Religion & Beliefs

The New Jew Canon: The Truth About Camp David

By MJ Rosenberg / March 31, 2008

The New Jew Canon is a long-term project that seeks to canonize essential Jewish (and some Non-Jewish) reads as recommended by extraordinary rabbis, experts, and cultural leaders. Suggestions are welcome via comments or email.

Author:

Clayton Swisher

Description:

Before Swisher wrote this book in 2004, conventional wisdom dictated that the collapse of the 2000 Camp David negotiations was all Arafat's fault and that Barak was a victim. Swisher, who was at Camp David, interviewed all the players and demonstrates that Barak was as much responsible for the failure as Arafat. Additionally, he shows that the Clinton "peace team" helped doom the Camp David talks by acting, in negotiator Aaron Miller's words, as "Israel's lawyer" not as an honest broker. This book helps Jews get beyond the blame-the-Palestinians game to the realization that peace was almost achieved, and that the reason it wasn't is due to mistakes, blunders and, in Barak's case, the sheer arrogance of the various parties. The book also helps one understand just how Barak evolved from peace negotiator to the hawk he is today. The answer: he hasn't evolved. He is no more skeptical about negotiating with Palestinians today than he was then.

Recommended By:

M.J. Rosenberg is the Director of Policy Analysis for Israel Policy Forum (IPF), a position he has held since the spring of 1998. In this position, MJ heads IPF's Washington, D.C. office and writes IPF Friday, a weekly opinion column on the Arab-Israeli conflict which is widely circulated throughout the United States and the Middle East. In addition, MJ has published numerous op-eds, in the national and Jewish press.

The New Jew Canon is a long-term project that seeks to canonize essential Jewish (and some Non-Jewish) reads as recommended by extraordinary rabbis, experts, and cultural leaders. Suggestions are welcome via comments or tips.

Previously: Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Recommended by Vanessa Ochs

POST A COMMENT

  • By Anonymous 4/11/08 at 4:04 p.m. UTC

    …is that I agree.

    I'm always skeptical about those claiming to have the monopoly on the truth. The Truth in this case, then, is that my working title (when it was my thesis at Georgetown) "Investigating Blame: US Mediation of the Arab-Israeli Conflict from 1999-2001, wasn't sexy enough.

    So Carl Bromley, Editor of Nation Books, invoked his contractual privilege and changed it. I also thought he should have made it a hardcopy rather than a paperback. Send him all these rants to carlb at nationbooks dot org. 

    Don't hate, celebrate!

    Swish-

  • Tom Young
    By Simpleliquid 4/1/08 at 12:00 p.m. UTC

    Ever since I saw Carl "The Truth" Williams get knocked out by Mike Tyson in the first round, I've been skeptical about anyone or anything claiming that is is the "Truth". I've had no reason since then to change my opinion. Whether it be Ayn Rand speaking about the "the truth about Marxism" or Ronald reagan revealing the "truth about communism" or the guys wandering around New York City speaking about the "truth behind 9-11", someone claiming the "truth" invariably spews forth an invective rant or conspiracy theory (except in the case of Carl Williams where he really didn't do anything).

    These rants are often interesting as a curious study of the abandonment of objectivity and the use of propaganda and are often useful in understanding the minds and beliefs of extremists. In this light, I too recommend this book as well as:

    Reefer Madness: "The truth about Marijuana"

    Fitna: "The truth about Islam" (also read the "Truth about Muhammad")

    "Why we hate Jews" : The truth about the Talmud

    Jewcy's own "Fowl Play" : the truth about Thanksgiving

    and of course the staples: "The truth about the moon landing", "911truth.org", and "the truth about area 51".

     

     

     

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