Jews and Muslims in the Arab World Haunted by Pasts Real and Imagined [Hardcover]

This impressive book deals with a significant topic that has not been studied before in a methodical and comprehensive manner. This comprehensive and comparative study extensively adds to our understanding of the two communities and their enduring conflict. This book should be read and digested by all those who are interested in these communities and their complex historical clash.This truly wonderful work should be essential reading for any serious scholar in Middle Eastern studies.Lassner and Troen have produced nothing less than a definitive prolegomenon to the Arab-Israel conflict and other current conflicts involving Muslims and Jews. They show that historical memory matters a great deal; it is neither irrelevant nor determinative, and not all historical communities are imagined. Written in an exceptionally reader-friendly style, Jews and Muslims in the Arab World is a unique and riveting narrative, fair to both traditions, that anyone with even a mild interest will have trouble putting down.A fascinating study of the interface between memory and politics as reflected in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By providing a refreshing look at the pious myths bedeviling Middle Eastern politics, Lassner and Troen show with meticulous scholarship how both Arab nationalism as well as Zionism re-fashioned ancient traditions to legitimize modern political claims. With critical empathy to both sides, the authors warn against simplistic diplomatic attempts to solve the conflict without taking into account these deeply-held beliefs and traditions. At the same time, they call on both sides to listen to the voice of the Other and realize that history is not a seamless coat, but a multi-faceted mosaic, in which accepting the legitimacy of the other side does not by and in itself undermine one's own narrative.Jews and Muslims in the Arab World shows why the Jewish and Palestinian struggles for self-determination have played such a central role in the history of these two pels#