Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy

Former Minister Ben-Ami talked about his book Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy, published by Oxford University Press. An Oxford-trained historian, he was formerly the foreign minister of Israel and involved in the Camp David negotiations and many other rounds of peace talks, public and secret, with Palestinian and Arab officials. In his book he traces the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict from the birth of Israel to the present. He talked about the Israel-Palestine peace process since the 1990s. He outlined why he thinks President Clinton failed to secure a peace agreement between the two parties at Camp David and criticized the role played by PLO leader Yasser Arafat. Mr. Ben-Ami also talked about the impact of the invasion of Iraq on efforts to negotiate peace and commented on Hamas' victory in recent elections in Palestine. He responded to questions from members of the audience. close