1. This book flows out of a lifetime of immersion in the study of Arab-Israeli relations. Author Moshe Shemesh served as a senior intelligence officer in the Israeli Defense Forces prior to his academic career. This book is a revisionist history of the Palestinian leadership from the Arab Revolt of 1939 to the 1967 War.

2. Shemesh is now a senior scholar and researcher in Israeli history and politics. He is author of several books on the Arab-Israeli conflict and Israel's wars.

3. This book was originally published in Hebrew. This new English version has been carefully tailored to the needs and interests of American audiences.

Former Israeli intelligence officer Moshe Shemesh offers a fresh understanding of the complex history and politics of the Middle East in this new analysis of the Palestinian national movement. Shemesh looks at the formative years of the movement that emerged following the 1948 War and traces the leaders, their objectives, and their weaknesses, fragmentation, and conflicts with their neighbors. He follows the formation of the Sons of Nakba, the establishment of Fatah, the reframing of Jordan as analogous with the Palestinian cause, and the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its new expression of nationalism until the 1967 War. With unprecedented access to Arabic sources, Shemesh provides new perspectives on inter-Arab politics and the history of the intractable Arab-Israeli conflict.