Israel/Palestine
How to End the War of 1948
By Tanya Reinhart
The history of the Israel/Palestine conflict is a history of how the Palestinians have failed: failed to foresee what was coming, failure to prepare, failure to unify in the face of adversity, and failure to negotiate. There are countless discussions of what happened in a broad sense, but for a more specific, small-picture analysis of the threats facing Palestine and the diplomacy used to confront it, Tanya Reinhart’s Israel/Palestine book is informative and enlightening.
In this book, we are presented with more recent events detailing discussions of the Camp David, Oslo and Taba accords, how they were all presented to the world as a breakthrough for bringing peace between the two groups, how they were promoted as such, and then how the both the US and Israel structured them in a way that would exclusively benefit Israel both short term in the long run, mostly by using disingenuous and misleading language, asking for devastating concessions from the Palestinians, or simply not following through their side of the agreement. It’s also important to note that the tragic events triggering these accords were purposefully caused by US/Israeli themselves. Reinhart looks at reports from the Israeli press and even the accord documents themselves to make her point.
I would have liked a more thorough analysis on how the Palestinians failed in their responsibilities during these negotiations, but the main idea that Reinhart tries to argue is that Israel has purposefully approached these negotiations with non-starters: points to which the Palestinian representation could never agree to, would automatically reject, and therefore present them in a negative light in the media. The Israeli government could then spin this as justifications for their attacks on the Palestinians.
Israel/Palestine is an important and valuable book for those wanting to understand the details involved in the negotiations and what motivated the decisions on both sides. It’s a shame that Reinhart will not have a chance to update it.
