In few areas of the modern world is an explanation of the past more vital to an understanding of the present than the Arab-Israeli conflict. Much has happened since Ritchie Ovendale's lucid and non-partisan account was successfully launched in 1984. This new second edition brings the on-going story up to date, covering events from before the First World War through to the intifada and the aftermath of the Gulf War of 1991. It remains the ideal introduction to a subject that is never far from the world's headlines.