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Jerusalem and Washington

A Life in Politics and Diplomacy

Zalman Shoval - Translated by Anthony Berris

Diplomat and raconteur Zalman Shoval leads readers behind the closed doors of Jerusalem and Washington in this memoir, into the rooms where prime ministers and presidents made decisions about the first Gulf War, the fate of Jonathan Pollard, the role of the PLO, and Israel’s responses to international criticism and hostilities.

As a member of Israel’s Likud party, an early ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a two-time ambassador to the United States, Shoval has navigated the complicated relationships among Israel’s various ministers and political parties. But none was more fraught than Jerusalem and Washington’s in the 1990s, when Israel’s financial dependence on the U.S. ignited tensions that threatened Shoval’s diplomatic expulsion.

Since Israel’s founding seventy years ago, Shoval has championed its independence, survival, and global reputation. His public life began as a child relocated from 1930s Europe, throwing rocks at Palestine’s British occupiers and living alongside Arabs and Jews whose backgrounds differed greatly from his own. As a college student in the U.S. and Switzerland, an intelligence officer in the Israeli Defense Force, a member of Israel’s governing majority in Jerusalem, and Israel’s ambassador in Washington, DC, Shoval’s cosmopolitan background has influenced his hopes for Israel, and his ability to negotiate with others.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 384 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-5381-1682-1 • Hardback • November 2018 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-5381-1683-8 • eBook • November 2018 • $42.50 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Political Science / International Relations / Diplomacy, Biography & Autobiography / Political

Jerusalem and Washington

A Life in Politics and Diplomacy

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Diplomat and raconteur Zalman Shoval leads readers behind the closed doors of Jerusalem and Washington in this memoir, into the rooms where prime ministers and presidents made decisions about the first Gulf War, the fate of Jonathan Pollard, the role of the PLO, and Israel’s responses to international criticism and hostilities.

As a member of Israel’s Likud party, an early ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a two-time ambassador to the United States, Shoval has navigated the complicated relationships among Israel’s various ministers and political parties. But none was more fraught than Jerusalem and Washington’s in the 1990s, when Israel’s financial dependence on the U.S. ignited tensions that threatened Shoval’s diplomatic expulsion.

Since Israel’s founding seventy years ago, Shoval has championed its independence, survival, and global reputation. His public life began as a child relocated from 1930s Europe, throwing rocks at Palestine’s British occupiers and living alongside Arabs and Jews whose backgrounds differed greatly from his own. As a college student in the U.S. and Switzerland, an intelligence officer in the Israeli Defense Force, a member of Israel’s governing majority in Jerusalem, and Israel’s ambassador in Washington, DC, Shoval’s cosmopolitan background has influenced his hopes for Israel, and his ability to negotiate with others.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 384 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-5381-1682-1 • Hardback • November 2018 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-5381-1683-8 • eBook • November 2018 • $42.50 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Political Science / International Relations / Diplomacy, Biography & Autobiography / Political

Author

Zalman Shoval is an Israeli politician and diplomat who served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States during the George H. W. Bush presidency and, later, during the Clinton administration. He resides in Tel Aviv and regularly visits the United States.

Reviews

[An] inside recounting of past Israeli-Arab peace negotiations by Zalman Shoval, one of Israel’s leading politicians and diplomats. Ambassador Shoval had served in the Israeli Foreign Ministry during the negotiations that led to the 1978 Camp David Agreement, and as Israel’s ambassador to the United States during critical periods in 1990 to 1993 and again from 1998 to 2000. . . . In this gripping memoir, many fascinating details and anecdotes about Israeli politics and diplomacy abound, making it an indispensable account for those interested in the Middle East and the issues that continue to challenge it.
— Washington Times

A political classic . . . Jerusalem and Washington provides much first-hand eyewitness material for historians and it is to Shoval’s credit that this is far more than an autobiography. The author keeps his focus on matters of enduring importance, with the briefest personal asides, and avoids the usual claptrap of ambassadorial memoirs, so often preoccupied with the doings and undoings of long-forgotten notables.
— Times Literary Supplement

. . .thoughtful and vivid . . . Shoval, now 89, ranges over this tumultuous period in exacting detail, while recalling his childhood in Danzig, his immigration to Mandatory Palestine in 1938, and his career in Israeli politics, which started in 1970 when he was elected to the Knesset to replace David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel.
— The Times of Israel

. . . a highly recommended and inspired, conscientious, scholarly, and bold tour de force.
— Paradigm Explorer, Journal of the Scientific and Medical Network

“In the various functions he fulfilled, Ambassador Shoval made many important contributions to the State of Israel, and especially as Israel's Ambassador to Washington. There are not many people who have carried out this important and critical position as successfully as he did; actually, in my view nobody has.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel

“Ambassador Shoval, with whom I worked closely during his first tour as ambassador to the United States, has written a true insider's account of seminal events in US-Israel relations. The English edition of his memoirs is essential reading for scholars, diplomats, and all who seek to understand America's critical role, past and future, in the Middle East.”
— General (Ret.) Brent Scowcroft

"No mere witness to history, Zalman Shoval was at times a craftsman and at others an architect in US-Israel relations. This book charts both the impetus for and the consequence of leadership at critical times in our shared history.”

— John Hamre, President of the Center for Strategic & International Studies and former Deputy Secretary of Defense

Jerusalem and Washington

A Life in Politics and Diplomacy

Zalman Shoval - Translated by Anthony Berris

Jerusalem and Washington

A Life in Politics and Diplomacy

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