Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace, Second Edition

"In this second edition, Eisenberg (history, Carnegie Mellon Univ.) and Caplan (history, Concordia Univ., Canada) begin (as in the first edition) with an account of early-19th-century Arab-Jewish negotiations. They end with President Obama's belief that his vision of Middle Eastern peace is compatible with Muslim concerns and interests. The history of these peace efforts, they claim, reveals seven reoccurring areas of diplomatic difficulty, such as previous experience in negotiating, psychological factors affecting leaders and followers, and the role of third-party involvement. Several peace efforts, beginning with the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978 through the 1993 Oslo Accords, are examined in detail by considering these seven areas of difficulty. The authors assert that past peace negotiations failed to take into account one or more of the seven characteristics. Original chapters were updated and reflect new information and scholarship since the first edition 12 years ago. The new edition includes a 38-page bibliography and 125 related documents available online and coordinated with the text. A series of illustrative political cartoons is integrated throughout the text. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, undergraduate students, graduate students, and research faculty. — Choice"

~D. Peretz, emeritus, SUNY at Binghamton

"[A] valuable addition to the literature on Arab-Israeli peace diplomacy. . . Kurtzer and Lasensky have a keen sense of what policymakers need to know about the mistakes of the past, and their recommendations are so sensible many have already been put in place by the Obama administration.Reading List 7/22/09"

~Foreign Affairs

"One of the striking qualities of this book is the authors' ability to present a wide variety of views by referring to an extensive range of literature. Negotiating Arab–Israeli Peace is thus a highly nuanced account, providing a presentation of the various processes that is not only clear but also deeply analytical. If one were in need of a single book to cover Arab–Israeli diplomacy, this would be a good contender."

~Journal of Peace Research

"The new edition includes a 38-page bibliography and 125 related documents available online and coordinated with the text. . . . Recommended."

~Choice

"The book is clearly and objectively written . . . The strength of this book is its clear, systematic, and well-annotated analysis, pointing out which processes and frameworks were helpful and which harmful, coupled with the easy access to valuable primary sources. Fall 2011"

~Jewish Book World

"[This] is a first-rate study that reflects the authors' familiarity with and understanding of Arab-Israeli relations spread over more than a century of conflict and diplomacy, their gift for presenting complex problems in clear prose, and the thoroughness of their research."

~Middle East Book Review

"As with the first edition, the second edition of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace is extremely well-written. It covers the latest significant details in the negotiations and will be very useful as a resource for researchers and students alike."

~Rex Brynen, McGill University

"One of the best presentations of how the Middle East not only can be but should be approached from a theoretical perspective."

~Glenn Palmer, Penn State University

"Nothing in my library comes close to Eisenberg and Caplan's unique and balanced treatment of the peace process. Their book is more essential today than when it was first published and contains many lessons that the parties could still benefit from."

~Philip Mattar, editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa

"In separating the Arab-Israeli from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, this second edition clarifies important differences in their nature, dyanmics, and degrees of intractability."

~Christina W. Michelmore, Chatham University

"In an innovative study, two historians of the Arab-Israeli conflict reflect on what their craft can contribute to peacemaking."

~Middle East Quarterly

"The book is well written, without the usual political science jargon characteristic of books on similar topics. It is well researched and well documented with clear and useful maps."

~Journal of Third World Studies

"A highly useful text for the study of the Arab-Israel conflict."

~Jewish Book World / Jewish Book Council

"For an introductory course, the text does a commendable job of presenting the cases and providing an interpretive framework."

~Middle East Journal