cover image Indecision Points: George W. Bush and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Indecision Points: George W. Bush and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Daniel Zoughbie. MIT, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-262-02733-5

Zoughbie, a scholar of international governance, criticizes the Bush administration's dithering and unfocused approach to diplomacy in the Middle East. Much of this volume is devoted to the tension between the ideas of sequentialism, which holds that the U.S. should pursue spreading democracy throughout the region as its priority, and parallelism, the view that concessions should be sought simultaneously from all parties to the conflict. Bush, according to the author, seemed perpetually susceptible to his advisors' conflicting counsel, and "never truly made a decision as to which view should guide U.S. foreign policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." When Bush did enter the debate, he had a tendency to miss the point entirely%E2%80%94as when he asserted that removing Yassir Arafat was of greater importance to the Palestinians than ending the occupation. Zoughbie clearly and concisely records Bush's missteps and his pervasive double standards: enraged by corruption in the Palestinian Authority, Bush turned a blind eye to the scandal that would bring down Olmert's government. Zoughbie reveals Bush as a man whose tentative yet hubristic forays into international affairs were overtaken by events, with his positions changing from day to day: "erratic shifts in the president's decision-making process were not an isolated occurrence; unfortunately, they were the norm." (Nov.)