Egypt's struggle for peace: continuity and change, 1967-1977

MESA BULLETIN 33 1999 249 Egypt's Struggle for Peace: Continuity and Change, 1967-1977, by 215 pages, endnotes, bibliography, index. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1997. $49.95 (Cloth) ISBN 08130-1533-2 YORAM MEITAL. Yoram Meital undermines several myths in this well-argued survey of Egypt's ten-year road to peace with Israel following the disaster of June 1967. He posits Egypt less as the rejectionist nation in need of a redemptive war than as one struggling to come to terms with defeat and to persuade the victor to discuss acceptable peace terms. He also deflates somewhat the role of Anwar al-Sadat, too often considered the "right man at the right time" (p. ix), thus a needed corrective to the more stubborn, antagonistic Jamal "Abd al-Nasir. While emphasizing the continuity of Egyptian concerns under Nasir and Sadat, Meital denotes subtle .policy shifts immediately following the June war, then traces the roots of a transition from "war to compromise, negotiation, and peace" (p. ix). In this telling, the Egyptian perspective entailed not only unwavering commitment to eradicate the "consequences of aggression," but a realistic fear of committing Egyptian armed forces to military conflict in which they might again lose decisively. Meital takes his readers through several distinct phases. The "seeds of change" following the June war produced the rejectionism of Khartoum, the decision to embark upon a war of attrition, then acceptance of the Rogers Plan. A second phase of "continuity and change" carries Egypt from Sadat's ascension through the October 1973 war. The final phase, "the political struggle" from November 1973 to Sadat's bold offer to travel into the enemy's camp, is the most familiar ground. Yet, given the groundwork here established it bears rereading. Meital helps place the still puzzling character of Sadat in new perspective. If Sadat is not the dramatic engineer of new, shock therapy diplomacy, as he is often portrayed (and as he liked to envision himself), he is nonetheless responsible (in his own headstrong manner) for achieving dramatic breakthroughs both on the battlefield and at the bargaining table. This after the infamous false start of 1971, the proclaimed "year of decision," which came and went. In this reading, however, Sadat appears less the blusterer—the image he garnered at home and abroad—than a level-headed politician bitterly coming to terms with his own military, domestic, and international political constraints. Meital has made good use of a wide variety of available sources. Egyptian diplomatic archives remain closed, but he has read what has been published with a keen eye, as he has the myriad, often contradictory and accusatory accounts written by diplomatic and military participants on all sides. He exhibits a fine understanding of domestic debates and constraints shaping Egyptian diplomacy under both Nasir and Sadat, an understanding that is all too rare in diplomatic histories of the region. If any fault is to be found it is that his discussion might more sharply trace the animosities that remain ever-present in the Egyptian discourse concerning both Nasirist and 250 MESA BULLETIN 33 1999 Sadatist legacies with regard to society, economy, and not least, military and regional foreign policy. These remain fascinating, fiery debates to which this dispassionate account by an Israeli scholar will no doubt contribute. JOEL GORDON University ofArkansas The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Narrate the Palestinian Village, by SUSAN SLYMOVICS. 294 pages, maps, illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. $19.95 (Paper) ISBN 0-8122-1525-7 In her meticulously researched monograph on the contested history of Ein Houd/Ein Hod~the former Palestinian Arab village turned Jewish Israeli artists' colony—Susan Slyomovics sets a high standard for future scholarship on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. By employing a vast array of oral, written, and visual sources, she provides valuable insight into the politicized character of memory and place in Israel/Palestine. Moreover, The Object of Memory underscores the conceptual and empirical value of "relational history," an approach advocated by Zachary Lockman. This approach places at center stage the myriad ways in which the two peoples, cultures, and national movements have mutually constituted one another over the last century of conflict. To this end, Slymovics's command of Arabic and Hebrew is indispensable to her project. Jewish Ein Hod was established in 1953, five years after the Israeli army expelled all 950 residents of the Palestinian village, Ein Houd. These moments of emptying and filling, marked by the fact that primarily European Jewish artists moved into the homes of the original Arab inhabitants, set the stage for Slyomovics's study. Her exploration of competing memories and entangled relationships between current and former villagers enables her to discuss a broad range of neglected topics, including the ways in which Jews and Arabs codify their collective memory of place, the diversity of Palestinian experiences following expulsion, and the shared histories and ongoing connections between Palestinians who remained in Israel and their relatives and compatriots in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the diaspora. Zionism and Israeli society also receive considerable attention. Here Slymovics convincingly demonstrates the convergence between colonial settler strategies throughout Palestine and the enthusiastic preservation of the "primitive art" and architectural "ruins" of its former inhabitants by Marcel Janco, Ein Hod's Romanian-born founder (pp. 37, 50-53). As Slyomovics illustrates, Jewish Israeli society continues to be shaped by its historic appropriation of Palestinian Arab material culture.