WREL 374: The Middle East Conflict
Class Readings and Syllabus
Richard L. Rubenstein, STM, PhD
Office hours: By appointment only
E-mail- rlr@bridgeport.edu
Blog- http://21stcenturytheologian.blogspot.com/
Class Calendar
January 16- Introductory session, “What is at stake in the Middle East Conflict?"
http://21stcenturytheologian.blogspot.com/2008/02/assassination-of-imad-mughniyeh.html
Reading assignments
• “The Charter of Hamas”
• “Is the Peace Process Realistic?-Max Boot, “Of Braveheart and Bush,” Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2008.
(Both documents are available at the blog, Religion, History and Theology http://21stcenturytheologian.blogspot.com/ )
January 23- Bernard Lewis, Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice
• Introduction, pp. 11-24
• Ch. 1: The Holocaust and After, pp. 25-41
• Ch. 2: Semites, pp. 42-57
• Ch. 3: Jews, pp. 57-80
• Ch. 4: Anti-Semites, pp. 81-116
January 30- Lewis, Semites and Anti-Semites
• Ch. 5: Muslims and Jews, pp. pp. 117-139. For a darker view of Islamic tolerance, especially Islamic anti-Semitism, see Andrew Bostom, “The First and the Last Enemy,” Front Page Magazine, http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/10/the_first_and_last_enemy_jewha.html
See also my postings, Iran's Threat to Destroy Israel and "The Gaza Breakout". Both are posted in this blog. (Both are required).
• Ch. 6: The Nazis and the Palestine Problem, pp. 140-163.
• For an important essay, translated from the German, conserning recently discovered Nazi plans to exterminate the Jews of Palestine upon the expected victory of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps over the British in North Afrika in 1942, see Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Martin Kuppers, “’Elimination of the Jewish National Home in Palestine’: The Einsatzkommando of the Panzer Army Africa, 1942”, (Jerusalem: Yadvashem, 2007), http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/studies/vol35/Mallmann-Cuppers2.pdf. This is a required reading.
• Ch. 7: The War Against Zionism, pp. 164-191.
February 6- Anton LaGuardia, War Without End: Israelis, Palestinians, and the Struggle for a Promised Land
• Ch. 1: A Small Country with a Big History, pp. 1-16.
• Ch. 2: One God, Many Religions, pp. 17-61
Read the text of the brief, but historically important, Balfour Declaration of 1917 in which the British Government declared that it viewed with favour "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
There is a very useful Wikipedia article on Theodore Herzl. (Required reading for WREL 374)
February 13- LaGuardia, War Without End
• Ch. 3: Every Man Under His Vine, pp. 62-104.
• Ch. 4: The Hundred Years War, pp. 105-153
February 20- LaGuardia, War Without End
Ch. 5: Victims of Victims, pp. 154-212
Ch. 6. The Tribes of Israel, pp. 212-260
Quiz on Bernard Lewis
See also my postings The Assassination of Imad Mughniyeh and "Hamas: The Strategic Use of Rocket Attacks."
http://21stcenturytheologian.blogspot.com/2008/02/
hamas-strategic-use-of-rocket-attacks.html
March 5- LaGuardia, War Without End
Ch. 7. The Curse of Peace, pp. 261-370
Ch. 8. Among the Nations, pp. 371-391
Epilogue, 392-401
Mid-term Exam
May 7- Final Exam
Further details forthcoming.
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2 comments:
On Max Boot's Article
With all historical context said, I do believe change is possible … just not in the mode we are currently using. I believe the inner body of the Arab world needs to have an “enlightenment period” of altering belief systems to befit the times. Somehow the voice of moderation and modernity must speak out from within. I believe that if a critical mass adopts these values, the grounds for letting go and moving forward will happen.
I agree with you that the "inner body of the Arab world needs to have an "enlightenment period" of altering belief systems to befit the times." However, I believe that will be extraordinarily difficult for them because of the penalties that radical and even conservative Muslims exact for deviance. Obviously, some Muslims see the need for reform, but unlike Christianity, reform is frustrated by the violence of the radicals.
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