The Truth About Camp David: The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process (Nation Books) : Book

1) Paperback Book The Truth About Camp David: The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process (Nation Books) by Nation Books. Great, well researched and well thought out
A deeper account of the conflict and the specific time period and events. The author also puts the conflict and time period into the greater context of world politics and world history.
This version had a few spelling and language (names and holidays) errors, but that mostly did not detract from the content. Perhaps I just have an older version and it´s since been edited more.¤

2) Paperback Book The Truth About Camp David: The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process (Nation Books) by Nation Books. Swisher´s book is a unique resource based on extensive interviews with first-hand participants in the Camp David meetings of 2000, written up by someone who is willing to change his mind when he hears the evidence. The book illustrates how the American summits with Syria early in 2000 led to Camp David, and it goes on to show how the Camp David process led to the violence that followed the Wailing Wall provocation.

As regards Camp David itself, the information presented to Swisher detailed the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israeli positions on the issues as well as the Americans´ management of the summit.

The PLO position had several elements. The PLO had already dropped their demand to recover land from the Israelis´ 1948 conquests, but they wanted the associated ethnic cleansing (see Ilan Pappe´s "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," available on Amazon.com) to be recognized in terms of a "right of return," which would be exercised primarily through Israeli reparations rather than Arab population movements. However, the PLO continued to reject the additional loss of land from the conquests of 1967, although minor territorial adjustments were possible in an overall agreement. (This was also the UN Security Council position.)

The Israeli position, led by Netanyahu and Sharansky (although they were not present at Camp David), was to keep all conquests, admit no guilt, and expand colonization. However, since the Israelis were interested in getting the Arabs to reduce their demands, they asked Clinton to hold a summit.

To create the appearance of common ground necessary for holding a summit, Clinton told Arafat untruthfully that he had heard from the Israelis that they would accept something close to the Arab position, at least on the 1967 territorial conquests. This claim lacked credibility, among other reasons because Clinton had said the same thing to the Syrians earlier in 2000 and that had been shown not to be truthful. But the PLO agreed to come to the summit to give Clinton the benefit of the doubt and to see what could be done.

At the summit, Clinton made a variety of offers to the PLO. These offers left any right of return up to Israeli discretion and divided Israel´s 1967 territorial conquests into three parts. One part would be annexed by Israel: Jerusalem and western border areas. A second part would be kept by Israel until the Israelis agreed to give it back: the Jordanian border. A third part would be shared: Arabs would administer a large number of bantustans honeycombed by Israeli roads, settlements, and military installations (see Jimmy Carter´s "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," available on Amazon.com).

Clinton explored with the PLO how much territory they would give up in the three categories and pressured them to give up more. When he heard any PLO concession, he would relay it to the Israelis. In general, the Israelis said that in principle the concessions weren´t sufficient. They also made clear that as a practical matter any ideas about concessions to the Arabs were American trial balloons and not Israeli positions.

When the PLO rejected Clinton´s proposals, Clinton accused them of turning down offers that were generous in the sense that they went further than the Netanyahu-Sharansky position of offering nothing. This was how the summit ended.

The descriptions Swisher collected regarding the Americans´ role found that they were unprofessional: poorly prepared, biased, wracked by internal dissension, and even administratively inept in terms of note taking and preparing written positions, which prevented issues from being clarified. Swisher describes the contrast between this and President Carter´s management of the 1970s´ successful Camp David discussions.

Regarding Jerusalem in particular, Clinton´s proposals gave the Israelis close military control over Arab access to the city. This elicited emotional responses from the Arabs (mirroring the Netanyahu-Sharansky rejectionism on the Israeli side). Swisher illustrates how Sharon´s subsequent visit to the Wailing Wall drew on this emotionalism to initiate more Israeli military action, resulting in the current intifada. (Although Swisher does not note it, this is a good example of the provocation policy described by Israeli Prime Minister Sharett in his diaries: see Livia Rokach´s "Israel´s Sacred Terrorism," available on Amazon.com.)¤

3) Paperback Book The Truth About Camp David: The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process (Nation Books) by Nation Books. I think what happened at Camp David II is somewhere between this book and Dennis Ross´ book (missing peace). I liked the interviews and the more neutral narrative tone compared to other books on this topic.¤

4) Paperback Book The Truth About Camp David: The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process (Nation Books) by Nation Books. This book presents detailed, eye-witness accounts from all sides of the US/Israeli peace negotiations with the Syrians and Palestinians during the latter part of the Clinton administration. This is not a particularly well written book, it is clear that Mr. Swisher is still developing his craft, but it is invaluable to learn what really took place in these discussions. The text is repetitive at times, and could probably have been cut by 20%. There are other areas where detail is oddly lacking. This is a five star book for content, but only a three star book in terms of language/grammar. I´ve given it five to balance out some of the negative reviews. This is an important and timely book that will shatter some of the myths associated with the US role in the `peace process´.

The conventional wisdom in the US is that the US and Israel offered the Palestinians 90% of what they wanted, and were rejected. The conclusion is that since this offer was rejected, they have no partner for peace. The reality is considerably more complex. This book examines in detail, with accounts taken from participants on all sides, what was in fact offered to the Palestinians and why they rejected this offer. I challenge any reader who believes this conventional wisdom to read this book. Some of the negative reviewers below make very good points vis-a-vis Palestinian terrorism, Arafat´s role in the second intifada, right of return, etc., but they miss the key issue of this book. To understand why the negociations failed and why the offer was rejected by Arafat, one must understand EXACTLY what was offered to the Palestinians. As described in great detail in this book, the Palestinians were offered far less than true statehood by the US and Israelis. They would have had a state in name (with a flag, an anthem, etc.), but the Palestinian state would be economically and politically subservient to Israel. They would not control their borders or their economy, their country would be divided by Israeli-only roads, and they would have a capital in a suburb of Jerusalem. This was not a process from which (from a US/Israeli perspective) a viable, independent, free Palestinian state would be formed, but one in which the Palestinians would accept Israeli political, economic, and military domination. Arafat quite rightly rejected this.

The second, and perhaps more chilling, aspect of this book is how the line dividing US and Israeli interests among the highest levels of the US government has almost totally disappeared. Why is Dennis Ross, a man described as more pro-Israel than the Israeli delegation and a servant of AIPAC, representing the US in these negociations? Surely there must have been someone who was slightly less one-sided in the State Department to take the role that Dennis Ross was thrust into?

A significant fraction (roughly 1/3) of the book deals with the Syrian/Israeli peace process, the return of the Golan Heights to Syria, and the death of President Assad. The main point of interest in these discussions is that Israel could have peace tomorrow with Syria if the Golan Height were returned in toto.

Overall, this is a detailed, factual, balanced account of the US/Israeli peace negociations with the Palestinians and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in this issue. I look forward to reading more from Mr. Swisher.¤

5) Paperback Book The Truth About Camp David: The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process (Nation Books) by Nation Books. Though he interviewed many people and has done conciderable research, it is clear he has little understanding of the Middle East.
He has a score to settle, maybe with himself, but too many people seem prone to this on this topic...alas. There seems to be quite a mistery surrounding the author. He was not part of the negotiating team, nor present in any respect to the negotiations. He seems to have lied to many of the people he interviewed as to the intent of his work. And the whole issue of Gabe Ross working covertly for his father on capital hill while 18 and a mail clerk seems just plain stupid.
It is a worth while read for some of the facts and opinions, not all groundless, but over all one should not attempt to ´understand´ the process of Final Status Negotiations through this book¤

6) Paperback Book The Truth About Camp David: The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process (Nation Books) by Nation Books.

The collapse of both sets of Arab-Israeli negotiations in 2000 led not only to recrimination and bloodshed, with the outbreak of the second intifada, but to the creation of a new myth. Syrian and Palestinian intransigence was blamed for the current disastrous state of affairs, as both parties rejected a "generous" peace offering from the Israelis that would have brought peace to the region. The Truth About Camp David shatters that myth. Based on the riveting, eyewitness accounts of more than forty direct participants involved in the latest rounds of Arab-Israeli negotiations, including the Camp David 2000 summit, former federal investigator-turned-investigative journalist Clayton E. Swisher provides a compelling counter-narrative to the commonly accepted history. The Truth About Camp David details the tragic inner workings of the Clinton Administration´s negotiating mayhem, their eleventh hour blunders and miscalculations, and their concluding decision to end the Oslo process with blame and disengagement. It is not only a fascinating historical look at Middle East politics on the brink of disaster, but a revelatory portrait of how all-too-human American political considerations helped facilitate the present crisis.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 22-Nov-2008, 15602562309781560256236, 090-010-140-3X0-301-531-8

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The Truth About Camp David: The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process (Nation Books)

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