The Palestinians : in search of a just peace /

The continuing Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains the single most important obstacle to achieving a durable peace in the Middle East. The harsh reality of Palestinian existence under Israeli occupation resonates in every corner of the Arab world. Many outsiders, including successive American administrations, have recognized the centrality of this conflict for many Arabs and Muslims. The Oslo peace process was intended to initiate meaningful steps through which a just and durable peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians would become a reality. But the Oslo peace process unraveled shortly after the historic handshake between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and chairman Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn in September 1993. Rubenberg's timely and well-researched book addresses the causes of the failure of the peace process and the subsequent events that led to the current Palestinian uprising, or Intifada. The reimposition of Israeli rule in the occupied territories has led to the decimation of Palestinian civil society and governmental institutions and the spread of despair among ordinary Palestinians. The author does an excellent job of analyzing the post-Oslo Palestinian predicament within the context of recent historical developments. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty. N. Entessar Spring Hill College

The Oslo peace process was supposed to have put into motion the necessary ingredients for a lasting and just peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. With the now famous handshake between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn in September 1993, the world was told that the decades-old hostility between the two bitter adversaries was coming to an end and that a new Palestinian state would be created. However, the hoped-for Palestinian-Israeli peace never materialized, and the Oslo peace process began to collapse, culminating in the second Palestinian intifada and the reimposition of Israeli rule over most of the territories under the jurisdiction of the nascent Palestinian Authority. In this well-researched book, Rubenberg argues convincingly that the failure of the Oslo Accords was predictable because Israel never intended to withdraw fully from the Occupied Territories and allow the emergence of a territorially contiguous and viable Palestinian state. The author, an independent analyst and a former political scientist at Florida International University, whose previous publications include Palestinian Women: Patriarchy and Resistance in the West Bank, provides a superb history of the post-Oslo developments in Palestinian-Israeli relations. An excellent resource for all academic and public libraries.-Nader Entessar, Spring Hill Coll., Mobile, AL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.