The Missing Peace
Encyclopedia
The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (ISBN 0-374-19973-6) is a 2004 non-fiction book by Dennis Ross
on the history of and his participation in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process and the Arab-Israeli peace process
. Ross, an American
diplomat, was the Director of Policy Planning
in the State Department under President
George H. W. Bush
and the special Middle East
coordinator under President Bill Clinton
.
coming to see President Clinton just days before the end of Clinton's second term in office, Ross returns to the period of the British Mandate and continues through the 1980s, giving a brief history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
and its roots. His own involvement begins in the run-up to the Gulf War
and the 1991 Madrid Conference
. The book then covers the negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad
, as well as the emergence of the 1993 Oslo Accords
. Ross then moves on to the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty, the 1995 Interim Agreement
, and the November 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
. He proceeds to the diplomatic fallout from the assassination to the election of Benjamin Netanyahu
as prime minister, followed by several chapters dedicated to the negotiations on the 1997 Hebron Agreement
. One year later, Netanyahu and Arafat agreed on the Wye River Memorandum
. In 1998 Ehud Barak
succeeded Netanyahu as prime minister and placed a priority on negotiations with Syria. After recounting the fall of that deal, Ross moves on to the 2000 Camp David Summit, and from that to the outbreak of the second intifada and the Taba Summit
in January 2001.
called it an "important, voluminous and keenly balanced memoir," though "as important as this work is to history...It is overly long and frequently dull." Samuel W. Lewis
reviewed the book for Foreign Affairs
, praised it as "a major contribution to the diplomatic history of the twentieth century" that described the Arab-Israeli negotiations in "exquisite detail", but added that it was not a page-turner. In The Washington Post
, Glenn Frankel
found the history an "an epic and tragic tale" that offered revealing profiles of a multitude of Arab and Israeli leaders. Both exhaustive and exhausting, Frankel stated that the book "sometimes reads like a working manual for diplomats." The Economist
, while also warning that it was not light reading and that it inevitably contained an unhappy ending, concluded that "Mr Ross's [book] is the one for the historians."
Commentary Magazine published a critical review by Hillel Halkin
remarking, "[i]t is possible not to see the forest for the trees. It is even possible, by seeing only the trees, to forget that the forest exists. This is true of Dennis Ross’s The Missing Peace." The Nation
called the book a "comprehensive and fascinating memoir" but also stated that "The Missing Peace raises serious questions about the soundness of the Israel-first school of which Dennis Ross is a prominent member."
Former professor Norman G. Finkelstein wrote a rebuttal to The Missing Peace in the Journal of Palestine Studies
. He stated that "where Ross's allegedly verbatim account of the actual negotiations can be crosschecked, it proves misleading". He also argued that "Israeli needs, in Ross's calculus, systematically trump Palestinian rights" and that
Ross engaged in a "wholesale dismissal of Palestinian needs".
Dennis Ross
Dennis B. Ross is an American diplomat and author. He has served as the Director of Policy Planning in the State Department under President George H. W...
on the history of and his participation in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process and the Arab-Israeli peace process
Arab–Israeli conflict
The Arab–Israeli conflict refers to political tensions and open hostilities between the Arab peoples and the Jewish community of the Middle East. The modern Arab-Israeli conflict began with the rise of Zionism and Arab Nationalism towards the end of the nineteenth century, and intensified with the...
. Ross, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
diplomat, was the Director of Policy Planning
Director of Policy Planning
The Director of Policy Planning is the United States Department of State official in charge of the Department's internal think tank, the Policy Planning Staff. The position of Director of Policy Planning has traditionally been held by many members of the U.S. foreign policy establishment...
in the State Department under President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and the special Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
coordinator under President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
.
Summary
After beginning with an anecdote of Yasser ArafatYasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
coming to see President Clinton just days before the end of Clinton's second term in office, Ross returns to the period of the British Mandate and continues through the 1980s, giving a brief history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
and its roots. His own involvement begins in the run-up to the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
and the 1991 Madrid Conference
Madrid Conference of 1991
The Madrid Conference was hosted by the government of Spain and co-sponsored by the USA and the USSR. It convened on October 30, 1991 and lasted for three days. It was an early attempt by the international community to start a peace process through negotiations involving Israel and the Palestinians...
. The book then covers the negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad
Hafez ibn 'Ali ibn Sulayman al-Assad or more commonly Hafez al-Assad was the President of Syria for three decades. Assad's rule consolidated the power of the central government after decades of coups and counter-coups, such as Operation Wappen in 1957 conducted by the Eisenhower administration and...
, as well as the emergence of the 1993 Oslo Accords
Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or Declaration of Principles , was an attempt to resolve the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict...
. Ross then moves on to the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty, the 1995 Interim Agreement
Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, also known as the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement, the Interim Agreement, Oslo 2, Oslo II, and Taba, was a key and complex agreement governing several aspects of the Palestinian territories of Gaza Strip and the West Bank.-History:It...
, and the November 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin took place on November 4, 1995 at 21:30, at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv...
. He proceeds to the diplomatic fallout from the assassination to the election of Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He serves also as the Chairman of the Likud Party, as a Knesset member, as the Health Minister of Israel, as the Pensioner Affairs Minister of Israel and as the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.Netanyahu is the first and, to...
as prime minister, followed by several chapters dedicated to the negotiations on the 1997 Hebron Agreement
Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron
Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron, also known as The Hebron Protocol or Hebron Agreement, began January 7 and was concluded from January 15 to January 17, 1997 between Israel, represented by Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestine Liberation Organization ,...
. One year later, Netanyahu and Arafat agreed on the Wye River Memorandum
Wye River Memorandum
The Wye River Memorandum was an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestine Authority to implement the earlier Interim Agreement of 28 September, 1995...
. In 1998 Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak is an Israeli politician who served as Prime Minister from 1999 until 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011 and holds the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister in Binyamin Netanyahu's government....
succeeded Netanyahu as prime minister and placed a priority on negotiations with Syria. After recounting the fall of that deal, Ross moves on to the 2000 Camp David Summit, and from that to the outbreak of the second intifada and the Taba Summit
Taba Summit
The Taba summit were talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, held from January 21 to January 27, 2001 at Taba in the Sinai peninsula...
in January 2001.
Reception
A New York Times review by Ethan BronnerEthan Bronner
Ethan Samuel Bronner has been Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times since March 2008 following four years as deputy foreign editor.-Biography:...
called it an "important, voluminous and keenly balanced memoir," though "as important as this work is to history...It is overly long and frequently dull." Samuel W. Lewis
Samuel W. Lewis
Samuel Winfield Lewis is a retired American diplomat. During his lengthy career with the United States Department of State he served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs , U.S. ambassador to Israel and Director of Policy Planning...
reviewed the book for Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
, praised it as "a major contribution to the diplomatic history of the twentieth century" that described the Arab-Israeli negotiations in "exquisite detail", but added that it was not a page-turner. In The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, Glenn Frankel
Glenn Frankel
Glenn Frankel is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and former editor of the Washington Post Sunday magazine. He is also the acclaimed author of two books, "Beyond the Promised Land: Jews and Arabs on the Hard Road to a New Israel" and "Rivonia's Children: Three Families and the Cost of Conscience...
found the history an "an epic and tragic tale" that offered revealing profiles of a multitude of Arab and Israeli leaders. Both exhaustive and exhausting, Frankel stated that the book "sometimes reads like a working manual for diplomats." The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, while also warning that it was not light reading and that it inevitably contained an unhappy ending, concluded that "Mr Ross's [book] is the one for the historians."
Commentary Magazine published a critical review by Hillel Halkin
Hillel Halkin
Hillel Halkin is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestselling Letters to an American-Jewish Friend: A Zionist Polemic and Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel. He is a prominent translator of Hebrew and Yiddish Literature into English, including...
remarking, "[i]t is possible not to see the forest for the trees. It is even possible, by seeing only the trees, to forget that the forest exists. This is true of Dennis Ross’s The Missing Peace." The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
called the book a "comprehensive and fascinating memoir" but also stated that "The Missing Peace raises serious questions about the soundness of the Israel-first school of which Dennis Ross is a prominent member."
Former professor Norman G. Finkelstein wrote a rebuttal to The Missing Peace in the Journal of Palestine Studies
Journal of Palestine Studies
The Journal of Palestine Studies is an academic journal established in 1971. It is published and distributed by University of California Press on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies. The current editor is Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University....
. He stated that "where Ross's allegedly verbatim account of the actual negotiations can be crosschecked, it proves misleading". He also argued that "Israeli needs, in Ross's calculus, systematically trump Palestinian rights" and that
Ross engaged in a "wholesale dismissal of Palestinian needs".
See also
- My LifeMy Life (Bill Clinton autobiography)My Life is a 2004 autobiography written by former President of the United States Bill Clinton, who left office on January 20, 2001. It was released on June 22, 2004. The book was published by the Knopf Publishing Group; the book sold in excess of 2,250,000 copies...
, which covers the same events from President Clinton'sBill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
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External links
- Interview with author at the Council on Foreign RelationsCouncil on Foreign RelationsThe Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
- Interview with author by Mother JonesMother Jones (magazine)Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
- 'The Missing Peace' at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...