Fifty Years War

This companion guide to the PBS series of the same name illustrates how difficult it is to present a balanced work on the contentious Middle East. Full of interviews with key players, the book offers a convincing behind-the-scenes look at Israeli-Arab peacemaking efforts during the past half-century, debunking the myth that this process began with the signing of the Oslo peace accords in 1993. Its strength lies in its recounting, with the help of eyewitnesses, little-known stories regarding contacts between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Most notable are the details of the periodic meetings between Israel and representatives of Egypt's nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s and '60s. The book tends to portray the violence so prevalent in the Middle East during the last 50 years as the result of missed diplomacy instead of historical inevitability. But the authors, Bregman an Israeli-born Jew and El-Tahri a Lebanese Arab, occasionally fail to provide the unbiased history they claim to present. For example, a 1988 move by the Palestine Liberation Organization to recognize U.N. resolutions supporting the land-for-peace principle is described like this: ""They had finally broken the taboo and recognized the right of Israel to exist."" There is no mention of the fact that many Israelis--and some Palestinians--didn't view the PLO's move as full recognition. This is a cleanly written book that any reader will learn from, but it should be read with an eye toward its subtle prejudices and its tendency to minimize the root causes of the conflict. (Sept.)