Ezra's Bookshelf

Tomorrow Is Yesterday

by Hussein Agha and Robert Malley · 239 pages · ~4.5 hrs

Foreign PolicyHistory

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Hussein Agha and Robert Malley bring decades of experience as Middle East negotiators to explain why the Israeli-Palestinian peace process failed. Agha advised Palestinian leaders for years; Malley served multiple U.S. presidents and led the failed 2000 Camp David negotiations. Their central argument is counterintuitive: the two-state solution became a consensus global goal precisely when it was no longer viable. The book traces how negotiations became an end in themselves, providing cover for expansion of settlements and maintenance of occupation while promising a resolution that never came. The authors examine specific episodes, including Camp David, to show how both sides and American mediators misunderstood each other's constraints and needs. They are critical of Israeli intransigence, Palestinian division, and American naivety in roughly equal measure. The writing is clear-eyed and unsentimental, reflecting the authors' frustration with a process they devoted careers to. They argue that the current situation, which satisfies no one, may be more stable than alternatives, and that new frameworks are needed. This is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand why peace has proven so elusive, written by two people who spent years in the room where it didn't happen.

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