Israel: the First Hundred Years Volume II: From War to Peace?

The end of the British mandate in Palestine heralded the birth of the new state of Israel. It also marked the end of one of the most tumultuous and momentous chapters in Israeli history. But the new state, born into a hostile environment and struggling with the manifold demands of sovereignty, would have to face many post-Independence challenges to its existence, not least in the form of armed conflict and confrontation with its Arab neighbours. This volume examines the conflicts that from the 1948 until the 1967 Six Day War came to define the Israeli struggle for existence. In doing so, contributors analyze the various military challenges to Israel from both the military and strategic perspective and in terms of the demands that these conflicts placed on Israeli society and political life. The final section addresses the peace process from the time of the Oslo Accords, while focusing on some of the key issues in any future settlement, most notably Jerusalem's future status.

Part 1: From war to war: the forgotten war 1. Jewish-Palestinian strife in Mandatory Palestine, December 1947-1948, David Tal 2. "Shall we go to war? and if we do, when?" the genesis of the internal debate in Israel on the road to the Sinai war Motti Golani 3. The 1956 Sinai campaign - David Ben-Gurion's policy on Gaza, the armistice agreement and French mediation, Mordechai Gazit 4. Strategy in debate - Arab infiltration and Israeli retaliation policy in the early 1950s Zaki Shalom 5. The "tranquil decade" re-examined - a reassessment of Arab-Israli relations, 1957-1967 Menachem Klein 6. Israel's nuclear programme, the Six Day War and its ramifications Schlomo Aronson Part 2: Changing perspectives on national security 7. Toward a paradigm shift in Israel's national security concept Uri Bar-Joseph 8. Pattern of war initiation in the Arab-Israeli conflict - a note on the military dimension David Rodman 9. Israel as a nuclear power - an assessment Edwin Cochran Part 3: Towards peace? 10. Jewish-non-Palestinian Arab negotiations, the rist phase Eliezer Tauber 11. transitions from conflict - the imporatnce of pre-negotiations in the Oslo the Peace Process Ilan Gewurz 12. Unambiguous ambiguity - the opacity of the Oslo Peace Process Nadav Morag 13. The Netanyahu era - from crisis to crisis, 1996-99 Neil Lochery 14. Jerusalem - partition plans of a holy city Elisha Efrat 15. Arab-Israeli co-existence, the causes, achievements and limitations Efraim Inbar

Efraim Karsh is Professor and Head of Mediterranean Studies at King's College London, UK