In 2003, after two years of negotiations, a group of prominent Israelis and Palestinians signed a model peace treaty. The document, popularly called the Geneva Initiative, contained detailed provisions resolving all outstanding issues between Israel and the Palestinian people, including drawing a border between Israel and Palestine, dividing Jerusalem, and determining the status of the Palestinian refugees. The negotiators presented this citizens' initiative to the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and urged them to accept it. One of the Israeli negotiators was Menachem Klein, a political scientist who has written extensively about the Jerusalem issue in the context of peace negotiations. Although the Geneva Initiative was not endorsed by the governments of either side, it became a fundamental term of reference for solving the Middle East conflict. In this firsthand account, Klein explains how and why these groups were able to achieve agreement. He directly addresses the formation of the Israeli and Palestinian teams, how they managed their negotiations, and their communications with both governments. He also discusses the role of third-party facilitators and the strategy behind marketing the Geneva Initiative to the public. A scholar and participant in the Geneva negotiations, Klein is able to provide both an inside perspective and an impartial analysis of the diplomatic efforts behind this historic compromise. He compares the negotiations to previous Israeli-Palestinian talks both formal and informal and the resolution of conflicts in South Africa and Algeria. Klein hopes that by treating the event as a case study we can learn a tremendous amount about the needs and approaches of both parties and the necessary shape peace must take between them.

Exceptionally interesting and important. An excellent presentation, with full details, of almost all the objective and subjective obstacles that face a settlement of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict, along with concrete suggestions of different ways and tactics to overcome these obstacles. -- Baruch Kimmerling, author of The Invention and Decline of Israeliness A model of engaged scholarship. Menachem Klein offers a seamless blend of detailed narrative, hard-headed analysis, and idealistic vision. His book gives us an account of an attempt to devise a two-state solution that engages rather than avoids the issues that have divided generations of Israelis and Palestinians. -- Nathan J. Brown, professor of political science and international affairs, George Washington University, and author of Palestinian Politics After the Oslo Accords: Resuming Arab Palestine The unofficial Geneva accord of 2003 was a refutation of the endemic despair of the Middle East. Crafted by Israelis and Palestinians, it showed that a peace agreement can be reached if the will exists. With a scholar's critical analysis and an insider's knowledge, Menachem Klein superbly portrays the drama of negotiations, the obstacles, and the achievements. This will be an essential text for anyone interested in the region, or in diplomacy anywhere. -- Gershom Gorenberg, author of The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977

About the Author
Menachem Klein is a senior lecturer in political science at Bar-Ilan University, and was a team member of the Geneva Initiative negotiations of 2003. He has advised both the Israeli government and the Israeli delegation for peace talks with the PLO (2000), and was a fellow at Oxford University and the European University Institute, as well as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Klein is also the authorof The Shift: Israel-Palestine from Border Struggle to Ethnic Conflict.

Reviews
Recommended. CHOICE Klein's first-hand account and cogent analysis attests to a positive alternative to the unilateralism and violence that have come to characterize recent Israeli-Palestinian relations. -- Nigel Parsons International Affairs



Book Information
ISBN 9780231139045
Author Menachem Klein
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press