"Most of Cordesman's books are thick both in pages and substance. This book, with its comprehensive coverage enhanced by copious tables, maps, and chronologies certainly is. Cordesman has written two earlier books on Israel and the Arabs, but this is his first venture to concentrate even more narrowly on Israel and the Palestinians. And concentrate this book does. This book is no overview of Israel and the Palestinians going back to 1948. The war of the title is that which began with the al Aqsa intifada in September 2000, but the book's coverage of events starts with the first intifada, which began in 1987. Narrative chapters are interspersed with thematic treatments of everything from the tactics of this asymmetrical war to the role of different actors (including the Israel Defense Forces, the Palestinian Authority, Fatah, and Hamas)....This is a solid reference work." - <i>Foreign Affairs</i>

"This is a comprehensive overview of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the outbreak of the Second Intifada, as seen from the perspective of longtime American Middle East strategist Cordesman. He examines the Israeli politics of the settlements, one of the Palestinian's primary grievances, and assesses Palestinian security forces' efforts to curb Palestinian violence. Other major issues include demographics and the Right of Return, economics, the politics of Jerusalem as the coveted capital of both peoples, and issues of water. He provides timelines of the conflict and reviews the motivations, organizations, and actions of all of the key actors, including outsiders. Social, economic, political, and human costs of the war are reviewed and Israeli and Palestinian military and political tactics are analyzed. Finally, the role of the Quartet (the US, the EU, Russian, and the UN) and the Road Map to Peace are reviewed." - <i>Reference & Research Book News</i>