The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace

Dennis Ross

Macmillan, 2005 - History - 840 pages

"The definitive and gripping account of the sometimes exhilarating, often tortured twists and turns in the Middle East peace process, viewed from the front row by one of its major players."--Bill Clinton

The Missing Peace, published to great acclaim last year, is the most candid inside account of the Middle East peace process ever written. Dennis Ross, the chief Middle East peace negotiator in the presidential administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, is that rare figure who is respected by all parties: Democrats and Republicans, Palestinians and Israelis, presidents and people on the street in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Washington, D.C.

Ross recounts the peace process in detail from 1988 to the breakdown of talks in early 2001 that prompted the so-called second Intifada-and takes account of recent developments in a new afterword written for this edition. It's all here: Camp David, Oslo, Geneva, Egypt, and other summits; the assassination of Yitzak Rabin; the rise and fall of Benjamin Netanyahu; the very different characters and strategies of Rabin, Yasir Arafat, and Bill Clinton; and the first steps of the Palestinian Authority. For the first time, the backroom negotiations, the dramatic and often secretive nature of the process, and the reasons for its faltering are on display for all to see. The Missing Peace explains, as no other book has, why Middle East peace remains so elusive.

Contents

• The End: 3
• Why Israelis Arabs and Palestinians See the World the Way They Do: 15
• The Road to Madrid: 46
• Rabin Presidential Transition the Syrian Pocket and Oslo: 88
• From Oslo to the Palestinian Authority: 122
• The Evolution of the Syrian Talks: 137
• King Hussein Fulfills His Grandfathers Legacy: 164
• The Interim Agreement: 188
• The Rabin Assassination Would Tragedy Produce Opportunity?: 209
• Was Asad Up to It?: 216
• Could the Peace Process Be Saved?: 246
• Bibi Wins Will Peace Lose?: 256
• The Endless Hebron Shuttle: 269
• One Last Push to Settle Hebron: 293
• From Breakthrough to Stalemate: 323
• The 13 Percent Solution: 349
• Prelude to Wye: 398
• The Wye Summit: 415
• Bibi Surrenders to the Right and Loses the Israeli Public: 460
• Great Expectations for Barak: 495
• Syrias My Priority: 509
• Asads Surprise: 536
• The Rise and Fall of the IsraeliSyrian Deal: 549
• From Stalemate to Camp David: 591
• The Camp David Summit: 650
• The DenouementFrom Camp David to the Intifada to the Clinton Ideas: 712
• Learning the Lessons of the Past and Applying Them to the Future: 759
• EPILOGUE: 781
• Afterword to the Paperback Edition: 801
• Appendix: 809
• Notes: 815
• Acknowledgments: 821
• Index: 825

About the author

Dennis Ross, Middle East envoy for George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, is now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Foreign Affairs called his first book, The Missing Peace, “a major contribution to the diplomatic history of the twentieth century.”

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace
• Author: Dennis Ross
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2005
• ISBN: 0374529809, 9780374529802
• Length: 840 pages
• Subjects: History / Middle East / General; History / Middle East / Israel & Palestine; Political Science / General; Political Science / International Relations / Diplomacy; Political Science / International Relations / General; Political Science / Peace; Political Science / World / Middle Eastern; Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social