A Path to Peace: A Brief History of Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations and a Way Forward in the Middle East

This admirably concise summary of decades of Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the many futile attempts at diplomatic resolution provides some context to the current impasse and the United States’ role in keeping negotiations going. Mitchell (The Negotiator), a former U.S. senator who served as Special Envoy for Middle East Peace from 2009 to 2011, rarely strays from the bland language of political process, but nonetheless provides a valuably high-level perspective. His points often seem obvious: “History has shown that real breakthroughs between Israelis and Arabs occur only when the parties themselves realize that the cost of continued conflict outweighs the risk of an agreement.” Yet amid his summaries of seemingly endless negotiations, his message—that both parties are likely to eventually take “the painful and politically difficult steps” needed for a two-state solution—remains constant. The brisk narration of events from Israel’s founding up to the efforts of George W. Bush’s administration gets more detailed and slightly more critical when Mitchell covers his own time as an envoy for President Obama. Mitchell’s careful statements may simply seem inconclusive to the more casual reader, but this is only a testament to the level of nuance in this scrupulous book. [em]Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider/ICM Partners. (Dec.) [/em]