Philip Rubenstein
Israel’s Prime Ministers, Part 8: The Great Peace Gamble

The 1990s opened with unprecedented optimism. Secret negotiations, historic handshakes, and bold diplomatic initiatives appeared to offer a path towards a lasting peace. From the breakthrough of Oslo to the final negotiations at Camp David, Israel’s leaders pursued their most ambitious effort yet to end decades of conflict. This lecture looks at the evolving partnership between Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres—leaders who eventually learn to work together, even as their personal rivalry endures—and charts their attempts, followed by those of Ehud Barak, to reach agreements with both the Palestinians and Syria. It also considers a fundamental question at the heart of the peace process: whether each side possesses both the willingness and the authority to make peace, carry their own people with them, and turn agreements into lasting realities.