The Bride and the Dowry focuses on the two years after the Six Day War and comes to some very disturbing conclusions.
Avi Raz, a former Israeli journalist who is now a research fellow at Oxford University, presents evidence that after the war the King of Jordan and Palestinian leadership tried to create a reasonable solution to the “Israel problem” — even a workable peace. He asserts that the process failed because the Israelis were bogged down in bureaucracy and internal fighting. He maintains that it was Israel that sabotaged diplomatic efforts to resolve the problems created by the Six Day War.
In straightforward language, the author suggests that, in the period following the war, Israel was not really interested in a solution of any sort.
Some of Raz’s assertions are very hard to read and difficult to assimilate into our present day thinking, given the traditional historical narrative to which we are accustomed. Though one might disagree with its conclusions, this book is still a very important read.
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