Israel and the Peace Process: Past and Present

The books under review contribute to a richer understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the prospects for its resolution by adding important pieces to the puzzle created by the Rashomon story of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process. Pundak's book is a personal account of the first stage of the Oslo process, while Arieli's is a comprehensive the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, explaining the core issues that have to be settled for an agreement on a permanent status agreement and showing how the discussion of them developed through the different stages of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during the last twenty years.