Futile Diplomacy
Volume I: Early Arab-Zionist Negotiation Attempts, 1913-1931

Caplan's survey of Arab and Zionist efforts before 1948 to resolve their differences peacefully reveals a little-known willingness of the two parties to compromise. So accustomed have we become to thinking of the Arab-Israeli conflict as military, it may come as a surprise to follow the negotiations in detail. These efforts were not obscure undertakings; notable participants included Chaim Weizmann, Felix Frankfurter, H. St. John Philby, T.H. Lawrence, David Ben-Gurion, Abba Eban, King 'Abdallah of Jordan, King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, and King Faysal of Iraq. In each volume, Caplan's meticulous analysis fills about half the text, with the other half devoted to publishing (often for the first time) all the known records pertaining to this subject. So thorough is Caplan, in one case (the report of a 1921 meeting between British, Arab, and Zionist delegations), he provides three sets of minutes. This is the final word on the subject.