Content area
Full Text
ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT The Peace Business: Money and Power in the Palestine-Israel Conflict, by Markus E. Bouillon. London, UK: LB. Tauris, 2004. vi + 204. Bibl. to p. 231. Index to p. 325. GBP40.
Markus Bouillon examines the linkage between business interests and the Middle East peace process during the 1990s, focusing on the motivations of, and the roles played by, businessmen from Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Territories. His book also documents relationships between business leaders and political elites, largely through interviews with those who participated in events. The author's ultimate aim in The Peace Business is to assess the significance of the business community on the peace process. He concludes that its impact had less to do with peacemaking than with profit taking.
Mitigating political problems by employing economic strategies is a perennial tactic undertaken by policy-makers overwhelmed by the seemingly intractable Middle Eastern conflict; not surprisingly, they targeted the region with this approach from the outset of Arab-Israeli hostilities. One wonders whether policy-makers today duly note past failures when considering the adoption of similar strategies. Bouillon begins his study by documenting former Israeli Prime Minister and current Vice Premier Shimon Peres' grand plan for a future Middle East in the...