Mideast Peace Process

Sitting around one oval table for the first time at the Madrid Conference in 1991, historic Arab and Israeli enemies pledge to work toward regional peace and security. From Madrid onward, Middle East diplomacy has been pursued on two tracks--between Israel and its immediate neighbors, and among all the countries of the region. This book reveals, for the first time, an insider's account of the true significance of the Madrid Conference and how a revolution in Middle Eastern affairs was wrought there.

These essays analyze the impact of the Middle East peace process since 1993 on the countries most affected by it -- Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Egypt, and Syria -- and on the domestic politics and foreign policies of Turkey and the countries of the Persian Gulf and North Africa. The contributors, all international experts in their fields, also examine policies of the United States and Russia both as they affect the peace process and as the two countries pursue other interests in the Middle East.

Peace with Justice is an analysis of the political, legal and economic viability of the current Israeli NPLO peace process, and an evaluation of the agreements made between 13 September 1993 and 17 January 1997.

Anthony Cordesman provides an account of the military and security concerns arising out of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.

Negotiations between Israel and the Arab states have continued in several forms for over a decade, through three Israeli administrations, the death of a King in Jordan, and through countless riots and incidences of protest by Palestinians and Jews. The agreements that have been reached, and some situations established by defacto rule and force majure, have created possibly irreversible economic and political structures. This collection presents a debate among eminent scholars and public officials over the power these structures engender in the region.

Focusing on the domestic political scene, Flamhaft exposes the efforts of the Israeli political right to undermine the peace process and illuminates the dramatic consequences of that process.

Arabs and Israelis have battled one another in political and military arenas, seemingly continuously, for some fifty years. The 1991 Madrid Peace Conference sought to change this pattern, launching bilateral and multilateral tracks in the Arab-Israeli peace process. As a result, a broad group of Arab states sat down with Israel and began to cooperate on a wide range of regional issues in what became known as the Middle East multilaterals. Yet why did enemies reluctant even to recognize one another choose to cooperate on regional problems? And once this process began, what drove the parties to continue such cooperation or, in some cases, halt their cooperative efforts? Beyond the Handshake addresses these fundamental questions, exploring the origins of the multilaterals and the development of multilateral cooperation in the areas of arms control and regional security, economic development, water management, and the environment. Dalia Dassa Kaye, challenging conventional concepts of cooperation, argues that multilateral cooperation in the Middle East must be appreciated as a process of interaction rather than solely as a set of outcomes. Presenting theoretical insights of value to students of regional and international relations, Beyond the Handshake provides a unique look at the evolving nature of Arab-Israeli relations and exposes the foundation the multilateral peace process laid for future regional cooperation in the Middle East.

War has been made holy by the families of Abraham, and the monotheistic religions of those families, for many centuries. But, argues Marc Gopin, peacemaking was made holy too, through a variety of cultural and religious practices that have been virtually overlooked by scholars and activists alike. In fact, the tragic use of religion in perpetuating and inflaming the Palestinian/Israeli conflict represents only one understanding of the great Abrahamic traditions. New readings, withequally ancient roots, are now emerging, and their authors are gathering more courage to bring them before their respective communities. Marc Gopin here presents and examines these exciting new readings, and argues passionately for a far greater integration of Middle East peace processes with thereligious communities of the region. The religious peoples, Jewish, Christian and Muslim, must become a part of new paradigms for coexistence between Israelies and Palestinians. And these new paradigms must include the unique ways in which monotheistic peoples develop social relations, heal old wounds, and transform enemies into allies. Drawing on his own personal experience with religious-based peace initiatives in Israel and Palestine, Gopin writes movingly of the individuals and groups thatare already attempting such reconciliations. It is imperative, he says, that an alliance be forged between secular and religious methods of peacemaking. The combination of these methods, Gopin believes, will yield a rich and creative model for the reconciliation of ancient enmities among Jews,Christians and Muslims.

This critical examination of American-Israeli relations from the last year of the Kennedy administration to the last year of Bill Clinton's tenure in office is a companion volume to Herbert Druks' previous book The Uncertain Friendship: The U.S. and Israel from Roosevelt to Kennedy. Based on extensive research of archival sources and interviews of those who made this history happen, such as Harry S. Truman, Averell Harriman, Yitzhak Rabin, and Yitzhak Shamir, this study provides a challenging examination of key events and issues during the last three decades, including JFK and Israel's nuclear research, Johnson and the Six Day War, Kissinger-Nixon and the Yom Kippur War, the rescue at Entebbe, Begin's decision to liberate Lebanon from the PLO, Bush and Iraq and the "Land for Peace" formula.

Tschirgi synthesizes and interprets a large amount of information gleaned from personal accounts, partisan critiques, government documents, and the public record to portray and explain the current state of the U.S. search for Mideast peace. This analytical volume distills the events of the past two decades beginning by identifying the hope for Middle East peace that gripped Washington in 1967 and then examining the steps that cumulatively undermined that goal. Tschirgi concludes that both the normative and structural aspects of peace as envisaged by Washington in 1967 are now probably beyond attainment.

This is the first integrated analysis of the relationship between Israel, American Jews, and the peace process in the Middle East, from 1948 to the present. Seliktar emphasizes the political, sociological, and psychological aspects of the Israeli-American Jewish relations, and describes how the peace process turned Israel from a symbol of unity into an agent of polarization among Jews in the United States.