Blow by blow account of recent peace negotiations (Rating 3 of 5)
»
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'
(Rating 3 of 5)
