The End of the Peace Process - Oslo and After
by Edward Said

Edward Said demonstrates why he is considered the preeminent observer and critic of the Middle East peace process in this collection of fifty essays, written mostly for Arab and European newspapers in the last five years and previously not readily available to American readers.

Said uncovers the political mechanism that advertises reconciliation in the Middle East while keeping peace out of the picture. He cites the imbalance of power that forces Palestinians and Arab states to accept the concessions of the United States and Israel, thus prohibiting real negotiations and promoting the second-class treatment of Palestinians. He critiques Arafat's self-interested leadership and the oppressive Palestinian Authority, criticizes the general quiescence of Palestinian life, and denounces Israel's refusal to recognize Palestine's past. In this unflinching cry for civic justice and self-determination, Said promotes not a political agenda but a transcendent alternative: the peaceful coexistence of Arabs and Jews enjoying equal rights and shared citizenship.

About the Author
Edward Said, who recently died at age 67, was a widely respected writer, scholar, and activist. Dr. Said was a professor of literature at Columbia University, and his book Orientalism revolutionized the literary field. He was one of the leading literary critics of the last quarter of the 20th century, and he was widely regarded as the outstanding representative of the post-structuralist left in America. Above all, he was the most articulate and visible advocate of the Palestinian cause in the United States.

Reviews
"Once again, [Edward Said] brings acute insight to a controversial subject. In 50 essays (most of which were originally published in the Cairo Ahram Weekly and London's al-Hayat), he offers a bleak and somewhat cynical view of the Middle East peace process since Oslo. Deeply concerned with the fate of the Palestinian people, and without mincing words, Said probes their relationship to the Israeli government and their lives under Arafat's Palestinian Authority. He skewers the Oslo Agreements--arguing that Palestinians merely surrendered to the Israelis--as well as the Palestinian Authority and Arafat. (Peace, he points out, can only exist if equality and respect exist; as a result, he urges Palestinians to resist Israeli settlements with nonviolent demonstrations and to create stable, democratic institutions that can coexist peaceably with Israel.) Throughout, Said also comments on the role of intellectuals in political discourse, the Holocaust and, in a particularly poignant essay, the political development of his son, Wadie."
- Publishers Weekly

"In this refreshing and intelligently argued book, Palestinian American Said (English and comparative literature, Columbia Univ.; Orientalism; Culture and Imperialism) provides a sobering analysis of the pitfalls of the Oslo agreement. Most of the essays in this collection have appeared in Cairo's al-Ahram Weekly and al-Hayat, London's Arabic-language daily. Each essay is Said's reflection on a dimension of the Palestinian predicament. Said convincingly explains why the "peace process" has had damaging effects on the fabric of Palestinian society and polity. (It puts nothing in writing, for instance, about the further expansion of Israeli settlements.) He is as critical of the corruption, incompetence, and authoritarianism of the Palestinian Authority as he is of American and Israeli postures. In his vintage style, Said forces the reader to look beyond clich s, sound bites, myths, and conventional thinking about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."
- Library Journal

"A collection of 50 impassioned, damning essays on the consequences of the Middle East peace process. In his latest book on Israeli-Palestinian relations, Said (Out of Place, 1999, etc.) blasts all the major players. He criticizes the Oslo peace process as a sham, attacks Israeli politicians as manipulative, and, most surprisingly, labels Yasir Arafat, head of the Palestinian Authority, as corrupt and incompetent. Based mostly on recent visits to the West Bank, these wonderfully clear and generous essays document how the Oslo accords created an illusory veil of peace behind which Israel continues to build settlements on traditionally Arab land, and how Arafat wastes international aid in support of the tiny zones where he has been allowed control. Said doesnt hide his disgust for Arafat. While Israel often acts despicablyclosing Jerusalem off to West Bank Palestinians, bulldozing Arab communities without warningSaid argues that it at least does so out of national self-interest. The former head of the PLO, on the other hand, has become like most other contemporary Arab leaders: he rules solely for personal gain instead of in the interests of his people. Said details how Arafat, under the peace accords, has purposefully hobbled Palestinian civil society, creating multitudes of sinecurial posts for his flunkies and, worse, an apparatus of security services whose goal seems only to be keeping the Palestinian people in line for the Israelis. This while universities, health care, and roads decay. The best essay in the collection is On Visiting Wadie, an account of the author visiting his American-born son, who at the time was living and working in the West Bank. Here the decadence of the Israel-Arafat regime is set against the promise of Wadies friends, young and old Palestinians working in organizations dedicated to the advancement of human rights. Such activists serve as a hopeful counterpoint to Saids otherwise dismal picture. A powerful, ground-level perspective on one of the greatest tragedies of our time."
- Kirkus Reviews