Includes bibliographical references and index.

The peoples and cultures of the Middle East / Colbert C. Held and John Thomas Cummings -- The Middle East and its political systems / David L. Long, Bernard Reich, and Mark Gasiorowski -- The roots of Arab bitterness / Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr. and Lawrence Davidson -- The Palestinians / Glenn E. Robinson -- Israel and the Arabs, and beyond / Robert O. Freedman -- Ethnicity and nation-building in the state of Israel / Calvin Goldscheider -- Israeli-Palestinian relations after the Oslo Accords / William L. Cleveland and Martin Bonton -- The Palestinians and Israel / Barry Rubin -- Sharon's fence / Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar -- Israel, the Palestinians, Hamas, and Hizbollah / David W. Lesch -- The United States and Israel / Bernard Reich and Shannon Powers --Hamas and the Palestinian authority / Mark Matthews -- Hamas--and Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran / Zaki Chehab -- Whither the Palestinians? / Samih K. Farsoun and Naseer H. Aruri -- Bar Ilan speech / Benjamin Netanyahu -- The land and people of modern Iraq / Phebe Marr -- The Iranian revolution and its consequences / David W. Lesch -- Islamic Republic of Iran : political dynamics and foreign policy / Mark Gasiorowski -- The role of the Persian Gulf region / Shibley Telhami -- Impacts of the Iraq War / James DeFronzo -- "You are next" / Farnaz Fasshihi -- America's troubled moment in the Middle East / William L. Cleveland and Martin Bunton -- Iran, Israel, and the United States / Scott Ritter -- The Iranian predicament / Michael Axworthy -- Iran and international politics / Ali M. Ansari -- Iran's regional foreign policy / Manochehr Dorraj -- Islamist perceptions of US policy in the Middle East / Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad -- The legacy and future of Jihad / Lee Harris -- New US policies for a new Middle East? -- Cairo speech / Barack Obama -- The contemporary Middle East : some questions, some answers / Shibley Telhami.