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This book seeks to provide a historical backdrop and framework for understanding the still unfinished business of Arab-Israeli peacemaking. We conceived of it as an alternative to the flood of instant analysis and interpretation that invariably accompany current events in the often unpredictable Arab-Israeli arena. The book represents our conviction that today’s headlines follow naturally from the course of history, and that an understanding of current affairs is greatly enhanced by an appreciation of the past. Our thesis is that there exists a historical pattern for failed Arab-Israeli negotiations which contemporary diplomats must break if they are genuinely to advance the peace process. This pattern serves as the common thread running throughout the chapters that follow. We hope that both seasoned scholars and ordinary observers of the Arab-Israeli conflict will find this approach stimulating and helpful. The book combines case studies and frequent reference to supporting primary source documents that are available on this book’s companion website, http://naipdocuments .blogspot.com. The case-study method allows us to apply our theory in a systematic way to successive episodes of Arab-Israeli negotiations. We have foregone a strictly chronological narration of events in favor of seven subheadings that characterize decades of unsuccessful Arab-Israeli negotiating habits. Though this may be a more challenging approach for some readers, we believe they will be rewarded with a deeper and more analytical understanding of the processes at work. We offer not so much a rigid paradigm as a useful and orderly way to think about Arab-Israeli negotiations. Once familiar with our framework for analysis, readers will be well prepared to follow, on their own, unfolding events in the diplomatic roller-coaster ride known as the Arab-Israeli peace process. We write as historians who thrill to the exploration of past events via archival documents. We believe that the documents keyed to each case are critical to the negotiating episode under review and should be read in tandem with the chapter text. This stress on the importance of primary documentation reflects our professional and pedagogical preferences. Notwithstanding leaders’ penchants for secretive, undocumented top-level decision making,1 we firmly believe that the maximum accuPreface to the Second Edition xii / negotiating arab-israeli peace racy possible demands a healthy respect for available primary sources, which are the building blocks of any balanced and comprehensive analysis. All too often students are introduced to the raw material of diplomacy and policymaking through the medium of an interpreter’s characterization only. As useful as secondary interpretations may be, our classroom experience has taught us that students are perfectly capable of wrestling with the textual milestones of this conflict for themselves. Through our online appendix of primary materials, students have an opportunity to read the protagonists in their own words, experience the interplay between text and context, and draw their own conclusions. Through this exercise they encounter firsthand not only the parameters of the historical times in which negotiation attempts took place, but also the conflicting interpretations drawn by various actors. Engaging primary sources, we have found, allows students to experience the obstacles and frustrations that peacemakers face in drafting mutually acceptable agreements. Dueling interpretations within the classroom enrich the learning experience by mirroring the competing interpretations offered by Arabs and Israelis. We similarly invite readers to use our framework to arrive at conclusions which may differ from ours. Although we offer the seven elements with which to examine multiple negotiation episodes, we understand that matters of intention and psychological nuance, to name but two, are difficult to quantify and may impress readers differently. Secondary sources are also of value, however, and we have tried to share with our readers the richness and complexity of the work of other authors upon whom we must also draw in reaching our conclusions. The course of international conflict and resolution is complex, and any presentation necessarily requires some measure of simplification and omission. To compensate, we include generous chapter endnotes containing both the standard brief citations for the sources of an idea or quotation, as well as recommendations of other books and articles that deal with secondary aspects or conflicting analyses of issues treated in our main text. Those in search of topics for research papers will find our notes and bibliography solid starting points for further academic inquiry. We have cited only English-language sources but we encourage serious students to develop the Arabic and Hebrew language skills required for more comprehensive research. Our approach...

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