Offering the first comprehensive account of the collapse of the most promising peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, Historian Efraim Karsh argues that Arafat is less interested with the liberation of the West Bank and Gaza, or even with the establishment of a Palestinian state, than with the PLO's historic goal of Israel's destruction. Karsh details Arafat's efforts since the historic Oslo Peace accords in building an extensive terrorist infrastructure, his failure to disarm the extremist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian Authority's systematic efforts to indoctrinate hate and contempt for the Israeli people through rumor and religious zealotry. The result is a level of violence unmatched in scope and intensity since 1948, a Palestinian campaign of terror that has included suicide bombings, drive-by shootings, stabbings, lynching, and stonings and resulted in thousands of casualties.
Arafat has irrevocably altered the Middle East's political landscape, and while his place in history has yet to be written, the ongoing Israeli--Palestinian conflict will always be Arafat's War.
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