Parallel Roads to Ruin
Islamism, Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine
Examines the entwined destinies of Zionists and Islamists and the political outcome of their deadly embrace.
Description
Zionism and Islamism both emerged in response to oppression and injustice, and started with the best intentions to bring dignity, freedom and security to the downtrodden followers of one of the world’s great religions. Yet both have created oppression and injustice and used violence to attain their goals, fomenting bitter hatreds. These led directly to the horrifying October 7 attacks and ensuing destruction of Gaza.
John McHugo calls for a radical rethink of these two ideologies. He traces the problematic relationship of Europe and ‘the West’ with Jews and Muslims, from the Middle Ages to nineteenth-century nationalism and the Israel–Palestine conflict. He focuses on the personalities involved as much as their ideology—from Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion and Ze’ev Jabotinsky to Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Rashid Rida, Izz al-Din al-Qassam and Hajj Amin al-Husseini; and from Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu to Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Osama bin Laden and Shaykh Ahmad Yassin.
Wrestling with the unwelcome facts of this intertwined history is a precondition for reaching a settlement respecting the rights of all, and for securing lasting peace. Parallel Roads to Ruin makes these essential truths plain.
Table of contents
Glossary
Note On Terminology
Part One
Introduction
Chapter One: Jews And Muslims in Europe at The Dawn of Nationalism
Chapter Two: The Jew Who Never Met the Muslim
Chapter Three: The Muslim Who Never Met the Jew
Chapter Four: The Coming of Dr Chaim Weizmann Page
Chapter Five: The Frustration of Arab Democracy
Chapter Six: The Leaders Who Created the Jewish State
Chapter Seven: The Moral Dilemma at The Heart of Zionism
Chapter Eight: The Souring of The Islamic Revival
Chapter Nine: From Islamic Revival to Political Islam
Chapter Ten: How Islamism Came to Palestine
Chapter Eleven: The Infliction of Unbearable Wounds
Part Two
Chapter Twelve: The Failure to Make Peace
Chapter Thirteen: Sayyid Qutb’s Journey from His Village
Chapter Fourteen: Religious Zionism
Chapter Fifteen: Did Zionism Prevent Peace?
Chapter Sixteen: Palestine, Transnational Jihad, And the Varieties of Islamism
Excursus: Suicide Bombing
Chapter Seventeen: The Road To 7 October – The Route of Benjamin Netanyahu
Chapter Eighteen: The Road To 7 October – The Route of Hamas
Chapter Nineteen: Conclusion: Parallel Roads to Ruin
Acknowledgements
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Author(s)
After studying Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Oxford and the American University in Cairo in the 1970s, John McHugo practised international law in the Middle East, where his work during the 1980s and 1990s concentrated on boundary disputes between sovereign states. In the early 2000s, he turned his attention to studying and writing about the history of the Middle East and Islam. His books include A Concise History of Sunnis and Shi‘is; A Concise History of the Arabs; and Syria: A Recent History.
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