stephen  d. leece

In this scholarly, yet stylish account of the aftermath of the Six Day War the politics between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians have been examined. Drawing on official sources from Jordan, Israel, the USA, and the UK, as well as Palestinian oral testamonies Raz weaves together a complex tale of greed, deceit and vengeance (on the Israeli's part), honest diplomacy and a sincere desire for peace (on the Jordanian's part) and a combination of avarice, opportunism and cluelessness (on the Palestinian's part).

Raz's main argument is that Israel's unexpected territorial gainings in June 1967 resulted in not a desire for peace, but a desire for more land. He goes onto demonstrate that Israel deliberately obfuscated peace offers from King Hussein rather than doing the obvious diplomatic manouvere, and using the West bank and Gaza as bargaining chips. In other words, trade territory for recognition and peace.

It is a certainty that Dr. Raz has lost friends over this controversial study, but he argues his case well, to the point that only one conclusion can be drawn. Israel is guilty of war crimes under International Law. These crimes consist of fabricating the evidence to start the war, and then razing Palestinian villages in the war's aftermath.

Raz must have anticipated controversy, which is why he has 151 pages of source notes following on from a 285 pages of narrative, and a 33 page introduction. The tome clanks and groans under the weight of what historians call 'the apparatus'- source notes, footnotes, bibliographies. The exegisis. Raz can be forgiven because his critical view of Israel and his conclusions are unpopular in the West as a general rule.

This book won't tell anyone in Jordan or the Palestinian Authority anything that they did not already know, or at least suspect. It should make Israeli's feel uncomfortable about what has been done in their name from 1967 to present day Gaza.

The citizens of the US should at the very least feel guilty over actions they have at best, tolerated, at worst, actively supported.

Anybody that was ignorant, will find themselves getting angrier with each page of evidence demonstrating the sheer cynicism of the Knesset at that time and wonder if that cynicism is still the dynamo of Israeli politics.

Dr. Raz has produced a worthy book, that if more stylish, would be a best-seller. But also, if more stylish, would have been full of hyperbole and easily dismissed.