Anon.
Orality and Textuality in the Iranian World: Patterns of Interaction Across the Centuries. ProtoView [Internet]. 2015 . Available from:
Publisher's Versionתקציר9789004291836 Orality and Textuality in the Iranian World: Patterns of Interaction Across the Centuries Edited by Julia Rubanovich BRILL 2015 456 pages $218.00 Hardcover Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture; [...]
חטינה מאיר, Schumann C eds.
Arab Liberal Thought after 1967. Palgrave Macmillan US; 2015.
תקצירThis volume aims at confronting the image of the Middle East as a region that is fraught with totalitarian ideologies, authoritarianism and conflict. It gives voice and space to other, more liberal and adaptive narratives and discourses that endorse the right to dissent, question the status quo, and offer alternative visions for society.
Reviews
"This innovative work provides an important perspective of how liberal thought and Islamic practice interacts in Middle Eastern life. The nuanced examination of the variety of liberal expression is a must read for anyone interested in understanding how abstract liberal principles are contextualized to expand freedom and democracy in the Middle East." M. Hakan Yavuz, University of Utah, USA
"While many scholars assume liberal discourse, values, and norms have disappeared or are irrelevant to Arab societies and cultures, [this volume shows] clearly the opposite: that there exists a broad corpus of literature dealing seriously and comprehensively with liberal values, principles, policies, and strategies. This is a truly extraordinary contribution to a more balanced picture of what is really going on in the contemporary Middle East, particularly after 1967." - Israel Gershoni, Tel Aviv University, Israel
"This profoundly humanistic collection of essays reviews the many-faceted nature of liberalism in the post-1967 Arab Middle East, from both secular and 'Islamic' perspectives. The unsettling nature of new ideas and new discourses about liberalism, democracy, and human rights is clearly visible from the vigorous attempts to silence them on the part of regimes whose authoritarianism has alas not yet been quashed by the popular uprisings that have taken place since 2011." Peter Sluglett, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore.
Podeh E.
Chances for Peace: Missed Opportunities in the Arab-Israeli Conflict. University of Texas Press; 2015 'עמ. 424.
תקצירDrawing on a newly developed theoretical definition of “missed opportunity,” Chances for Peace uses extensive sources in English, Hebrew, and Arabic to systematically measure the potentiality levels of opportunity across some ninety years of attempted negotiations in the Arab-Israeli conflict. With enlightening revelations that defy conventional wisdom, this study provides a balanced account of the most significant attempts to forge peace, initiated by the world’s superpowers, the Arabs (including the Palestinians), and Israel. From Arab-Zionist negotiations at the end of World War I to the subsequent partition, the aftermath of the 1967 War and the Sadat Initiative, and numerous agreements throughout the 1980s and 1990s, concluding with the Annapolis Conference in 2007 and the Abu Mazen-Olmert talks in 2008, pioneering scholar Elie Podeh uses empirical criteria and diverse secondary sources to assess the protagonists’ roles at more than two dozen key junctures.
A resource that brings together historiography, political science, and the practice of peace negotiation, Podeh’s insightful exploration also showcases opportunities that were not missed. Three agreements in particular (Israeli-Egyptian, 1979; Israeli-Lebanese, 1983; and Israeli-Jordanian, 1994) illuminate important variables for forging new paths to successful negotiation. By applying his framework to a broad range of power brokers and time periods, Podeh also sheds light on numerous incidents that contradict official narratives. This unique approach is poised to reshape the realm of conflict resolution.