ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyzes the construction and representation of Palestine and Israel and the political, military, and civil conflict that has simultaneously united and divided them throughout decades of their shared history on a small plot of semi-arid land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The range of political orientations and ideological affiliations within a nation is analyzed for the purpose of developing a focused image of the ways in which the nation as a whole represents conflict in Palestine-Israel, not just its liberal press or its conservative press. Palestine was considered a special case both because of the religious significance of the territory and because of the competing national claims to it. Britain began a concerted sponsorship of European Jewish immigration to Palestine beginning with the opening of the Mandate Period.
