Product Description

Ehud Barak's election as Prime Minister of Israel on 17th May 1999 and his determination to conclude a peace deal with the Palestinians inspired both Israeli voters and the international community. So where did it all go wrong? How did it end, less than two years later, in the total failure of Barak's peace efforts, his defeat at the polls and ejection from office? How did he open the way not to peace, but to Ariel Sharon? Drawing on exclusive interviews with all the major international figures involved, this book traces the history of the Middle East peace process from Barak's election, through the peace talks at Camp David to the current Road Map. It illuminates the characters of Clinton, Arafat, Sharon and many others, and offers many insights into one of the most complex political political situations in the world today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #166648 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Ahron Bregman was born in Israel in 1958. A Captain in the Israeli army during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, he was promoted to Major after the war but then retired from the military to study at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and work as a parliamentary assistant at the Knesset. After being awarded a PhD by the Department of War Studies, King's College, London in 1994, he taught at various institutions of higher education. He is the author of three books about Israel and the Arabs: The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs (with Jihan el Tahiri, Penguin, 1998); Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947 (Routledge 1999, new edition 2002); and A History of Israel (Palgrave, Macmillan, 2002). He is also writing a definitive History of the Occupied Territories for Penguin. A contributor to national newspapers in Britain and the US, he lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Blow by blow account of recent peace negotiations
Elusive Peace sets out in impressive details an account of progress in peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians from the election of Ehud Barak up until Ariel Sharon's move towards unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Bregman constructs his narrative around a range of in-depth interviews with most of the key players in the negotiations on both sides.

Obviously with this being his principal source, the book is reliant on the good faith of the interviewees, which must be quite a big reservation. That said, a lot of the contributions are quite candid, with participants apparently not afraid to speak their mind even at a short distance in time from the actual events. In particular the account of the Camp David talks gives a fascinating insight into the raw machinery of diplomatic negotiations, and for that alone this book is commendable.

The books main strength (i.e. behind the scenes perspective) is also unfortunately its main drawback. There is no real contexualisation to broader social or economic factors which obviously impinged upon the decisions which those involved took. Obviously you can't expect the author to restate the historical record, but some tie-in with broader trends is necessary in order to understand where the respective leaders are coming from and why they adopt particular views. There is perhaps a danger from reading only this book of thinking that the Isreal-Palestine conflict is about personalities only.

So if you're after a book containing even a basic introduction into the conflict, this probably isn't the one for you. However, it would be an excellent complement to more general literature, occupying the niche of 'recent diplomatic history'.