Customer Reviews

The New Middle East

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

An outstanding book of vision. A dream of peace in an area of the world that only shares hate. It is interesting that other reviewers condemn the book because the vision has, as yet, not come true. I'm sure Peres wouldn't be surprised that a vision of perfection is not going to be totally adopted in an imperfect world. The book is about a goal to be strived for, worked for, but probably never reached. But each step in that direction is a step closer to a better world.
Unfortunately, since the book was written both Israelites and Palestinians have not yet tired of killing and being killed. Because both sides still enjoy killing and being killed the vision of this book will remain just that, a vision. When the time comes that both sides tire of the current conflict of hate this will be a great map to the future of a peaceful and prosperous eastern Mediterranean. Read it as a vision and not as a reachable goal.
Some people see things as they are and ask, "Why?"...Others dream things that never were and ask, "Why not?". This is a book that asks, "Why not?"

This book was written by Prime Minister Shimon Peres and published shortly after the signing of the Oslo Peace Accord. With this sign or peace and hope, Mr. Peres wrote on what it would take to make the Middle East a new economic center. Where all lived in prospertity and peace.

His vision, which at this time has not progressed very far, is based on that of the European Communities. And the work involved at the end of WWII which brought them to the 1990's. Where the European "Economic " Community is today. But Mr. Peres explains that if all the countires of the middle east would work toward a common goal of peace and economic unity, that they could be a thriving, propserous community of the world within twenty years.

This book shows me that Israel was ready in 1993 to do what was required to make the whole Middle Eastern region prosperious for all the peoples, regardless of ethnic or religious backgrounds. And that if reason would prevail, they were willing to help make this happen.

This book belongs in every major library. And should be read by any student of politics.

This book was written by Prime Minister Shimon Peres and published shortly after the signing of the Oslo Peace Accord. With this sign or peace and hope, Mr. Peres wrote on what it would take to make the Middle East a new economic center. Where all lived in prospertity and peace.

His vision, which at this time has not progressed very far, is based on that of the European Communities. And the work involved at the end of WWII which brought them to the 1990's. Where the European "Economic " Community is today. But Mr. Peres explains that if all the countires of the middle east would work toward a common goal of peace and economic unity, that they could be a thriving, propserous community of the world within twenty years.

This book shows me that Israel was ready in 1993 to do what was required to make the whole Middle Eastern region prosperious for all the peoples, regardless of ethnic or religious backgrounds. And that if reason would prevail, they were willing to help make this happen.

This book belongs in every major library. And should be read by any student of politics.

I am writing this review shortly after the month of March 2002 in which over 130 Israelis were murdered as a result of the Palestinian suicide bomber attack. In all, over 400 have been killed since the terrorist onslaught began in September 2000, which means more Israelis have been killed since the Oslo "peace agreement" was signed than in the Six-Day War. Peres, like many Israelis of his generation received a Marxist education which said man's overriding impulse is economic. This book is based on that mistaken premise. Peres thought that since, in the West, globalized economics and communications would lead to a weakening of nationalism, religion and other "parochial" concerns and lead to a world in which consumerism is the leading concern, the Middle East would soon follow suit and both the Jews and Arabs would abandon their former identities. The atrocities of September 11, 2001 have brought many people to doubt this view of the world when it was discovered that the vast majority of the suicide terrorists who commandeered the aircraft came from middle class backgrounds in Saudi Arabia or Egypt. Obviously, enjoying the money they had or acquiring more was not their top priority. They were avid users of the internet which Peres thought would be one of the main engines for globalization. The terrorists and other extremists apparently used it, not for looking at "girlie" and rock video websites but for the propagation of hate. Peres thought that the Oslo accords, based on his same materialist premises, would bring peace to Israel, but as I have pointed out, the body count listed above has proven that to be a false hope. After several years of building some sort of economic infrastructure in the Palestinian-controlled areas, Arafat's war against Israel has brought devastation to his people, yet who, according to public opinion polls, overwhelmingly support his actions. It must be pointed out that Hitler brought great economic development to Germany (for example, building the great Autobahn network), but in the end, the Germans' support for his megalomaniacal bid for glory brought untold devastation to their nation. Thus, we see that irrational impulses in people ofter override their short-term economic interests. It is sad to see how a man who contributed so much to Israel over so many years and was one of Israel's best Prime Ministers in his first term from 1984-1986 fell into such a pit of delusion.

Shimon Peres vision of a new Middle East did not come into being. The Oslo agreement for which he won the Nobel Prize turned out to be a terrible mistake. In this book he outlines his vision of a New Middle East one in which there is Peace, Prosperity , Cooperation between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Peres is to be credited for his love of peace, his strong desire to bring about a better world for all peoples of the Middle East. He is to be credited for trying to change a bitter reality in which Israel's Arab neighbors refuse to come to terms with its existence.
But his vision, and his boldness did not prove enough. The new Middle East he sketchily outlines pushed him and other Israelis to make concessions to the Arabs which only embittered the conflict. The Middle East nearly fifteeen years after Oslo was signed is now as violent a place as ever. More so. It is not simply the Israelis who are being attacked, but the whole region seems to be embroiled in a Shiite- Sunni conflict.
In Israel people say that Peres latter years devoted to a failing peace process 'shamed' his early years as a pioneer in promoting Israeli security.

How did the realistic visionary Shimon Peres turn into a self- deluded fool? How did one who for years had fought against Palestinian terror and knew the leaders of that terror well, suddenly come to believe that the terrorists would totally change their character and intention? How did Peres who lived all his adult life in the Middle East come to believe that the peoples of the Middle East, rooted in religious and social economic customs of centuries,would overnight change their character and become Northern Europeans?
The answers to this may have to do with the ambitious Peres understanding of just how tired the Israeli public is of war, and how much they long for peace?
The fact is however that the vision Peres set out in this book has twelve years later proven a fantasy and an illusion. The Arabs are still by and large mired in backwardness( Even their oil boon does not stop them but only leads them to more and more purchases of weapons). The campaign of terror including suicide- terror they launched in the wake of the failure of Oslo has taken by this time over a thousand Israeli lives.
The 'new Middle East' looks very much like the Old Middle East, only even worse in terms of fanaticism and Israel- hatred.
Peres should have retired long ago. But he is unbelievably still in the Israeli cabinet today, about to be again chosen leader of Israel's second major party, and even more eager than before to trust those Palestinians now accumulating more weapons in Gaza than they have ever had before.