Book Club Talk

Organized by The Second Bookstore

Sponsored by Office of University General Education

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Myths & Might : Understanding the Middle East Conflict

‘From Beirut to Jerusalem’ by Thomas Friedman

Presented by Dr Susan Chu,

27th July 2002

Outline

1.Introduction

  1. Lebanese history and civil war
  2. Israeli Palestinian conflict up to 1980
  3. Convergence of Lebanese and Israeli Palestinian conflict in Beirut 1982
  4. Life in Dante’s inferno : Would You Like To Eat Now Or Wait For The Ceasefire?
  5. Myths and might – driving forces behind the scene
  6. Arafat and Sharon – Round One : Beirut 1982
  7. American peacekeeping in Beirut
  8. Beirut aftermath - Symbiotic paralysis
  9. The first intifada – whose country is this anyway ?
  10. Getting a seat on the Metro – a territorial conflict
  11. Friedman’s proposed solution
  12. Arafat and Sharon – Round Two: Jerusalem 2000
  13. Endgame – latest efforts for peace
  14. Globalisation and fragmentation – what hopes for world peace?

Supplementary Reading

  1. The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969-1994, Edward W. Said, Vintage, 1995
  2. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, Avi Shlaim, Penguin, 2000
  3. How Israel Was Won – a Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Thomsa Baylis, Lexington Books, 1999
  4. Diplomacy, Henry Kissinger, Touchstone 1995
  5. 9-11, Noam Chomsky, edited by Greg Ruggiero, Seven Stiroes Press, 2001
  6. Covering Islam, How the Media & the Experts Determine How we see the Rest of the World, Edward Said, Vintage, 1997
  7. The Paradox of American Power - Why the World's Only Superpower Can't go It Alone, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Oxford University Press, 2002
  8. Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, Michael B Oren, Oxford University Press, June 2002
  9. One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation, Wrath of God, Simon Reeve, Arcade Publishing, 2000
  10. Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, John Cooley, Stylus Publishing, LLD, October 2000
  11. Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians, N. Chomsky, South End Press Classics Series.
  12. The New Rulers of the World, John Pilger, Verso 2002

Resources on the Web

  1. Archives of Royal Institute of International Affairs (‘Chatham House’), website :
  2. International Crisis Group, website :

A Simplified Middle East Chronology

Middle East

/ Other World Events /

US Presidents

1300’s to 1913 / The Ottoman Empire
1896Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, published his pamphlet The Jewish State, which argues that the “Jewish Problem” can be solved only by setting up a Jewish state in Palestine, or somewhere else, so that Jews can live freely without fear of prosecution.
1897The first Zionist Congress proposed the establishment of a Jewish State
1914 to 1947 / 1917The Sykes-Picot Agreement (Britain, France and Russia) carving up the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in WWI
1918The Balfour Declaration endorsing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine
The legacy of WWI: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East –“A Peace to end All Peace”
1922 The League of Nation Mandate
1943 Independence of Syria
1944Independence of Lebanon
1945The UNSCOP Report
1947 TheExodus-1947 incident / 1914 to 1918 WWI
1941 to 1945 WWII
(The Holocaust) / 1933-1945 Roosevelt
1945-1953 Truman
1948 to 1966 /

1948 The Birth of Israel

1948 (through to 1955) Palestinian refugees seeking to return home in Israel are shot by border guards. They seek revenge through sabotage and murder. Israel pursues a policy of attack on refugee camps/villages in Egypt-controlled Gaza, Jordan and Syria. Israel sends terrorists to Cairo to blow up public and US facilities, seeking to blame Egypt and spoil US-Egyptian relations.
1950 International War between Israel, Transjordan, Egypt, Syria and Iraq; A January cease-fire and April armistice resulted in 22% reduction in Palestinian Arab territory and 70% of all Palestinian Arab become refugees.
Lebanese Civil War, 15,000 American troops to Beirut
1956The Suez War
1956(through to 1967) External and internal stresses on Israel and Cold War polarization of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
1964 Arab heads of state establish the PLO in Cairo. / The Cold War / 1953-1961 Eisenhower
1961-1963 Kennedy
1963-1969 Johnson
1967 to 2002 / 1967 The Six Day War –the Making of the Modern Middle East; Yasir Arafat elected chairman of the Executive committee of PLO
1972Munich Olympics Massacre
1979Egypt and Israel Peace Treaty
1981Murder of Egyptian President Sadat.
1982Feb: Hama Rules; June: Israel invades Lebanon; Sep: Sabra & Shatila Massacre.
1983The American embassy & Marine headquarters in Beirut are blown up by suicide car bombers.
1987Intifada: the Palestinian uprising “He had just learned to walk”.
1991Israel, Jordan, Syria and the Palestinians begin bilateral talks in Washington and Madrid.
1993The secret “Oslo channel” between Israel and the PLO.
1993August: Israel-PLO initiated“Declaration of Principles” in secret in Oslo for transferring Gaza & Jericho to Palestinian control. Americans taken by surprise.
September: Arafat and Rabin sign the “Declaration of Principles” at the White House; the historic hand-shake
1994May: Israel/PLO complete the details for Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho; Jordan – Israel Peace Treaty
1995Rabin assassinated by right-wing extremists
1996Arafat elected as President of Palestinian Authority. Bus bomb killed 25 in Israel; Hardliner Netanyahu elected as Israel PM and ended a freeze on construction in the West Bank.
1997More suicide bombing by Hamas
1998Wye River Accord, settlement building and clashes continue
2000Peace process breaks down at Camp David; Sharon visits Muslim holy site; Start of 2nd intifada, Israeli moderate PM Barak resigns
2001Sharon elected by landslide; Sept 911
2002Violence escalates on both sides; Israel re-occupies West Bank; Saudi peace plan; Bush calls for Palestinian state in 3 years; International Crisis Group proposals involving the“quartet”– US, UN, EU & Russia, and the “trio” Egypt, Saudi Arabia; Israel kills Hamas leader and 15 civilians / 1987Berlin Wall opened
1988Gulf War
1991 USSR dissolved / 1969-1974 Ford
1974-1977 Nixon
1977-1981 Carter
1981-1989 Reagan
1989-1992 Bush
1992-2001 Clinton
2001- Bush

What did he do to you?

“Did you want to kill him, Buck?”

“Well, I bet I did.”

“What did he do to you?”

“Him? He never done nothing to me.”

“Well then, what did you want to kill him for?”

“Why, nothing – only it’s on account of the feud.”

“What is a feud?”

….

“Well, a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man’s brother kills him; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in – and by and by everybody’s killed off, and there ain’t no more feud. But it’s kind of slow, and takes a long time.”

…

“What was the trouble about, Buck? – land?”

“I reckon maybe – I don’t know.”

“Well who done the shooting? ….”

“… How do I know? It was so long ago.”

“Doesn’t anybody know?”

“Oh yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the old people: but they don’t know now what the row was about in the first place.”

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn