Reaching for the Heights: The Inside Story of a Secret Attempt to Reach a Syrian-Israeli Peace

by Frederic C Hof

This important and eye-opening book is an insider’s account of secret negotiations to broker a Syria-Israel peace deal―negotiations that came tantalizingly close to success. Ambassador Frederic Hof, who spearheaded the US-mediated discussions in 2009-11, takes readers behind the scenes in Washington, Damascus, and Jerusalem, where President Assad and Prime Minister Netanyahu inched toward a deal to return Israeli-occupied areas of the Golan Heights in exchange for Syria severing military ties with Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. Hof’s candid assessments, refreshing self-criticism, compelling prose, and rich historical detail make this a masterful memoir of an unknown chapter in American diplomacy.

Genres: Middle East

216 pages, Hardcover

Published April 5, 2022

Reviews

[Murtaza]

Did Israel and Syria nearly conclude a peace deal that may have rescued the Middle East just before the calamity of the Arab Spring? It is impossible to know but this book from a former U.S. peace negotiator says that it was the case. I will write more about this later but this is a book specifically for Middle East politics or nerds or those seeking to go into a future in diplomacy. The book is sparse on personal details or stories and heavy on specifics on the possible deal between Israel and Syria that almost came to fruition.