The Truth About Camp David : The Untold Story about Arafat, Barak, Clinton, and the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: A must have for anyone seeking the truth. This book gives us a perspective that we have never seen or heard before. The book is based on the interviews of virtually every major player in the peace process. If you want to know what really happened, this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Puts Dennis Ross book to shame
Review: First I read Dennis Ross' self-serving book about Camp David. Then I read this guy's.
No comparison. Ross' book is all about Ross. He is always right and the Israelis are always right.
Swisher, who interviewed everybody who was at Camp David, finds that there was plenty of blame to go around. And Ross is himself blamed for his blatant pro-Israel bias and for misleading President Clinton.
Swisher is a fine scholar. This book will be the one that future historians will view as the best source on what really happened at Camp David and why. It's a great Christmas gift too. How about some truth in your Christmas or Hanukah stockings!

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable Book!
Review: I have read virtually every book on the Palestinian-Isreali conflict and I found this book to be among the best. Clayton Swisher brings a truly unique perspective to a complex and often misunderstood issue. This is a must read for anyone who wants to truly understand the conflict.

Rating:
Summary: Peace process--a crossexamination
Review: I was reading Dennis Ross' always interesting Missing Peace on Camp David 2000 finding myself with the uncomfortable feeling I would never figure out what did happen. These lingering suspicions drove me to find the lowdown somewhere else, and presto here it is. I cannot finally vouch for anyone' statements in this quagmire of diplomatic Machiavellians, but Swisher's account makes clear how we were probably fooled by the spin coming out of the Clinton-Barak camp after the collapse of the talks. So that's how they did it!
This is a key book on the discrepancy between the propaganda and the facts, with Arafat's taking the blame shown up for what it is.

Rating:
Summary: Misleading and biased
Review: I've read several books about the collapse of the Middle East Peace process. So far, this one is the worst.

We rely on what we read for information, so it isn't always easy to spot outright lies and omissions. But it doesn't take long to see some of the problems with this book.

One example is the visit of Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount. Here's something we can check up on rather easily. Read what Swisher says and compare it with historical truth. It's way off.

Or read what Swisher has to say about Jewish and Arab settlements in the disputed West Bank.

This book appears to imply that what the world needs to do is comply with every whim of the more radical Arabs. That, and only that, will bring "peace." But that's insane. Suppose we complied with every whim of the Mafia, or the Ku Klux Klan?

My point is not that Swisher is showing bias. It is that he's misleading everyone. No matter what we want, and no matter what our goals happen to be, we're better off with truth than with lies. And truth is in rather short supply in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Revisionism, without depth
Review: middle east should be aware of the falsifying rhetoric, which is the actual bases for the conflict. Anyone who has worked in the middle east will be aware of the nature of how the world works here. In examining Camp David and the 'fall' of the Peace Process it is not proper, to do as this book does, and simply accept that everyone is telling the truth and try to spread 'blame'. he meeting at Camp David wasn't like Versailles, and one researching he meeting is not dealing with honest diplomats, rather one is dealing with people who have a deep vested interest in protecting their lives, the lives of their people and the lives of their holy sites. How can anyone with such emotional ties be in the least bit trusted. This book, if anything, serves as yet another example of how the conflict in the middle east is often simply fabricated based on the pre-conceived notions that people are inherently honest. This is yet another addition tot he heap of "whose fault is it" literature on the Camp David meeting. But placing blame doesn't solve the conflict. It only deepens the intolerance. Not a worthwhile read, accept for the middle east scholar, aware of complexities.

Seth J. Frantzman

Rating:
Summary: Best book yet on Mideast peace process
Review: Talk about doing your homework. Clayton Swisher has interviewed virtually everyone involved in the Middle East peace process. And they told him very different things than we have all read before. That is why, as of this time, this is the most definitive book on why the Oslo process collapsed in 2000. Well-written, heavily footnoted, loaded with juicy nuggets, this is a book anyone even mildly interested in the Mideast will want to read. All I can say is "Bravo."