The End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After - Hardcover

Said, Edward W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375409300 ISBN 13: 9780375409301

Publisher: Pantheon, 2000

Synopsis

In this important collection of fifty pieces, Edward Said questions the very foundations of the Oslo accords. Signed in September 1993 on the White House lawn by Israel and the PLO, the accords were immediately hailed as a success and a breakthrough for peace in the Middle East, but Said realized that the imbalance of power between the signees would set up a problematic dynamic, bringing only an illusionary stability. The later interim agreements of Taba, Hebron, and the Wye Plantation would already limit the next phase -- the final-status negotiations set to conclude this year, when the future condition of refugees, Jerusalem, borders, water and compensations must be decided.

Incisively cutting through the hyperbole in the press surrounding the accords, these pieces document the historic content but also give otherwise unreported accounts of what has really gone on in the occupied territory since the signing. The continuing expansion of Israeli settlements, the repressive leadership and inflated bureaucracy of Yasir Arafat, Said's own return to Jerusalem after forty-five years, the subsequent banning of his books by the Palestinian Authority, and Oslo's inability to recognize Palestine's self-determination are among the issues of peace and justice he discusses.

Together these essays are an eloquent and courageous statement for peaceful coexistence and equality between two peoples, and for an end to the separation of Jews and non-Jews -- the only hope for a lasting solution in the Middle East.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"Said (author of the highly praised memoir Out of Place) once again brings acute insight to a controversial subject.... Deeply concerned with the fate of the Palestinian people, and without mincing words, Said probes their relationship to the Israeli government and their lives under Arafat's Palestinian Authority... A potent analysis--one that refuses to follow a party line--of the complexities and stark realities of Middle Eastern politics. "
--Publishers Weekly

From the Back Cover:

?Eloquent, impassioned, and beautifully written.??Foreign Affairs

About this edition

• Publisher: Pantheon
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0375409300
• ISBN 13: 9780375409301
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368