Peace is Possible: Conversations with Arab and Israeli Leaders from 1988 to the Present - Hardcover

Abraham, S. Daniel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1557047022 ISBN 13: 9781557047021

Publisher: Newmarket, 2006

Synopsis

A first-hand personal account of American businessman and Slim Fast founder Danny Abraham's more than 15 years of peacemaking efforts in the Middle East and the reasons he believes peace is possible.

For more than fifteen years, entrepreneur Danny Abraham, founder and former chairman of Slim Fast, chose to utilize his considerable resources to facilitate Mideast peace. Together with Utah Congressman Wayne Owens, Abraham made more than sixty trips to the Middle East between 1988 to 2002, meeting with Arab leaders Hosni Mubarak, Hafez Assad, Crown Prince Abdullah, and Yasser Arafat, and Israeli prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, and Ariel Sharon.

Using his business experience with difficult negotiations, Abraham took an active behind-the-scenes role, setting up critical one-on-one meetings between key figures. He urged these leaders to articulate not what they wanted, but what they needed, to make peace, fostering significant advances in the peace process. Since Owens' untimely death in 2002, Abraham has continued to arrange peacemaking meetings on his own.

Drawing from meeting transcripts, diary entries, and extensive handwritten notes, Abraham writes in the first person about these extraordinary, often private meetings, giving us rare "you are there" insight into historically significant events. In his pragmatic and hopeful book, he writes, "I am a great optimist, particularly about a region of the world that usually brings out people's most pessimistic inclinations—Israel and its neighbors." Foreword by President Bill Clinton. 16 page color photo insert, maps, chronology, index.

About this title

About the Author

S. Daniel Abraham, the former chairman of Slim-Fast Foods, is the founder of the Center for Middle East Pece and Economic Cooperation in Washington, D.C., and a dedicated philanthropist devoted to Israel and Mideast peace. His other philanthropic projects address the needs of the homeless, terminally ill children, and abused children, as well as issues concerning health care, education, nutrition research, and Jewish life. A New York native, he now lives in Palm Beach, Florida, with his wife, Ewa, and their two young children, Sarah and Sam.

Reviews

It's rare to find a political activist who is able to hold two conventionally opposed views in mind, yet throughout most of this book, Abraham (founder of the Center for Middle East Peace & Economic Cooperation and former chairman of Slim-Fast Foods) manages to do just that. Without denying his Zionist underpinnings, he addresses the concerns of both Jews and Arabs. Reflecting nearly 20 years of private diplomacy, his book is neither scholarly nor analytical; it reads more like the private diary of a thinking man with incredible connections to virtually everyone of influence in Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian and Jordanian politics. This intimate style can serve as a strength; it allows Abraham to maintain a straightforward tone devoid of grandstanding. Answering detractors who suggest that territorial compromise could threaten Israel's safety, he writes simply: "I can only say that the 1967 borders are a blessing in comparison to the borders Israel now has. I know that to many these words sound jarring, but I assure you, they are true." Likewise, Abraham has a refreshing ability (or naïveté?) to humanize leaders more frequently lionized or demonized. Easily read in an afternoon, this volume doesn't provide new information, but it gives an uncommon perspective on what we already know. (Mar.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Newmarket
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557047022
• ISBN 13: 9781557047021
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240