Will there ever be peace in Gaza? | M.R. Narayan Swamy

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEW[/blanc][/fond noir]

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Gaza: A History

by Jean-Pierre Filiu

(Translated by John King)

Pan MacMillan India

Pages: xix + 563; Price: Not mentioned

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It is difficult to imagine a more impoverished strip of land which lies at the heart of one of the most enduring and seemingly most intractable of historical disputes. Also called a dense open-air prison, Gaza is where peace will have to come first if the dragging Israeli-Palestinian row needs to be resolved. Although scholar historian Jean-Pierre Filiu is cautiously optimistic, one is not sure if peace as we know will ever envelop Gaza.

It is of course easy to blame Israel and in particular the very vocal Zionists for the current bloody mess. Without a shadow of doubt, Israel