At a time when a lasting peace between the Palestinians and
the Israelis seems virtually unattainable, understanding the roots
of their conflict is an essential step in restoring hope to the
region. In The Iron Cage, Rashid Khalidi, one of the most respected
historians and political observers of the Middle East, homes in on
Palestinian politics and history. By drawing on a wealth of
experience and scholarship, Khalidi provides a lucid context for
the realities on the ground today, a context that has been, until
now, notably lacking in our discourse.
The story of the Palestinian search to establish a state begins
in the mandate period immediately following the breakup of the
Ottoman Empire, the era of British control, when fledgling Arab
states were established by the colonial powers with assurances of
eventual independence. Mandatory Palestine was a place of real
promise, with unusually high literacy rates and a relatively
advanced economy. But the British had already begun to construct an
iron cage to hem in the Palestinians, and the Palestinian
leadership made a series of errors that would eventually prove
crippling to their dream of independence.
The Palestinians'' struggle intensified in the stretch before and
after World War II, when colonial control of the region became
increasingly unpopular, population shifts began with heavy Jewish
immigration from Eastern Europe, and power began to devolve to the
United States. In this crucial period, Palestinian leaders
continued to run up against the walls of the ever-constricting iron
cage. They proved unable to achieve their long-cherished goal of
establishing an independent state—a critical failure that set a
course for the decades that followed, right through the eras of the
Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Palestinian Authority, and
Hamas. Rashid Khalidi''s engrossing narrative of this torturous
history offers much-needed perspective for anyone concerned about
peace in the Middle East.
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