The Lost Years: Radical Islam, Intifada, and Wars in the Middle East, 2001-2006 [Hardcover]

Charles Enderlin (Author), Suzanne Verderber (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1590511719 | ISBN-13: 978-1590511718

"Enderlin meticulously chronicles the political and diplomatic impasses...revealing the history of this former film noir through interviews with the men who were its lead actors."—Le Monde

From Ariel Sharon's ascent to power in February 2001 to the Israel-Lebanon conflict in July 2006, the Middle East has seen the most murderous years of a feud which is, today, half a century old. After the monumental convergence of powers at Camp David, the world watched with bated breath as hope for a peaceful resolution to the long, bitter dispute between Israel and Palestine was lost in the wake of the Intifada. Following years of searching for an end to the bloodshed, how did the tragic blindness of both parties throw this region into such chaos?

In The Lost Years, Charles Enderlin presents a scrupulous chronicle of the Israeli and Palestinian descent into hell. Political leaders and secret negotiators, military chiefs and CIA agents, Enderlin has met them all—Israelis and Palestinians—and he accounts for all sides, including U.S. and international involvement. He trails the bad political calculations of the Palestinians, which led to the defeat of Fatah and to the victory of the Islamists. And he exposes Israel's unilateral political approach and new military doctrines that had disastrous consequences for both camps. Intifada, September 11th, war in Iraq, the construction of the wall, the withdrawal from Gaza, the end of the reigns of the two old enemies—Arafat and Sharon—the electoral victory of Hamas, and the war in Lebanon; Enderlin reveals the implacable logic at work behind the crucial events of a confused period. The Lost Years, the sequel to Enderlin's bestselling book, Shattered Dreams, is an essential work for those who try to understand without judging, but still want to believe in peace.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Enderlin, a French journalist, tells the story of Israel and the contested West Bank between 2001 and 2006, a nightmare of terrorist bombings, reprisals and failed cease-fire negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian authorities. This book, like his last (Shattered Dreams: The Failure of the Peace Process in the Middle East, 1995-2002), should win plaudits from pro-Arab groups; throughout, Enderlin regularly takes a dubious stance toward official Israeli sources, portraying Hamas officials as moderates and suggesting that PLO leader Yassir Arafat's death was ordered by Israeli president Sharon. Bias aside, this detailed chronicle gets bogged down in a sea of names-many poorly identified-and gives the impression of having been written on the fly; Enderlin lifts extensively and directly from documents and press conference transcripts, adding little in the way of context. Though historically rigorous, Enderlin's sympathies work against his journalistic ambitions in this highly-charged account.
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Review

ForeWord Magazine

"This absorbing story of the unraveling of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf includes interviews with the political leaders, diplomats, and intelligence agents who have tried to avoid, or who have contributed to these failures."


Kirkus

From Enderlin, the Middle East bureau chief for France 2, a journalistic account of the current era of troubles in Israel and Palestine.In the author’s view, the seating of Ariel Sharon’s government in February 2001 signaled the end of the Camp David era of negotiation with the Palestinian government of Yasir Arafat, undoing years of effort on the part of the Clinton administration. Sharon declared that Arafat was an unfit partner for peace. Although most Israelis agreed that a joint venture with the Palestinians was essential, most also accepted that Arafat was an enemy arguing for the destruction of Israel; worse enemies notwithstanding, he became “Arafat the terrorist” once more. In response to the growing intifada, Israel put new procedures in place. “The military police no longer immediately investigated the circumstances of a civilian death,” Enderlin charges, freeing troops to “react more spontaneously” in the field. That spontaneity, the journalist calculates, led to a lopsided body count: During the next five years, some 3,185 Palestinian civilians died in confrontations with the Israeli Defense Force, “among whom were hundreds of bystanders.” This confrontation was inevitable, argued Israel and its allies in the American government—most notably, in Enderlin’s view, neoconservative theoretician Richard Perle, then chair of Bush’s Defense Policy Board. It was inevitable, the author agrees, to the extent that all other possibilities but confrontation were systematically eliminated, freezing out Arafat (who bitterly complained, “Am I bin Laden?”) and fueling a vicious circle of rising radicalism and intransigence. Rejecting warnings by Bush administration moderates such as Colin Powell, the Sharon government finally decided it must either expel Arafat from Palestine or kill him. When he died of cancer in 2004, however, the cycle of violence continued, climaxing with the disastrous Lebanon invasion of 2006. Enderlin urges Israel to negotiate with the new government of Mahmoud Abbas based on the principle of “territory for peace”—without which, he reasonably concludes, peace will be impossible. An evenhanded view of a most partisan conflict.


Library Journal

This French journalist, with long experience in the Middle East, presents a detailed chronicle of the recent period of military, diplomatic, and political conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. He concludes that verbal commitment to mutual recognition and negotiation by both sides could not overcome Israeli determination for military action and unilateralism or Palestinian ineptitude and internal divisions. Militant Palestinian continuation of the intifada and Israeli reprisals resulted in lost opportunities and continuing occupation and misery.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: Other Press (December 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590511719
• ISBN-13: 978-1590511718
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,123,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book, December 15, 2009

By 

Matthew Smith "Roger Mexico" (TN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lost Years: Radical Islam, Intifada, and Wars in the Middle East, 2001-2006 (Hardcover)

This book is a really great overview of the years of the second intifada and the leadership of Sharon in Israel and Bush in the U.S. The book actually surprised me because it was quite the departure from the author's previous book which covered negotiations of the Clinton years Shattered Dreams. Whereas Shattered Dreams is a micro look into the negotiations with behind the scenes recreations of the various talks drawn from hours of interviews with the participants, this book is much more of a macro look at the years from 2001 and the end of the Taba negotiations through 2006 and the death of Ariel Sharon.

This book is a great primer for anyone interested in these years. The author doesn't really embark on any deep probes of what was going on, but instead provides the time line and events then gives descriptions of what each of the leaders were doing and saying at the time. This makes for a fascinating read, and I think the author does a good job with not taking sides and turning this terrible time into a zero sum game. Instead the author lays out the bare facts as he sees them. Writing a book on this time can lead an author into temptation to write a book that is clearly biased for or against one side or the other. The author could have written deep descriptions of Palestinian casualties while offering numbers of Israeli casualties or vice versa, but this the author does not do. Instead he details the horrors inflicted on and perpetrated by both sides.

One of the techniques the author uses that I think is compelling and illustrative of the senselessness and callousness of this conflict is how the author gives the casualty or death statistics for each month as an aside at the end of sections detailing that month. The author will give a couple of paragraphs description of a given month then at the end he will throw in a sentence with the number of dead at the end. This flippant style of throwing in the number of dead as an aside really drove home to me how little human life is valued in this conflict.

One of the most important aspects this book sheds light on is the absolute failure of the Israeli military and intelligence agencies to conceptualize a coherent strategy. In this period the Israelis decided to simply dismantle the PA and minimize Arafat. The problem is this strategy had no foresight. It didn't take into account the possibility that if you destroy the credibility of Arafat and Fatah a possible successor in the power vacuum thus created would be Hamas and Islamic Jihad, so instead of actually stabilizing the situation they were ensuring instability for decades to come.

It also shows just how bad things can get when there is a disinterested president in the White House. Foreign policy was largely left to flounder under George Bush when it came to Israel/Palestine at a time when this area needed strong guidance from an impartial (or at least as impartial as a U.S. president can be) and engaged U.S. president. Instead Israel was allowed to follow a flawed strategy that ended up delegitimizing moderates on both sides and allowed Hamas to fill the power vacuum in Gaza. The situation is so bad now that I don't feel the author's title is even appropriate because these years were not simply lost but were instead a massive regression for any possible peace.

All sides in this conflict have failed their people and ensured that death and destruction will reign for many more years to come. What this book does is help bring to light some of these failings and how they came about. This is a good book that will help any reader gain a greater understanding of the events that transpired and reasons behind them. I recommend this book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An astute, probing analysis, January 5, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lost Years: Radical Islam, Intifada, and Wars in the Middle East, 2001-2006 (Hardcover)

THE LOST YEARS: RADICAL ISLAM, INTIFADA, AND WARS IN THE MIDDLE EAST 2001-2006 chronicles the Israeli and Palestinian conflicts and the loss of hope for peaceful resolution, and comes from an author who has met all Israeli and Palestinian leaders and secret negotiators on both sides. It follows the political calculations on both sides and exposes both political and military changes which had disastrous consequences for both sides, giving readers a clear picture of the problems involved in negotiating peace. General-interest libraries as well as those specializing in Middle East issues at the college level will find this an astute, probing analysis drawing together many facts and influences.