A few whiskers away from peace

Black blames both sides for the breakdown. Yet, had the PLO sought a settlement, it would have accepted. Instead, it ordered the second intifada.

Perhaps Arafat, a slippery customer, wanted to accept but was fearful of his extremists; perhaps he was himself an extremist seeking to use the talks to weaken and delegitimise Israel. But, had Arafat accepted, a Palestinian state would now be celebrating 17 years of existence.

Still, differences of viewpoint should not detract from the merits of Enemies and Neighbours, which provides evidence enabling the reader to argue with its conclusions; and supporters of Israel will benefit from being presented with criticisms of its policies so clearly laid out.

It may be impossible to write a balanced account of the long and unresolved conflict between Jews and Arabs. Perhaps it is not even desirable. The Irish diplomat and historian, Conor Cruise O’Brien — whose wonderful history of Zionism, The Siege, is unaccountably missing from Black’s otherwise extensive bibliography — sought such a balance when addressing the UN in the 1950s.

An American newspaperwoman asked how his speech had gone. O’Brien replied that he had been thanked by both his neighbours, the delegate from Iraq, in the era before Saddam Hussein, and the delegate from Israel. “Christ!” the newspaperwoman responded. “Was it as bad as that?”

“I have often thought of that comment since”, O’Brien reflected, “on reading how the positions of Israel and of the PLO are to be reconciled”.

Vernon Bogdanor is Professor of Government at King’s College, London.

Buy it now: Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017