Avi Raz is an Israeli historian who fought in some of the Arab-Israeli wars and as a journalist covered some of them. This well written book is the result of years of painstaking research in the records that had been declassified in Israeli, American, British, and United Nations archives – records documenting the events during the two year period following the June 1967 War. Prime Minister Eshkol repeatedly used the metaphor of the bride and the dowry to explain Israel’s policy. “The premier was always complaining about the unwanted bride – the Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied territories – but never about the rich territorial dowry that came with her. ‘We need the land,’ Eshkol stated from the podium of the Knesset in August 1968, in reference to the occupied territories and specifically the West Bank.” (p. 272) Raz documents the repeated uses of Israel’s foreign policy of takhsisanut or prevarication. Foreign Minister Abba Eban kept talking about Israel’s persistent diplomatic activity “no matter how futile, to make it appear as if Israel was strenuously endeavoring to achieve peace.” (p. 112) Raz documents clearly the peaceful intentions of King Hussein and the West Bank leaders in the immediate months after the June 1967 War. But Israel used its deceitful foreign policy precisely because it knew Hussein and the West Bank leaders meant what they said about coming to an agreement with Israel. Israel was clear it would never surrender most if not all of the occupied territories, land that from Israel’s perspective had such national, historical and religious significance.
This remarkable book should serve as a reminder of the utter futility of “the peace process” which Israel continues to use to this day while it continues to create more facts on the ground in the Occupied Territories. Eighteen years ago Edward Said in his book Peace and its Discontents : Essays on Palestine in the Middle East Peace Process, laid bare the deeply flawed Oslo Accords. Avi Raz documents an aborted peace process that followed the June 1967 War.
Newland Smith The Bride and the Dowry: Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinians in the Aftermath of the June 1967 War (Yale University Press, 2012), by Avi Raz
Avi Raz's The Bride and the Dowry is indeed an amazing book – probably the best book on the Arab-Israeli conflict. While dealing with the first couple of years of the occupation epoch (1967-69), it remains very relevant to the present (and undoubtedly to the future as well). Anyone who wishes to understand why Arab-Israel peace is unattainable must read The Bride and the Dowry.