Case for Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can be Resolved

In the bestselling The Case for Israel, Alan Dershowitz used all his skills as an advocate to defend the Jewish state against the lies and distortions hurled at it in recent years. Now, as the Israelis and the Palestinians take tentative steps toward peace following the death of Yasser Arafat, Dershowitz offers a timely and provocative analysis of the opportunities and challenges ahead.
All reasonable people, Dershowitz argues, know what a final peace settlement will look like: two states, based on Israeli withdrawals from Gaza and most of the West Bank; a symbolic recognition by Israel of the rights of Palestinian refugees, with some compensation but no "right of return"; the division of Jerusalem; and a renunciation of violence, with the Palestinians taking all reasonable measures to stamp out terrorism. The problem is how to get there without more bloodshed.
To that end, Dershowitz identifies twelve geopolitical barriers to peace—and explains how to move around them and push the process forward. From the division of Jerusalem and Israeli counterterrorism measures to the security fence and the Iranian nuclear threat, his analyses are clear-headed, well-argued, and sure to be controversial. To cite just a few of his points:

• The "one-state" solution propounded by hard-line Palestinians and their allies on the left is an absolute nonstarter—a smoke screen for those who are enemies of peace.


• Palestinians cannot expect to get more West Bank land than they would have under the Camp David and Taba negotiations of 2000 and 2001; additional territorial concessions would be an implicit reward for Palestinian terrorism in theintervening years.


• A multinational force, including U.S. troops, may be necessary to respond to Palestinian terrorist provocations after a settlement is reached.


• In addition to cracking down on terrorists, Palestinians must consider extending their laws against "hate speech" to reduce the level of hostility toward Israel.

Library Journal

Harvard law professor Dershowitz has written widely on the conflict in the Middle East, including his recent The Case for Israel, through which he earned the reputation as a combative defender of Israel. Here, he combines two goals. First, he quite effectively lays out an analytical case that peace is achievable in the Middle East with two states in historic Palestine, some border adjustments of the 1967 truce lines, the division of Jerusalem, and a renunciation of violence on all sides. He asserts that a resolution along these lines is sought by many Israelis and Palestinians and is now possible after the death of Yasir Arafat. He can't resist his second goal, however, which is to attack the extremists who obstruct movement toward peace, particularly those he criticizes as racists and hate-mongers committed to the destruction of Israel. His analysis of the prospects for peace has some merit, but overall the book is a hastily produced collection of quotations and anecdotes infused with repetitive fury and disdain for those "vilifiers of Israel." This book might be an interesting addition to the large shelf devoted to the Middle East conflict, but its strident tone keeps it off the must-have list for both the general and the specialized reader.-Elizabeth R. Hayford, Associated Coll. of the Midwest, Chicago Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Alan Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, is one of the country's foremost appellate lawyers and a distinguished defender of civil liberties. His many books include the New York Times bestsellers The Case for Israel and Chutzpah as well as The Vanishing American Jew, Why Terrorism Works, and America on Trial. He has been profiled and interviewed widely in the media and has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and many other newspapers and periodicals.
wiley.com/go/dershowitz