The Best Primer I’ve Heard on Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts
About this episode
Klein interviews Aaron David Miller, a veteran of decades of U.S.-led Middle East negotiations, for a primer on why Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts have failed. Miller says only three American leaders belong in the peace hall of fame: Henry Kissinger, who paired pain with opportunity after the Yom Kippur War; Jimmy Carter, whose single-minded moral focus produced Camp David; and George H.W. Bush and James Baker, whose tough tactics convened the Madrid conference. He recounts the secret Oslo channel, the Rabin-Arafat handshake, and his view that Camp David 2000 was ill-advised — Barak went further than any Israeli prime minister, but Arafat's failure to counteroffer doomed it. Miller insists the U.S. too often acted as 'Israel's lawyer' rather than an honest broker, and that with Netanyahu and Abbas, there is no partner, no strategy, and no postwar leadership plan.