Includes bibliographical references (p. 367-374) and index.
Pt. I. The Arab world: imagining the past, defining the present, anticipating the future. The Arab nation-state: marking modern identities by embracing pasts real and imagined. Defining Arab Palestine: historical geography, imagined polities, and sacred space. "My land [biladi]": the formation of Palestinian national consciousness and the quest for a modern nation-state. The call to arms: a mark of Palestinian nationhood. The Islamic movement: traditional Islam and Palestinian nationalism after 1987. Haunted by the past: The Islamists and the peace process -- Pt. II. The modern state of Israel: integrating pasts real and imagined. A lexicon of Near Eastern identities: the Jewish people by various names and foundational narratives. Jews, Arabs, and modern biblical scholarship: academic politics and the politics of national consciousness. The emergence of Zionism: a secular and humanist narrative. Return, reclaim, and reconstitute. Accommodation with the Arabs of Palestine.