For the Clinton administration, it was a goal of historic magnitude: resolving the long, bitter conflict in the Middle East. After years of searching for ways to end the bloodshed, at last there came a moment when it seemed peace was near...And yet, today, Palestinians and Israelis are still killing each other. What went wrong? As Middle-East Bureau Chief of the French public television network and a resident of Jerusalem since 1968, Charles Enderlin has had unequaled access to leaders and negotiators on all sides. Here he takes the reader step-by-step along the path that began with the hope of agreement but led only to the ultimate collapse of the peace process. The dramatic account moves between the occupied territories and the negotiation table as it follows the emotional shifts in the conflict from the 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin to the years when Benjamin Netanyahu was in power. Along the way, the author reveals details of the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Sweden, offers new insight into the failure of Israeli-Syrian peace talks, and explains how head injuries sustained by the Jerusalem Chief of Police led to the Al Aqsa intifada.
In a definitive account of the meetings at Camp David in July 2000, Enderlin details what was said between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators brought together by Bill Clinton in the presence of Yasir Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. With scrupulous concern for accuracy, he presents the talks from his unique vantage point, showing how intransigence, mistakes, and misjudgments on all sides have led to a growing climate of suspicion and to shattered dreams of peace. This is a book that makes history.