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The Missing Peace
The Inside Story Of The Fight For Middle East Peace
by Dennis Ross


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Ross, the chief Middle East peace negotiator in the presidential administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, recounts the peace process in detail from 1988 to the breakdown of talks in early 2001 that prompted the so-called second Intifada. It's all here: Camp David, Oslo, Geneva, Egypt, and other summits; the assassination of Yitzak Rabin; the rise and fall of Benjamin Netanyahu; the very different characters and strategies of Rabin, Yasir Arafat, and Bill Clinton; and the first steps of the Palestinian Authority. [Farrar, Straus and Giroux]

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 872 pages
08/09/2004
$35.00

ISBN: 0374199736

Nonfiction
Current Events & Politics
History

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Booklist Jay Freeman

A masterful, riveting, and scrupulously fair account of a process that now seems like a noble failure. [1 June 2004, p.1690]

Publishers Weekly

An epic diplomat's handbook.

The Economist

Mr Ross's [book] is the one for the historians. In more than 800 pages, an official at the centre of American diplomacy gives a detailed meeting-by-meeting account of who said what to whom. But be warned: it is hardly light reading.

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Michael Bell

Ross leaves nothing unturned, but due to his zeal to present a complete picture, the narrative sometimes loses momentum and takes on the baggy formlessness of journal entries.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Grier

This is a book for readers who already have at least a passing knowledge of the historical forces that have swirled through the Middle East since the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948. Breezy, it's not.

Kirkus Reviews

Though tedious -- and aptly so -- Ross's study does much to explain why the Oslo Accords have never taken. In this respect alone, it's an important addition to the literature of the Middle East conflict.

Library Journal Marcia L. Sprules

While researchers will find this a valuable resource for its firsthand perspective, nonspecialists will likely be overwhelmed by the minute detail and the regular use of first names only when referring to other participants in the negotiations. [July 2004, p.104]

New York Review Of Books Robert Malley

Ross's one-dimensional take on Arafat is all the more peculiar in a book characterized, for the most part, by nuance. His pen is often sharp, but almost invariably forgiving.

The Nation Avi Shlaim

A comprehensive and fascinating memoir about the trials and tribulations of an American peace processor...Yet The Missing Peace raises serious questions about the soundness of the Israel-first school of which Dennis Ross is a prominent member.

The New York Times Max Boot

Mr. Ross, for his part, remains ''a believer in U.S. engagement in Middle East peacemaking,'' though he never convincingly explains why this would work any better now than it did a few years ago.

The New York Times Book Review Ethan Bronner

As important as this work is to history, I am sorry to report that it makes little contribution to the art of storytelling. It is overly long and frequently dull. In 800-plus pages, Ross offers a landscape virtually devoid of humanity.

Washington Post Glenn Frankel

An equally noble, exhaustive and, at times, exhausting 800-page account of the people and the process.

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The Missing Peace The Inside Story Of The Fight For Middle East Peace by Dennis Ross

The Missing Peace
The Inside Story Of The Fight For Middle East Peace
by Dennis Ross