This insightful collection of essays is a commentary on the last six years of the Middle East peace process, in which Edward Said has been virtually a lone voice in the West supporting the rights of the Palestinian people. Said questions the efficacy of Arafat's leadership, which has done nothing to stop illegal land expropriation and house demolitions; and regards the Oslo Accords as a false "breakthrough" for the Palestinians, as they include no mention of self-determination or sovereignty, or of an end to the expansion of Jewish settlements. But the author is not without hope: taken together, these essays comprise an eloquent, powerful vision of how peaceful reconciliation between Palestinian and Israeli can be taken forward.