at Oxford University. Born in Baghdad and reared in Israel, Professor Shlaim is numbered among Israel’s New Historians, who have challenged traditional assumptions about Israeli history. He is the author of Lion of Jordan: King Hussein’s Life in War and Peace (2007) and Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement and the Partition of Palestine (1988).
He was interviewed for Middle East Policy on June 15 in his office at the Middle East Centre of St. MEP (Gaess): What is the mood of the Jewish Israeli public now in terms of prospects for peace with the Palestinians? SHLAIM: The mood of Israelis today is one of very great uncertainty. American support means everything to Israel: economic support, military support and diplomatic support, including the use of the veto in the Security Council of the United Nations. SHLAIM: Security for Israel is a non-issue. SHLAIM: Yes. Avi Shlaim: Cut off the cash and Israel might behave - Commentators - Opinion. America subsidises Israel to the tune of $3bn (around £2bn) a year.
America is Israel's principal arms supplier, enabling it to retain the technological edge over all its enemies, near and far. In the diplomatic arena too, America extends to Israel virtually unqualified support, including the use of the veto in the UN Security Council to defeat resolutions critical of Israel. America condemns Iran for its nuclear ambitions, while turning a blind eye to Israel's possession of a large arsenal of nuclear weapons. This unparalleled generosity towards a junior partner is largely the result of sentimental attachment and shared values.
Israel used to present itself as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. America's most vital interests lie in the Persian Gulf; to ensure access to oil, the US needs Arab goodwill. There is a broad international consensus in favour of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and America is part of this consensus. Avi Shlaim. The Politics of Partition: King Abdullah, the Zionists, and Palestine 1921-1951.
Like all things dealing with the state of Israel, the 1948 war has been thoroughly distorted.
Most Americans think that hordes of savage Arabs invaded Palestine only to be attacked and outwitted by a tiny Zionist David. The reality is much different. The United Nations partition plan had assigned the coastal plains to the Jews with a large section west of the Jordan River assigned to the Arabs. When the war began on or prior to the British withdrawal of May 15, the Jews showered mortar fire into the Arabs in the coastal city of Jaffa, killing many and driving large numbers into the ocean to drown. Many Arab villages, fearing the upcoming violence, had made non-aggression pacts with the Jews which the Jews promptly violated when the war began.
The story that the Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi armies "invaded" Israel is propagandist nonsense. In an otherwise miserable military performance by the Arabs the Jordanians fought the Jews to a standstill in the battle for Jerusalem.