The Truth about Camp David: The Untold Story About The Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process by Clayton E. Swisher, Nation Books (Manufactured by)

Stuff & Nonsenseby Anonymous

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April 13, 2007: Sometime before his book came out, Mr. Swisher contacted me by e-mail asking if I would be interested in reviewing his book on another website. I guess that a small voice within me said 'this is not going to be a balanced account'. The resulting work has proven my intitution right. Apparently Mr. Swisher either doesn't know Arabic or pooh-poohed Arafat's true voice - the one of deceit, of lies, and of violence. The Clintonites gave Arafat every benefit of doubt, inviting him to the White House a whopping 9 times, putting pressure on Dr. Walter Reich and the United States Holocaust Commission to grant this killer - not just of Israelis but of American diplomats in the Sudan and Lebanon - a VIP visit to the U.S. Holocaust Museum. They even undermined the government of Benjamin Netanyahu when he refused to play with the lives of his citizens. All the time Arafat's broadcasts in Arabic to the Palestinians never spoke of peace, but of Jihad, of murdering the Jews. The Clintonites knew this, yet they feted their friend while crucifying an ally. Enter Ehud Barak, whom Swisher describes as 'arrogant' and 'devious'. Barak, at Clinton's prodding first betrayed the Christian Lebanese resistance, the SLA, that had fought Hizbullah for years and brought security to Israel's Northern borders. Under Barak's 'Peace in our time' orders, the IDF without warning abandoned their allies, and hightailed it to the Israeli border. This lesson was not lost on Arafat and his associates, who promptly began preparation for the next Intifada. Unfazed by the dire consequences of abandoning an ally, and an Arab one at that, Barak went to Camp David at Clinton's invitation, and Arafat soon joined him. The entire Israeli negotiation team were prepared to give up the entire Judea-Samaria region to Fatah, with very minor modifications. But what was even more astonishing, and which Swisher and his main contributor, one nonentity from Sandy Berger's NSC - a Robert Malley pooh-pooh, was Barak's offer to turn over half of Jerusalem to Arafat. Can you imagine the House of Saud offering half of Mecca to the Vatican, or Heavens to betsy, the Jews? Even Shlomo Ben Ami, the 'Peace Now' Foreign Minister of Israel was stunned by this gesture. And it was NOT a devious one, but an honest one on Barak's part, even though he knew he'd probably face a collapse of his government had Arafat accepted. But of course Arafat, revolutionary to the core, and man of extreme violence stunned Barak, and perhaps even more so, Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright and walked out - resorting to violence. The violence that was the New Intifada and the series of bombs - of teens, of babies, of families in restaurants, discos, bus stations, colleges, Seders, and Pizzerias. Dennis Ross, no Likud acolyte, was at first flabbergasted, then convinced that Arafat would never choose peace. Hence the main reason he never signed up for Colin Powell -bing - REALITY. But Swisher and Malley will never condemn Arafat in a million years, even though they know better. Read: Yossef Bodansky's 'The High Cost of Peace' or Michael Oren's 'Power, Faith and Fantasy' if you want a more honest account of why Camp David collapsed. Bodansky is - but Oren is no hardliner, yet both men came to virtually the same conclusions about Arafat and the PLO leadership, conclusions that the Clintons, Albright, Barak, and Swisher and Malley could never find. In summation Clinton and Barak were naive and...