Israeli/Palestinian Conflict

Read various articles on the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict

There is much dispute about the true history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The articles and links below will show various points of view, some conflicting. It will be up to each individual to determine from the facts (not your feelings) as to what is and what is not factual. At this point, I have formed an opinion on the side of Israel, based on the facts as I understand them, although I acknowledge that both sides have and continue to behave badly. My opinion is subject to change based on new information, or a renewed understanding of the issues. I am also developing a solution to the conflict that I will eventually post here.

Please continue to check here for new articles and links. This page will be updated with new material as it becomes available.

Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict - By Mitchell G. Bard
This book is an online publication presented by The Jewish Virtual Library. A revised edition of the printed version of the book is now available! Click HERE to purchase your copy. Click the above link to go to the online HTML version. To read the PDF version [you must have Adobe Reader], click HERE. We encourage you to use the HTML version since it is hyperlinked to the rest of the Library.

 

What do these two men have in common? More than you might think!

Adolph Hitler	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

When "Persia" became "Iran"

This article is a part of "Persia or Iran" by Professor Ehsan Yarshater, published in Iranian Studies, Vol. XXII, No.1, 1989.

In 1935 the Iranian government requested those countries which it had diplomatic relations with, to call Persia "Iran," which is the name of the country in Persian.

The suggestion for the change is said to have come from the Iranian ambassador to Germany, who came under the influence of the Nazis. At the time Germany was in the grip of racial fever and cultivated good relations with nations of "Aryan" blood. It is said that some German friends of the ambassador persuaded him that, as with the advent of Reza Shah, Persia had turned a new leaf in its history and had freed itself from the pernicious influences of Britain and Russia, whose interventions in Persian affairs had practically crippled the country under the Qajars, it was only fitting that the country be called by its own name, "Iran." This would not only signal a new beginning and bring home to the world the new era in Iranian history, but would also signify the Aryan race of its population, as "Iran" is a cognate of "Aryan" and derived from it.

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent out a circular to all foreign embassies in Tehran, requesting that the country thenceforth be called "Iran." Diplomatic courtesy obliged, and by and by the name "Iran" began to appear in official correspondence and news items.

At first "Iran" sounded alien (for non-Iranians), and many failed to recognize its connection with Persia. Some (Westerners) thought that it was perhaps one of the new countries like Iraq and Jordan carved out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, or a country in Africa or Southeast Asia that had just been granted independence; and not a few confused it with Iraq, itself a recent entity.

As time passed and as a number of events, like the Allied invasion of Iran in 1941 and the nationalization of the oil industry under Prime Minster Dr Mohammad Mosaddeq, put the country in the headlines, the name "Iran" became generally accepted, and "Persia" fell into comparative disuse, though more slowly in Britain than in the United States.

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