The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict

For a time, the Israeli—Arab conflict came to be seen as an argument over real-estate and recognition. In recent years, however, this longstanding dispute has returned with renewed force and broadened dimensions — assuming the form of an existential battle between Israel and radical Islam. Today, Israel faces a rising force committed to its demise.

Jonathan Spyer provides a vivid account of what can now be called the Israel-Islamist conflict, outlining the issues at stake and gauging each side's relative strengths and weaknesses. Israel faces not one united Islamist movement, but au array of states and organizations that share a wish to destroy Jewish sovereignty. Combining narrative and argument, Spyer uses first-person accounts of key moments in the conflict to highlight the human impact of this battle of wills. A thought-provoking, balanced work, The Transforming Fire provides a new understanding of particular aspect of the larger conflict between radical Islam and the West, which may well become the key foreign policy challenge of the 21st century.

Jonathan Spyer immigrated to Israel from Britain in 1991. He is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Herzliya, Israel, and a columnist at the Jerusalem Post newspaper. Spyer holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and a Master's Degree in Middle East Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He served in a frontline unit of the Israel Defense Forces in 1992-3, and fought in the war in Lebanon in summer 2006. Between 1996 and 2000, Spyer was an employee of the Israel Prime Minister's Office, His articles have also appeared in the Guardian, Haaretz, The Times, Washington Times, Toronto Globe and Mail, The Australian, British Journal of Middle East Studies, Israel Affairs and Middle East Review of International Affairs.