"Israelis and Palestinians offers a startlingly new interpretation of the historical and contemporary realities of the conflict in the Middle East. Bernard Wasserstein challenges the conventional view of the struggle as driven primarily by irrational ethnic and religious hatreds. Instead he focuses on largely neglected forces - including population, fertility rates, labor, and environmental pressures - that have shaped politics in the region over the past century and which will inevitably determine its future."--BOOK JACKET.