Ehud Barak's election as Prime Minister of Israel on 17th May 1999 and his determination to conclude a peace deal with the Palestinians inspired both Israeli voters and the international community. So where did it all go wrong? How did it end, less than two years later, in the total failure of Barak's peace efforts, his defeat at the polls and ejection from office? How did he open the way not to peace, but to Ariel Sharon? Drawing on exclusive interviews with all the major international figures involved, this book traces the history of the Middle East peace process from Barak's election, through the peace talks at Camp David to the current Road Map. It illuminates the characters of Clinton, Arafat, Sharon and many others, and offers many insights into one of the most complex political political situations in the world today.
Author Biography
Ahron Bregman was born in Israel in 1958. A Captain in the Israeli army during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, he was promoted to Major after the war but then retired from the military to study at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and work as a parliamentary assistant at the Knesset. After being awarded a PhD by the Department of War Studies, King's College, London in 1994, he taught at various institutions of higher education. He is the author of three books about Israel and the Arabs: The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs (with Jihan el Tahiri, Penguin, 1998); Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947 (Routledge 1999, new edition 2002); and A History of Israel (Palgrave, Macmillan, 2002). He is also writing a definitive History of the Occupied Territories for Penguin. A contributor to national newspapers in Britain and the US, he lives in London.
