The Mideast Peace Process: An Autopsy

Launched in 1993 after an agreement at Oslo, the Middle East 'peace process' was solemnised in the famous handshake between Yitzak Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn. In return for renouncing violence and terrorism, and accepting Israel, the Palestinians were to be given a state. In return for giving up land, the Israelis would get peace. But after seven fitful years, the process collapsed in bloodshed in the autumn of 2000. Today, Israelis and Palestinians are more bitterly divided than ever before. This book tells what went wrong and why. Comprised of essays from the pages of Commentary by David Bar-Illan, Douglas Feith, Daniel Pipes, Norman Podhoretz, and other leading observers, this book is a fever chart as well as an autopsy. Writing at ground level as the peace process careened from one crisis to the next, the authors show us step by step how the Israelis were forced increasingly on the defensive and how the Palestinians became convinced that they stood on the brink not of peace but of victory.

Neal Kozodoy