This latest work by Naseer Aruri focuses on the failed Middle East "peace process." Aruri analyzes the evolving relationship between the United States and the two protagonists--the Palestinians and Israel--and argues that the U.S. rejectionist policy toward Palestinian participation and Palestinian rights has become a policy that focuses more on the process and than on peace. Aruri argues that the special relationship between the United States and Israel turned into a strategic alliance after the war in 1967--ruling out a role of honest brokering for the United States--all other would-be peacemakers and facilitators were held at bay. The U.S. diplomatic -monopoly continues to serve as the single most effective means to accomplish Israel's goals. It sustains Israel, protecting it from international scrutiny, and engineers the gridlock that allows the Israeli government to negotiate indefinitely. Bolstered by September 11, U.S. policy at present, is Israel's: fix the blame on the Palestinian partner, declare Arafat unfit to rule, and demand his removal. Aruri demonstrates how American diplomacy has come to a grinding halt, providing a cover for Ariel Sharon's Israel to crush the Palestinians. Naseer Aruri is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, and the former co-chair of Amnesty International. He lectures widely on the politics and history of the Middle East.

Winner of the 2014 Lionel Trilling Book Award An examination of the failure of the United States as a broker in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, through three key historical moments For more than seven decades the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people has raged on with no end in sight, and for much of that time, the United States has been involved as a mediator in the conflict. In this book, acclaimed historian Rashid Khalidi zeroes in on the United States’s role as the purported impartial broker in this failed peace process. Khalidi closely analyzes three historical moments that illuminate how the United States’ involvement has, in fact, thwarted progress toward peace between Israel and Palestine. The first moment he investigates is the “Reagan Plan” of 1982, when Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin refused to accept the Reagan administration’s proposal to reframe the Camp David Accords more impartially. The second moment covers the period after the Madrid Peace Conference, from 1991 to 1993, during which negotiations between Israel and Palestine were brokered by the United States until the signing of the secretly negotiated Oslo accords. Finally, Khalidi takes on President Barack Obama’s retreat from plans to insist on halting the settlements in the West Bank. Through in-depth research into and keen analysis of these three moments, as well as his own firsthand experience as an advisor to the Palestinian delegation at the 1991 pre–Oslo negotiations in Washington, DC, Khalidi reveals how the United States and Israel have actively colluded to prevent a Palestinian state and resolve the situation in Israel’s favor. Brokers of Deceit bares the truth about why peace in the Middle East has been impossible to achieve: for decades, US policymakers have masqueraded as unbiased agents working to bring the two sides together, when, in fact, they have been the agents of continuing injustice, effectively preventing the difficult but essential steps needed to achieve peace in the region.

Focusing on market microstructure, Harris (chief economist, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) introduces the practices and regulations governing stock trading markets. Writing to be understandable to the lay reader, he examines the structure of trading, puts forward an economic theory of trading, discusses speculative trading strategies, explores liquidity and volatility, and considers the evaluation of trader performance. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).