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Peace And Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine in the Middle East Peace Process

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Edward Said in this collection of essays written between September 1993 and October 1995 lays bare the reality of what the "peace process" has been about from the beginning. The Palestinian authority gets "limited autonomy" in Palestinian population centers while Israeli troops "redeploy" to outside these centers. The settlements and bypass roads continue to be built at an ever expanding rate, but the world does not notice, at least when the labor party is in power. Jerusalem, which Israel is going to keep no matter what, includes "Greater Jerusalem" i.e. twenty five percent of the West Bank. Israel has veto power over seemingly every decision made by the Palestinian authority or the Palestinian legislature. The policy of "dedevelopment"--Sarah Roy's term--continues. No Palestinian economic enterprise is allowed to compete with the Israeli economy. Palestinians are to continue to serve Israeli business as sweatshop labor. Israel--as it did quite frequently during the last Rabin government--can institute "closures" at a whim, strangling the Palestinians to death, provoking violence and despair. The Palestinian authority continues to be Israel's clumsy and frightened proconsul taking every step to meet Israel's so-called "security" needs while the Palestinians remain exposed to Gush Emunim and Kach and the border guards to say nothing of Arafat's numerous secret police agenicies.

Said can be somewhat recondite at times when he is discoursing on philosphical matters but when dealing with current events in the middle east he is unbelievably clear, graceful and powerful.

In this collection, Edward Said comments on the aftermath of the signing of the Oslo Accords. As an American Jew, I have grown up in a staunchly pro-Israel environment. As an American in general, I have been steadily force-fed an image of Palestinians as terroristic religious fanatics by the media. Said's words contradict these stereotypes and capture the acute suffering the Palestinian people have endured as a result of Israeli occupation. He also calls for the resignation of Yasir Arafat, who Said sees to have basically bowed to all Israeli and U.S. demands. If you truly want to understand the Palestinian side of the story that doesn't make it into the newspapers and on to the evening news, read Peace and Its Discontents. Hopefully you will become as outraged as I have and will be motivated to end the injustice that is the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Although my original interest in Edward Said's works resulted from my being a Palestinian interested in learning about the Palestinian issue and the different factors involved in it, Edward Said, I recently realized, approaches the Arab-Israeli conflict from a humanist point of view that transcends nationl and nationlaist considerations. Edward Said offers necessary facts and points of view to take into consideration. Most importantly, he uses the Israeli press as a source for his arguements; something the Western and American media in particular have been reluctant to do. Edward Said's childhood was directly influenced by the turn of events in the late forties in what was then called Palestine. He escaped Jerusalem with his family in 1947 and went to live in Egypt. He later went to school in some of the most prestigious American universities, Princeton and Harvard. Eventually, he started teaching in Columbia University in New York City. Edward Said's sense of intellectual criticism has marked his reviews of literature. His masterpiece, Orientalism, published in 1978, was a defining work on the relations between the West and the rest of the world. His latest work " Peace and its Discontents: Essays on Palestine in the Middle East Peace Process" comes along a few books that try to remind us of the ever-neglected issue of Palestinian rights. Backed by facts and crtitical pessimism of what lies ahead for the Middle East region, the book deals with several aspects of the Palestinian issue such as Israeli domination and control of Palestinian daily life in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These areas that were occupied by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967 are quickly turning into South African-like Bantustans: modern-day reservations where Palestinian merceneries are financed by American and Israeli money to keep the rest of the Palestinians silent and subordiante. Meanwhile, the Palestinian economy remains almost non-existent, destroyed by Israel's 30 year brutal military occupation, with a high ( 29%) unemployment and the only source of income that exists is work in Israeli factories at low wages ( Plaestinian workers get 1/3 of what Israeli workers are paid with no health or social security benefits received at all). Said's criticism of Palestinian Authority Chairmnan Yasser Arafat's authoritarianism attests to his unrelenting courage in telling the truth about the much-loathed Arab leaders that have often purged their opponents in medieval-like prisons. Said today is one of a handful of Palestinian and even Arab intellectuals who have been brave enough to speak their minds about Arab and Palestinian terror regiemes that belong to the Middle Ages but continue to survive due to fear and silence. It is enough to mention that Said remains on a death list in half a dozen Middle Eastern countries. Perhaps the biggest proof of the falseness of the allegations that Said calls for violence and a continuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict which never ceased or slowed but rather intensified due to the "Peace Process" is his dedication of his book to the Isreali Holocaust Survivor Professor Israel Shahak who has supported Palestinian rights all his life. Said's ideas and realism appeal to all of us alike: Arabs, Palestinian, Israelis, and Americans concerned with an genuine and real end to the conflict that has taxed the regions resources for the last sixty years.

Here it is - the disgraceful story of Yasser Arafat, trapped like a rat in a corner after foolishly supporting Iraq's Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War. Rather than be completely marginalized in the aftermath, he saved his own skin by agreeing to a US and Israeli dictated 'peace process' that gave the Palestinians nothing but a municipal authority over a bunch of Bantustans, with himself installed as a their puppet dictator. Of course, since then things have just gone downhill. If it weren't so tragic it would make for really black comedy.

Said is a true intellectual, one who indeed speaks "truth to power". Daring, honest, and passionate, this book is for those who are brave enough to hear the real story of Israel's occupation of Palestine.

International man of letters and tireless critic of Israeli lawlessness towards his own people: Columbia University professor Edward Said represents everything Israeli apologists never admit - the virtual hidden history of Palestinians being massacred and forcibly removed (described if at all in contemporary newspeak as "displaced") from their lands for the last sixty years by Isreal's brutal and relentless campaign. Said, living proof as himself is one of the half million Palestinians forcibly transferred in the late 1940s, quite simply speaks the truth in this fantastic, informative and sorrowful collection of essays, which originally appeared over the course of seven years in various Middle East news outlets.

His flair for language and the crystal clear prose make his essays seemingly flow off the page and are a joy to read. "Peace and Its Discontents" is a welcome counterpunch, especially for an American audience fed a steady supply of Israeli and United States propaganda and deceit that whitewashes Israel's flaunting of international law and its consistent violation of a resilient and proud peoples human rights.

That someone becomes so filled with hopelessness and despair to strap a bomb to themselves to wipe out a group of innocents is something that's clearly outside the conceptual framework of any relatively comfortable human being. In "Peace and Its Discontents" Said, while never justifying these acts, presents them in the correct historical, economic and political context in order to allow the reader a better grasp of the motivations that lie beneath them.

For a quality primer on the Palestinian plight one can think of no better book. From an authentic source and distinguished scholar, Said gives the reader almost a first hand account of a struggle the Palestinians will no doubt eventually win.

Thanks to Amazon, we can read Said's Peace and Its Discontents, from which we get a compel-
lingly persuasive view of what the "Arab-Israeli conflict" is really all about. Some reviewers have tried, in a way that seems sneaky to me, to shunt the author's intention into a diatribe against Yassir Arafat. This is not Said's major purport, which as usual is: a complaint about Israel's unfair treatment of his fellow Palestinians. It is often said that the abused child becomes the abuser. Thus the Israeli subjugation of and aggression toward the Palestinians seems tantamount to genocide against the people that have lived peaceably in this area for so many centuries. I feel terrible that my own country, the USA, has given the Israelis not just carte blanche but great material assistance to commit their offenses.

"Skeptic Curmudgeon"

Perhaps the saddest aspect to this book is that Yassir Arafat has become a pawn in the palms of the Israeli/American Axis. If you want to know many of the reasons behind the continued subjugation of the Palestinian people, read this book. Don't worry it has not been infiltrated by the U.S. media. I.e. you can believe what you read

This collection of Said's essays provide a form of running commentary of what he deems as a doomed peace process immediately following the PLO-Israel agreement on September 13, 1993. Most people will remember this event by the picture of Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat shaking hands on the White House lawn with President Clinton's arms on their shoulders, the sign that the two sides of the Palestine-Israel conflict were making progress. But to Edward Said and many supporters of a free Palestine, this conclusion of the Oslo Declarations meant the collapse of years of hard work. Peace and its Discontents is an effort by Said to encourage and garner support for the Palestinian cause. His writing is both passionate and well supported with specific examples. He accomplishes his aim to educate readers and stir their emotions in support of the Palestinian cause.

Peace and its Discontents is Edward Said's first book written for an Arab audience. It was first written in Arabic, but the English language version has two functions aiding Said's cause. One, it allows Said to reach the Palestinians and Arabs who may not have access to the Arabic version but could still play important roles in the process. Palestinians have immigrated to Europe and the United States, and have become influential members of their communities; their efforts could affect the decisions being made in the Middle East. Two, it projects his message to the West; perhaps most importantly to the United States because of its integral role in the Palestine-Israel conflict.

With this audience in mind, Said's objective is simple: to educate his readers on his view of the issues. Said's position becomes evident throughout the book as he critiques the Palestinian Liberation Organization and particularly Yasir Arafat. He wants Arafat and the rest of the PLO leadership to step down. Said has had enough of the PLO's decisions and their being pushed around by Israel and the United States. "Most Palestinians are firmly convince, I think, that the present PLO leadership, as well as its creatures in the Occupied Territories and elsewhere, should resign, but then again they keep timorously asking, `What is the alternative?'" (45). Said was a member of the PLO for a time, and this inside knowledge provides some of his evidence against Arafat.

Said makes the point that while the PLO was partly to blame for the conditions Palestinians were in, the situation the PLO was in was also difficult. Israel had done a magnificent job of making it practically impossible for Palestinians to change assert their will.

While Said did consider Yasir Arafat to be passed his prime and a hindrance to the Palestinian effort, he was respectful of the fact that Arafat did help in the past. It is unclear what part of Arafat's past he approved of, whether it was the terrorist and violent part or the negotiating aspect. In either case, Said saw Arafat's actions in the early 1990s as counter-productive and provides examples to show that Arafat and the leaders of the PLO were disorganized and unclear of how the political game was played.

While Said was very thorough in support of his arguments, he was biased towards the PLO. Said quit the PLO after deciding that he couldn't work with a group if he didn't agree with their tactics. While Said was open about his bias towards the PLO, it would have been more helpful for the reader to have more information about other groups such as the Islamic Jihad or Hamas. One of the problems with the Palestinian efforts is that there is no official Palestinian government. While this can be blamed on Israel for intentionally quartering off Palestinians in Israel and forcing them to accept Israeli decisions either through negotiations or sheer might, the Palestinians should be able to agree on a leader or an ideology. As it is, and as Said describes it, the only Palestinian objective is to repel Israel from the Occupied Territories. Said seems to expect that once Palestinian land is regained, a government can be formed to oversee it. Looking at past independence movements, however, a government has come first. With one voice, the Palestinians could negotiate with Israel and look for allies in other countries around the world. Currently, and when Said was writing, individual groups like the PLO, are fighting amongst themselves for authority over Palestine, and then fighting for Palestinian rights. This is only weakening the position of the groups, and dividing Palestinians.

Another problem with the multitude of voices claiming to represent Palestine is that negotiating is practically impossible. For example, Israel dealt with the PLO in the 1990s because it seemed to be the most prevalent group, and was less terrorism-oriented than Hamas for example. So, while Israel and other countries painstakingly hammer out agreements with the PLO, they can never be sure if the Palestinians will accept the agreements or will simply say that Arafat didn't fulfill their expectations as a leader, and will turn to someone else. This frustrates the Israeli side because they can never be sure if their efforts are in vain. The Israelis are also taking advantage of this situation. Since there are many voices for the many Palestinians, Israel can simply chose the easiest target and work to negotiate peace with that group. For example, since Israel and the US could lean on Arafat and make him commit to a proposal, they did. The countries are just playing the politics game, and the shrewdest will inevitably win.

Said's essays, while very thorough on the PLO and Arafat, don't cover the difficult issues associated with the multitude of Palestinian interest groups in enough detail. His aim was specific, to express his views on the Oslo Declarations and show their impact on the Palestinian position in the Palestine-Israel conflict, and then to show how Yasir Arafat and the PLO contributed to this setback. He achieved this, and through his urgent tone, was able to sway his readers' emotions and to make them consider the Palestinian side of the issue deeply.

In general, this book does present a good picture of the Middle East negotiation process, although Mr. Said relies painfully little on actual data and expects us to accept his analysis without such relevant facts. But as previous reviewers already wrote, this still is a handy book with which to understand contemporary processes in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, liberated of media hype.

However, Said's thinking is faulty on two issues: For one thing, he fails to understand how extremely difficult it is for the Israeli government to go through with negotiations; one Prime Minister already paid with his life after being continually reviled as a traitor to Israeli interests, a rather ironic fate considering he has given Israel its biggest triumph over the PLO in the shape of the Oslo accords. Said ignores these difficulties, and seems to attribute Israeli positions to mere rapaciousness on behalf of Messrs. Rabin and Peres.

Also, it seems as if his thinking is rather shallow when it comes to analyzing political situations and power struggle. For instance, he seems to highly disapprove of the fact that Israel inhibits the Palestinian Authority in its efforts to become a sovereign state, as if he could by any stretch of the imagination expect it to do otherwise.

These two points aside, I should reiterate that this is a good, disillusioned view of what really happens in the Middle East itself, as opposed to the Middle East as it is viewed on CNN.