Scars of War, Wounds of Peace

"This book is about the fluctuating movement of Arabs and Israelis between war and peace, in one of the most protracted conflicts of modern times. It is written by a professional historian who was also a major participant at key points of the peace process, in particular the Camp David summit with President Clinton in 2000." "This analytical account encompasses the major crossroads of the Arab-Israeli story, starting with the clash of Jewish and Palestinian nationalism (1936-39). Vividly portraying the main actors in the Arab-Israeli drama, the book takes us through the Israeli War of Independence, and the abortive attempts at peacemaking that followed it, to the Sinai campaign of 1956, the rout of the Arab armies in the Six Day War and the failure of the Israelis - hostage to their own overwhelming hubris - to exploit the opportunities for peace that emerged after the war. Identifying the Yom Kippur War and the ascendency of America in the 1970s as the watershed that inaugurated the peace process, the author goes on to follow the tortuous quest for peace through its major landmarks: Camp David, the Madrid peace conference, the glory and the agony of Oslo, and the eventual collapse of the peace process into the Al-Aqsa Intifada. The final chapters deal with the impact of President Bush's War on Terror on the chances of an Arab-Israeli peace."--Jacket.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.