Review of revolution until victory the politics and history of the PLO by Barry Rubin - Book Report/Review Example

Modern Terrorism Writing Assignment # Due Book review: Revolution until victory? The politics and history of the PLO by Barry Rubin The Middle Eastern Asia is generally considered as the breeding ground of international terrorism based upon religious fundamentalism. Within this scenario, Barry Rubin’s works primarily deals with the grass-root level reason behind the influence of religious fundamentalism within national power politics. As the author’s primary aim is to unearth the violent aspect of internal politics, less importance is given to the reason behind the same.

In the work named as Revolution until victory? The politics and history of the PLO, the author (say, Barry Rubin) investigates the political history of the Palestine Liberation Organization to unearth its role within the problem between Arabs and Israelis. Summary: The work is well organized because the author’s aim is to unearth the PLO’s transformation from extremism to national politics. One can see that the work explores the foundation, expansion, and maturity of the PLO within Palestinian context.

For instance, the first chapter deals with the foundation of PLO, aiming to form a separate nation for the Palestinians by washing out Israel from the Arab world. The following chapters deal with problems within this organizations leadership, its transformation to terrorism, Arafat’s organization’s alliance with PLO, its consequences, including terrorism and diplomatic missions. Besides, the other chapters including the final chapter deal with the PLO’s interactions with the other states within the Arab world, and the PLO’s transformation to a political elite group in 1990s.

The historical evidence to prove the author’s primary argument is that PLO’s transformation in 1990s helped the PLO to attract international attention towards the problems faced by the Palestinians. Analysis: The author’s argument is based on the fact that the PLO’s loose structure allows it to play dual role in the internal politics of the Middle East Asian area. To be specific, PLO can be regarded as a political organization aiming to extend its influence among Palestinians by using extremism as its primary tool. Barry M. Rubin stated that, “As a case study, the PLO’s history, - from its founding in 1964 to its transformation in 1993- poses a series of fascinating theoretical, political, diplomatic, and military problems” (xii).

The PLO knows that Israel cannot be totally destroyed, but extremism can fill the Palestinian minds with hope on their future. Later, the PLO proved to be ineffective as a political extremist organization. But within this scenario, Yasir Arafat’s initiative changed PLO’s role in the conflict the leadership began to provide importance to diplomacy, not extremism. So, one can see that the author’s arguments are convincing because the same is based upon facts, not on assumptions. The main strength of the book is that it can be read as historical anecdote on the PLO.

On the other side, the main weakness is that the book totally ignores the view from the Palestinian side. To be specific, the author tires to prove that PLO is basically a terrorist organization, aiming to bring forth political instability. Still, the author’s style of storytelling is persuasive because it is based upon facts. But the author does not try to extract the grass-root level reason behind the conflict. Still, the PLO’s shift from extremism to political nationalism did not help to bring forth peace in the area because the current situation proves the same.

Personal opinion: In my opinion, the book helped me a lot to perceive the core aspects of the course material and subject matter. To be specific, the work was helpful to compare tactics of different revolutions and the PLO. Besides, the book helped me to identify that PLO made use of violence and extremism to attain its political aims by trying to intimidate Israel. In short, PLO’s partial success is related to its dual role (as a fundamentalist organization and as a political organization representing Palestinians) in the internal politics of the Middle East Asia.

Works Cited Rubin, Barry M. Revolution Until Victory?: The Politics and History of the PLO. US: Harvard University Press, 1994. 271 pp.