Negotiating Outside the Law: Why Camp David Failed
This book is another big step down the road to peace in the Middle East. I commend Reverend Helmick for writing it, and I recommend it to you. -- Rev. Jesse Jackson Ray Helmick has conducted track two, unofficial diplomacy in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute for decades working closely with leaders on both sides. The fruit of this work is displayed in Why Camp David Failed..., an unusually sophisticated analysis of the flaws in peace diplomacy and the importance of real and perceived justice to the sustainability of any agreement. His book is all the more persuasive because he clearly cares deeply about the safety and security of the Jews of Israel but also of the Muslims and Christians of Palestine. It is hard to this book down. -- Joseph V. Montville, Diplomat in Residence, American University, Senior Fellow, Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University, Senior Associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC For more than three decades, Fr. Raymond Helmick, S.J. has been engaged professionally and personally, sometimes at risk of his life, in work to undertand and help resolve the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I have known Fr. Helmick since the mid-1980s and have travelled with him several times to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. His encyclopedic knowledge of the conflict's history and his capacity to ask searching questions, listen sympathetically to conflicting views, and offer creative, often profoundly challenging, ideas to Israeli, Palestinian and other Arab leaders in person and through rich, ongoing correspondence are unique. Everyone concerned for peace in the Middle East, no matter how experienced or how partisan, will gain greater understanding of the conflict and what's required for peace from reading Fr. Helmick's book. -- Ronald J. Young, Executive Director, U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East