The Road Not Taken: Early Arab-Israeli Negotiations

In the aftermath of the 1948 war, Rabinovich writes, the seeds of the present turmoil in the Middle East were sown: confused and debated borders, hundreds of thousands of Arab refugees, internal struggles over each government's political agenda. In 1949, the Arab world was divided as never before--Iraq and Transjordan were at odds with Saudi Arabia and Egypt--and each state wrestled with its own negotations with Israel. King Abdallah of Transjordan negotiated with Israel with an eye toward siezing what is now called the West Bank and--ultimately--the Hejaz in the Arabian Peninsula. The region's first military dictator, Husni al-Zaim of Syria, offered an intriguing, if illusory, opening, as he sought a permanent settlement with Israel so he could concentrate on internal issues. Zaim, the book shows, was allied to the U.S. intelligence community.