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In general, considering the reviewer, it's an inoffensive review -- except for his retailing the lie about a nonexist "violent" takeover by Hamas in 2007 (Hamas had been properly elected in 2006 and was defending itself against a US-sponsored coup attempt by Fatah. This is a lie Jodi Rudoren of the Times has repeated.) The book probably has some useful info. Anyway, comrades should know, in case you share the review elsewhere, that the reviewer is a dangerous guy: Ibbish leads the pro-Zionist American Task Force on Palestine. He's fond of meeting with Israeli officials and dissing BDS. On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 2:54 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ====================================================================== > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > ====================================================================== > > > BOOKFORUM SEPT/OCT/NOV 2014 > Battle Ground > A look at the tangled political history of modern Gaza > > HUSSEIN IBISH > > Filiu explains how the narrow-yet-pivotal terrain known as the Gaza Strip > has shaped the course of the Arab-Israeli conflict. First, he notes, almost > all of its inhabitants are refugees from southern Israel displaced by the > hostilities of 1947–48. Other Palestinian refugee populations, including > those in the occupied West Bank, are much farther from the Israeli border. > But here is a huge group of refugees who can virtually see their former > lands, and who contend with the Israeli occupation on a daily basis. > Second, Filiu lays out Gaza’s strategic location between Egypt (and hence > the rest of Africa) and Palestine (and hence the rest of Asia)—a > convergence of influence that has shaped the region’s history since ancient > times. Even the British campaigns that targeted Palestine during the First > World War had to pass through Gaza. > > For those and other crucial reasons, Gaza has always played an outsize > political role in Palestinian collective life. The first aborted attempt at > creating a Palestinian national government arose and failed in Gaza after > the 1948 war. Gaza was also home to several of the core parties of the > Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and many of its leaders. As Filiu > notes, “It was in Gaza that the fedayin [the early Palestinian guerrilla > fighters] were moulded and the Jewish State would soon make Gaza pay for it > dearly.” > > But also, crucially, the Muslim Brotherhood laid down deep roots in the > territory—both under Egyptian rule, following 1948, and after Israel’s > conquest of Gaza in 1967. For most of its history, the Brotherhood in > Palestine was quietist, refusing to engage in or endorse the PLO’s armed > struggle. But under the leadership of Ahmed Yassin, the Brotherhood in > Palestine acquired a political arm, Mujamma, that increasingly developed > militant tendencies. As Filiu notes, at the end of 1987, the Muslim > Brotherhood “finally called for a struggle against the occupation” and > founded Hamas. > > It was no accident this decision came a mere five days after the outbreak > of the first intifada, which began in Gaza. Hamas was a militant enterprise > from the outset, with an allied faction attempting to capture Israeli > soldiers. But it was only in December 1991 that Hamas fully established its > paramilitary wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam brigades. > > FULL: http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/021_03/13649 > ________________________________________________ > Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/ > options/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
