For many decades Israel and its Arab-Muslim neighbors have been locked in a fierce conflict. Resolving this conflict, it is commonly argued, will bring stability to a notoriously volatile region—and ultimately diminish the violent anti-American hostility in the Muslim world. Yet few people—policymakers included—understand what this conflict is actually about, nor what the stakes really are. This course offers an essentialized historical and political account of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Some of the questions this course explores: Who are Israel’s adversaries—the Palestinians? the bordering Arab nations? both? What’s the dispute about? How should the adversaries, and their respective claims, be judged? How has this conflict shaped, and been shaped by, the politics and ideological trends of the Middle East? What’s at stake for the United States and the West? What solutions have been tried, and what will it take to bring about peace?