The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine

by Nathan Thrall Narrated by Stephen R. Thorne

Overview

Scattered over the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea lie the remnants of failed peace proposals, international summits, secret negotiations, UN resolutions, and state-building efforts. The conventional story is that these well-meaning attempts at peacemaking were repeatedly, perhaps terminally, thwarted by violence.



Through a rich interweaving of reportage, historical narrative, and powerful analysis, Nathan Thrall presents a startling counter-history. He shows that force has impelled each side to make its largest concessions, from Palestinian acceptance of a two-state solution to Israeli territorial withdrawals. This simple fact has been neglected by the world powers, which have expended countless resources on initiatives meant to diminish friction between the parties. By quashing any hint of confrontation and providing bounteous economic and military assistance, the United States and Europe have merely entrenched the conflict by lessening the incentives to end it. Thrall's important book upends the beliefs steering these failed policies, revealing how the aversion of pain, not the promise of peace, has driven compromise for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Nathan Thrall does a brilliant job describing the political and geostrategic reasons for the intractability... His argument is smart and hard to dispute.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“This June, Israel is marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Six-Day War. Not surprisingly, a number of new books have appeared in this grim anniversary year.... By far the most cogent... is Nathan Thrall’s The Only Language They Understand, which surveys the last five decades and comes to a remarkable conclusion: the only way to produce some kind of movement toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to apply significant coercive force to the parties involved, and in particular to Israel.”
—The New York Review of Books

“Thrall has consistently been one of the sharpest observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the United States’ role in trying to end it, and his most recent contribution, The Only Language They Understand, is true to form.... His argument is a compelling one, and Thrall expertly marshals historical evidence to demonstrate his thesis that both sides respond to sticks rather than carrots.”
—Foreign Affairs

“Thrall is one of the best-informed and most trenchant observers of the conflict.”
—Financial Times

“Life is short, and writings about Israel and the Palestinians can be very, very long. So it’s a good thing there’s Nathan Thrall.”
—Time

“Readers of the New York Review of Books and other intellectual publications know Nathan Thrall to be one of the best-informed, most insightful, and least polemical analysts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… The Only Language They Understand brings unparalleled clarity to the dynamics of Israeli-Palestinian relations, and is an essential guide to the history, personalities, and ideas behind the conflict.”
—Jewish Book Council

“Even the most ardent defenders of Israeli policies should acknowledge Thrall’s mastery to facts on the ground, historical context and diplomatic tactics and strategies on all sides.… Just about everyone interested in peace between Israelis and Palestinians will learn something and find something to ponder.”
—Jerusalem Post

“Nathan Thrall, an analyst with the International Crisis Group and consummate observer of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adds substantially to our understand of the status quo in his perfectly timed new volume.”
—Tablet

“Thrall makes a persuasive case that instead of leaving the Israelis and Palestinians alone or limply warning of the peril facing Israeli democracy if a two-state solution isn't achieved, the only weapon in the US arsenal that has ever produced meaningful gains on the issue is force—diplomatic, economic, or otherwise.”
—Vice

“An important new book… eloquently expresses what has long been clear: that there is no hope of a breakthrough unless the international community forces it on the parties.”
—The Independent (UK)

“Nathan Thrall’s commentary on the most intractable dispute of our time is something shocking: it is fair. Into a debate consumed by ferocious passions he enters dispassionately, except that he has a passion for peace. For this reason he is uncommonly trustworthy. His familiarity with the infamous complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian tangle is remarkable, as is his mental composure. This learned and candid book is a genuine contribution to our understanding of an increasingly frightening conflict.”
—Leon Wieseltier

“Both the book and the title of The Only Language They Understand perfectly encapsulate the attitudes of the two sides to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The title also illustrates Thrall’s main thesis: that over the entire hundred years of this conflict, only force or the threat of force, whether military, political, economic, diplomatic or in another form, has obligated the two sides to compromise. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why this conflict is so intractable and remains unresolved.”
—Rashid Khalidi, author of Brokers of Deceit and Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies, Columbia University

“A terrific piece of analysis by a keen and empathic observer of the region.”
—Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower and Thirteen Days in September

“These are the toughest criticisms anywhere of decades of Israeli policy. The failings of the Palestinians are here as well—but the arrows are aimed at Jerusalem. Serious supporters of Israel should have their answers ready—or be prepared to lose debates to opponents quoting Nathan Thrall.”
—Elliott Abrams, Deputy National Security Advisor, George W. Bush administration

“For those who look at the Middle East and throw up their hands at a hopeless morass, Nathan Thrall’s brilliant book is a compelling corrective. This most well-informed and well-connected of experts gives rigorous attention to the reality lurking behind the myths: that in this seemingly frozen conflict, carefully applied power and assiduous compulsion have often been the midwives of progress. Eloquent, fact-rich, full of vivid characters, and relentlessly contemporary in its narrative, The Only Language They Understand is a withering indictment of conventional wisdom—and a necessary, essential book.”
—Mark Danner, author of Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War

“Nathan Thrall argues with great power and lucidity that the only language the two sides to the conflict understand is force. This strong view, strongly held by Thrall, has serious political implications. He may be right, he may be wrong, but he must be read by anyone who hasn’t given up the idea and the hope of ending this bloody conflict.”
—Avishai Margalit, author of On Compromise and Rotten Compromises

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"This learned and candid book is a genuine contribution to our understanding of an increasingly frightening conflict. —Leon Wieseltier

Library Journal

★ 05/01/2017
Thrall, an experienced journalist and commentator on the Middle East, has linked together and updated substantial analyses on various aspects of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to explain the lack of progress in spite of 40 years of close attention by American presidents. In 1977–78, President Jimmy Carter guided important agreements on a foundation for peace. Since then, Israel was able to reduce the threats from external Arab armies through negotiations, and responded to the Palestine uprisings by convincing Palestinians to accept limited elements of self-rule and by expanding settlements and claiming new land in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Thrall concludes that Israel has never really acknowledged the validity of Palestinian history or demand for sovereignty. He notes ironically that President Barack Obama entered office in 2009 with empathy for Palestinian claims but failed to produce any improvements for them. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers familiar with the headlines on this issue who want a deeper and more detailed understanding. [See Prepub Alert, 9/12/16.]—Elizabeth Hayford, formerly with Associated Coll. of the Midwest, Evanston, IL

Kirkus Reviews

2017-03-15
An assiduous assault on the management of the apparently defunct peace process that has eluded Israel and Palestine.With this earnest addition to the expanding shelf of commentary on the seemingly irresoluble Arab-Israeli conflict, journalist Thrall, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, offers, under the rubric of "Forcing Compromise" (the first third of the book), a detailed history of failed efforts to reach accord in the Holy Land. The problem is more than settlements, recognition of the State of Israel, the eventual status of Jerusalem, or even the number of casualties. It is well-earned distrust on both sides. Writing mostly of Israeli activities and American reactions, Thrall reviews the failures of Camp David, the Wye River meetings, and the Oslo agreements. Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, and Benjamin Netanyahu were and are wrong; ditto negotiators Marin Indyk, Dennis Ross, and John Kerry. So, too, in various ways, were many American presidents who were, in the author's view, too easy on the Israelis. Thrall proposes increased American and European pressure on the parties without elaborating on what the pressure would be or how it would work. Meanwhile, Arabs and Israelis accept the status quo as their best alternative. The remainder of the book consists of reprints of reviews and essays published elsewhere. The author provides copious footnotes (with many secondary sources cited), and he frequently mentions "Mandatory Palestine" in comparison to the Jewish state. The looming Arab nations in the neighborhood and the Arab League's support of Hamas (which runs Gaza and whose goal is still destruction of "the Zionist entity") are not recognized as threats to peace. Certainly, each party faces legitimate, fundamental problems: rockets, suicide bombers, checkpoints, land grabs, and internecine conflicts. However, as earnest as he is in illuminating the problems, Thrall remains partial and selective in probing them. A troubling and truculent history of the still-stalemated search for peace in the Middle East.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170488070
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	05/16/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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