High Cost of Peace : How Washington's Middle East Policy Left America Vulnerable to Terrorism

Since the Gulf War, three U.S. administrations have tried desperately to negotiate peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Crafted through a series of policy missteps, the tenuous accords have done little except leave Israel compromised and vulnerable while drawing the ire of militant Islamistsculminating in the catastrophic show of force against the West via terrorist attacks on American soil and renewed violence in the West Bank and elsewhere in the Middle East. In The High Cost of Peace, terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky uncovers the bitter legacy of a peace process that has cost tens of thousands of lives, emboldened such outlaw countries as Iran and Iraq, enriched Arab militaries with billions of U.S. dollars, and mobilized an underground network of terror cells around the globe. He reveals in engrossing detail the political undercurrents and secret deals that have shaped and destabilized the region, the confluence of events leading up to September 11, and the inside story of a dangerous quest for peace that has led to a war unlike any the Middle East has seen beforethe details of which rarely make the anti-Israeli-tinged evening news. You will discover: Why Arafat said in 1972 of the Palestinian aggression against Israel, "Peace for us means the destruction of Israel and nothing else" How President Clinton's zeal for peace was motivated by his desire to divert national attention away from his domestic scandals, and why his administration completely ignored the growing threat of militant Islamism What secret preparations and military build-up Saddam Hussein ordered for the next war with, and terrorist strikes against, the United States and Israel And many more shocking revelations At the heart of the failed peace negotiations is the utopian notion that Israel's militant enemies even want peace. This book proves once and for all how the United States is put in perpetual danger of terrorist attack because of its repeated blunders in dealing with the Arab world and the vital contributions of IsraelAmerica's staunchest ally in this turbulent regionto U.S. security interests. Meanwhile, as many Arab leaders play to American and European news cameras with empty promises of peace, they are secretly conspiring with terrorists to fulfill their ultimate goal: the complete annihilation of the Israeli state.

Yossef Bodansky is the director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.