Teaching About The Middle East

[spork]

My Middle East course is coming up in its regular rotation. Given Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7 and the aftermath, I'll be revising the syllabus. I'm curating a list of potential additions/substitutions. Let me know if you have any recommendations. My current list includes:

• Ben Hubbard and Maria Abi-Habib, "Behind Hamas's Bloody Gambit to Create a 'Permanent' State of War," The New York Times, 9 November 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-gaza-war.html.
• Mark Mazzetti and Ronen Bergman, "'Buying Quiet': Inside the Israeli Plan That Propped Up Hamas," The New York Times, 10 December 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/world/middleeast/israel-qatar-money-prop-up-hamas.html.
• David Brooks, "The Missed Chance for Peace," The New York Times, 12 October 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/opinion/israel-palestinians-gaza-peace.html.
• Bret Stephens, "Sheryl Sandberg Screams Back at the Silence," The New York Times, 30 April 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/opinion/screams-before-silence-sheryl-sandberg.html.
• Barnett R. Rubin, "False Messiahs," Boston Review, 4 January 2024, https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/false-messiahs/.

I also plan to again use Kim Ghattas, Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East, 2020.

Students at my university are mostly ill-informed and apolitical. Few can locate Israel on a map. So I'm not interested in dense, badly written academic literature.

I am not interested in debating the war itself in this thread. If you want to opine about it, start a General Discussion thread. 

[secundem_artem]

Certainly not my field, but I found this to be an interesting read from the perspectives of both sides.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/01/magazine/israel-founding-palestinian-conflict.html?searchResultPosition=2

[Parasaurolophus]

Some or all of Jerome Slater's Mythologies Without End: The US, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1917-2020?

[spork]

Certainly not my field, but I found this to be an interesting read from the perspectives of both sides.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/01/magazine/israel-founding-palestinian-conflict.html

This is brilliantly designed and executed. Thanks. Missed its original publication because I was in the Middle East at the time.

Some or all of Jerome Slater's Mythologies Without End: The US, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1917-2020?

Thanks. I was unaware of this book, and it might be suitable for one of my graduate courses, thought it's > 500 pages. I currently use Rashid Khalidi's The Hundred Years' War on Palestine.

Also, not clearly stated in my original post: my syllabus revision is not limited to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The course is about the whole region. So suggestions about other topics are welcome.

[mbelvadi]

Regarding what else to include, I have heard from a number of reputable sources that Israel was on the cusp of signing an agreement with Saudi Arabia that would potentially have marginalized Hamas' support in the region and that the timing of the attack was specifically intended to derail that, which it so far did do.  Maybe that would be relevant in a discussion about the region?  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Israeli-Saudi-peace-deal

[Vkw10]

Primary sources may be outside your scope, but our library has an online archive, Creation of Israel: British Foreign Office Correspondence on Palestine and Transjordan, 1940-1948 (Module 43), that you might find useful. More info: https://proquest.libguides.com/historyvault/israel1940

[financeguy]

I don't have a specific text but I'd try to find some way to ensure those completing the course are aware of the effect Islamic Finance and the unique features of the regional economy may have on trade in general. Many people focus on the religious, geographic and other factors of the region in an intro or survey course while placing little emphasis on the vast economic differences that are in some ways as consequential.   

[spork]

I don't have a specific text but I'd try to find some way to ensure those completing the course are aware of the effect Islamic Finance and the unique features of the regional economy may have on trade in general. Many people focus on the religious, geographic and other factors of the region in an intro or survey course while placing little emphasis on the vast economic differences that are in some ways as consequential.   

I leave finance to the people in the business department, where MBAs teach intro econ. Don't want to deprive students of the opportunity to create PowerPoint presentations.

[poiuy]

There are some good infographics in this article, especially maps showing how land boundaries changed over time:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/mapping-israeli-occupation-gaza-palestine

You could curate specific information for your class from that article. I was teaching a class on migration last Fall when the Hamas attack happened so I found information from that link very useful for my students.

I teach at a regional public where students are often not well prepared, mostly uninformed, geographic knowledge abysmal, and they have pressing problems related to their day-to-day survival that they understandably prioritize.

[spork]

There are some good infographics in this article, especially maps showing how land boundaries changed over time:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/mapping-israeli-occupation-gaza-palestine

You could curate specific information for your class from that article. I was teaching a class on migration last Fall when the Hamas attack happened so I found information from that link very useful for my students.

I teach at a regional public where students are often not well prepared, mostly uninformed, geographic knowledge abysmal, and they have pressing problems related to their day-to-day survival that they understandably prioritize.

Cool. Thanks.

[secundem_artem]

The New York Times Sunday Magazine has a good article on a Palestinian man who is trying to use non-violent resistance (~ Ghandi or MLK).  Suffice to say with limited success.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/magazine/issa-amro-palestinian-nonviolent-activist.html

[Sun_Worshiper]

Killing a King by Dan Ephron, about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, is a great read that gives a lot of good insight as to how we got to this point.

From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman also jumps out at me as a good one for students, although I haven't read it in years and don't know how it holds up.

[poiuy]

The New York Times Sunday Magazine has a good article on a Palestinian man who is trying to use non-violent resistance (~ Ghandi or MLK).  Suffice to say with limited success.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/magazine/issa-amro-palestinian-nonviolent-activist.html

Not related to the topic of this thread, but please, Gandhi not (ugh the other spelling). When transliterating from South Asian languages into English the placement of the 'h' is not arbitrary but indicates a specific consonant. Switching the position can go from a name to a slur .... 

[fleabite]

I recommend the 9/11 Report. I recognize that reading in full would not be in the scope of your course, but it is very well written, and I remember thinking that the chapter on the reasons for the attack was excellent. As it was a bipartisan report, it might be particularly acceptable to students who do happen to be engaged politically on one side or another.

Let There Be Water: Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World, by Seth M. Siegel, is a very accessible read about how Israel turned desert lands into fertile land, as well as the other technologies that it uses to conserve water that could be copied around the world. I think that students would enjoy it, particularly those who are environmentally minded.

I've heard good things about Start-up Nation (also about Israel) but haven't read it.

Editing this to add that I also wanted to recommend The Ghost Plane: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Plane-Rendition-Torture-Program/dp/031236024X. I think most students will be shocked by the actions taken by the US in the Middle East, but it could help them to care about voting and politics.

[Ruralguy]

Although its a full book, I think you might want to take a look at Ari Shavit's My Promised Land. Its not at all what most people would think is an Israeli point of view on either historical Zionism or hope for a Palestinian state. Just an idea. I'm no expert.