In July 2023, I completed what was supposed to become the fourth edition – and third update – of my book, The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East, a history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Then came 7 October, Hamas’s murderous rampage through southern Israel, and the dramatic, potentially cataclysmic developments, political and otherwise, that it has set in train.
Not to bring these developments into my update would have been absurd, but to do so very problematic, and I decided not to attempt it. I think, however, that the prologue and epilogue of the aborted new edition remain valid, and relevant, on their own.
Here they are, unchanged except for 13 additional words – “and it [Israel] is making one helluva job of that in Gaza right now” – in the last paragraph. …more
