BARRY RUBIN, The Transformation of Palestinian Politics: From Revolution to State-Building (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999). Pp. 288. $29.95 cloth.

Abstract

I must admit that when I first read this book, I didn't like it. As the footnotes quickly indicate, the bulk of the research derives from secondary sources, either from the Israeli and Western press or from FBIS/WNC translations from the Arabic press. Virtually no interview material is used—strange, indeed, when one considers that the author lives within an hour of almost all the major political actors discussed in the study. And although some reference is made to public-opinion polls, it is disappointing that greater use has not been made of the voluminous survey data collected by the Center for Palestine Research and Studies and the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center—the richest such troves in the Arab world.