Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East [Hardcover]

Martin Indyk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2009

Making peace in the long-troubled Middle East is likely to be one of the top priorities of the next American president. He will need to take account of the important lessons from past attempts, which are described and analyzed here in a gripping book by a renowned expert who served twice as U.S. ambassador to Israel and as Middle East adviser to President Clinton.

Martin Indyk draws on his many years of intense involvement in the region to provide the inside story of the last time the United States employed sustained diplomacy to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and change the behavior of rogue regimes in Iraq and Iran.

Innocent Abroad is an insightful history and a poignant memoir. Indyk provides a fascinating examination of the ironic consequences when American naïveté meets Middle Eastern cynicism in the region's political bazaars. He dissects the very different strategies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to explain why they both faced such difficulties remaking the Middle East in their images of a more peaceful or democratic place. He provides new details of the breakdown of the Arab-Israeli peace talks at Camp David, of the CIA's failure to overthrow Saddam Hussein, and of Clinton's attempts to negotiate with Iran's president.

Indyk takes us inside the Oval Office, the Situation Room, the palaces of Arab potentates, and the offices of Israeli prime ministers. He draws intimate portraits of the American, Israeli, and Arab leaders he worked with, including Israel's Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, and Ariel Sharon; the PLO's Yasser Arafat; Egypt's Hosni Mubarak; and Syria's Hafez al-Asad. He describes in vivid detail high-level meetings, demonstrating how difficult it is for American presidents to understand the motives and intentions of Middle Eastern leaders and how easy it is for them to miss those rare moments when these leaders are willing to act in ways that can produce breakthroughs to peace.

Innocent Abroad is an extraordinarily candid and enthralling account, crucially important in grasping the obstacles that have confounded the efforts of recent presidents. As a new administration takes power, this experienced diplomat distills the lessons of past failures to chart a new way forward that will be required reading.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Missteps and missed opportunities proliferate in this gripping insider history of Middle Eastern diplomacy during the Clinton administration. Indyk, former ambassador to Israel, examines the contradictions inherent in Clintons Iraq policy with a remarkable level of self-criticism and brings a nuanced perspective to his analysis of Iraqs alleged WMD programs and the reasons for and against war. The book emphasizes Clintons initial strategic focus on Syrian-Israeli relations, and the authors discussion of Syria runs parallel to his central narrative about the Israel-Palestine conflict, which traces the tumultuous eight years from the hopeful handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat in 1993 through the beginning of the second intifada. The author achieves an impressive balance of scale, packing a tremendous amount of anecdotal information throughout, creating a portrait of diplomacy that reveals the influence of countless small details, from ceremonial gifts to friendly kisses, on world affairs. At the same time, the book surveys the enduring challenges that plagued the Clinton teams efforts to bring peace to the region, making insightful connections between the history in which the author participated and the present state of the region. (Jan.)
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Review

"A rare book of diplomatic history that is suspenseful and dramatic. Indyk puts you inside the White House and leads you through the highs and lows of the Arab-Israeli peace process. Studded with sharp insights about people and places, this is a book to savor and also learn from. Anyone interested in the Middle East or how foreign policy actually works should read this fascinating tale." -- Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and author of The Post-American World

"The ultimate inside account of the machinations of the modern Middle East. Indyk has lived this story now for several decades, and he provides the most vivid cameos and snapshots of the personalities of the region since Henry Kissinger's memoir of his 'shuttle diplomacy' years. Indyk is honest and self-critical about his own mistakes and those of his former bosses. That's the most hopeful aspect of this remarkable memoir -- that we can actually learn from our errors. I devoured this book. As with a good novel, the story grabs hold of you and doesn't let go." -- David Ignatius, columnist for The Washington Post and author of Body of Lies

"Few diplomats have been as closely involved with the attempts to broker a peace treaty in the Middle East as Martin Indyk. His knowledge, experience, and candor make Innocent Abroad a fascinating book." -- Dr. Henry Kissinger, former U.S. secretary of state

"Combines an intimate memoir with a fascinating account of the roller-coaster ride that is the quest for peace between Israel and its neighbors. Vivid, sharply drawn portraits of all the players -- both heartbreaking and hopeful, this book should be in every negotiator's briefcase." -- Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and chief negotiator of the Dayton Peace Accords

"Timely and valuable.... Following Indyk's advice would be a good place to start." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Excellent.... Nuanced." -- Newsweek

"Incisive." -- Thomas Friedman, The New York Times (column of 1/7/09)

"Part memoir, part political analysis, elegantly written, and hard to put down." -- The New York Review of Books

"For practitioners of Middle East diplomacy, this book is essential." -- The Washington Times

"A vivid insider's account....Required reading for the next president." -- Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416594299
• ISBN-13: 978-1416594291
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,041,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No longer innocent, February 24, 2009

By 

Thomas Mitchell (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East (Hardcover)

Martin Indyk, an Australian citizen and lobbyist for the Israeli government, ended up as the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and the first Jewish ambassador to Israel from the U.S. during the Clinton administration. Rather than explaining how he pulled off this trick, he provides a conventional account of peace making in the Mideast during the two terms of the Clinton administration. There are significant gaps in his narrative--he hardly covers the Israeli-Syrian negotiations of 1996. He also examines the policy of dual containment applied to Iran and Iraq. Because of the scope it tends to be rather uneven, but unlike Dennis Ross he is more open about mistakes made by the administration in dealing with Arafat and the Palestinians at Camp David in 2000. He basically supports previous accounts by Clinton, Ross, and Madeleine Albright in blaming Arafat for the failure of Camp David and the peace process. But like Aaron Miller he is willing to admit American mistakes and make recommendations for future administrations. This is recommended for those wanting an overview of American Mideast policy during the Clinton years.

41 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Author Seems to be Wearing Blinders, January 8, 2009

By 

Sue in Baltimore (Timonium, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East (Hardcover)

I've been trying to learn more about the Israel/Palestine problem ever since realizing how much Muslim extremism is rooted in, or fed by, the situation there. This book sounded interesting and informative, so I checked it out. Mr. Indyk may be a smart and accomplished man, but he seems to be wearing blinders. Israel is chronically in violation of international law and of multiple UN resolutions, but Mr. Indyk covers these critical contextual aspects of the situation superficially if at all. For reasons that still aren't entirely clear to me, American foreign policy, of which Mr. Indyk was recently an instrument, has apparently long been very unbalanced and very pro-Israel. I would much prefer a more balanced perspective, both in my government and in this book.

I would strongly caution anyone not to buy this book until they listen to Mr. Indyk's 1/8/09 interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. There was a man on that program with him who had a different perspective, calling attention for example to international law, to the huge consensus of world opinion that says Israel is wrong, and most relevantly to specific very significant inaccuracies in Mr. Indyk's book. Mr. Indyk failed entirely to rise to the occasion and refute the criticism, instead falling back on the dubious refuge of those whose statements don't withstand scrutiny - he attacked his critic as a "propagandist" without providing evidence or justification. In my book, anyone who resorts to those kind of labels in lieu of factual arguments isn't much worth listening to. He even made a very dismissive statement about international law, calling it something like "paraphernalia".

Listen to the interview online; if he sounds like someone you want to hear more from, or if you're really interested in his inside accounts, buy the book. For my money, I feel sure there are more clear-thinking insiders who've written memoirs we can read and learn from.

16 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A very personal perspective?, January 8, 2009

By 

Denise Bedford "Chow Lady" (Silver Spring, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East (Hardcover)

The 400+ page account should be read entirely as a personal perspective rather than a true representation of the facts or a 360 view of the events. As long as it is read that way, there are few criticisms that can be lodged against the book. However, the book should in not be read as an unbiased or factual representation of historical events. I think it is mistitled. This is not the account of an innocent (i.e., unbiased) observer. The author is not open to hearing others' viewpoints, and does not reference them in the narrative.