The Gaza Strip: Its History and Politics - From the Pharaohs to the Israeli Invasion of 2009

by Nathan Shachar

Few areas on earth have more history, ancient and present, per inch of its territory than the Gaza Strip. In antiquity Gaza was a horn of plenty, the hub of fabulous networks of desert and maritime trade. Egyptian, Persian and Assyrian emperors fought over it, and so did Alexander the Great, Richard the Lionheart, Saladdin and Napoleon. More recently Gaza's fame has been of quite a different kind -- a place of crisis, anguish and misery. Since 170,000 Palestinian refugees arrived there in 1948, and the Strip became one more piece in the intractable Middle Eastern puzzle, it has gone through a succession of bloody upheavals: passing from Egyptian to Israeli to PLO to Hamas rule,- all the while remaining a volatile geopolitical flashpoint. Apart from separating between Israel and the refugees in the south-western corner of Palestine, the Strip's borders coincide with other momentous fault-lines: between Islamism and secularism, tradition and modernity, East and West -- and between
the comfortable firs

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Stefan Walet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Shachar. That probably affects my impression of the book. I like that it goes back til the beginning of recorded history and I love Shachar's command of the subject. I know a lot more about Gaza, the intifada and the conflict now than I did a month ago. For 5 stars, it could have used more editing and structure. Shachar sometimes jumps chronologically in unnecessary ways thereby confusing the reader, and his focus is quite uneven. For example, what transpired at Camp David is explained vaguely and briefly