A noted American journalist with unprecedented access to the major American, Israeli, and Palestinian players recounts the dramatic Middle East peace process, from 1988 until today. The historic handshake on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993, marked the most significant step toward resolving the bloody, forty-year war between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. The ceremonial reconciliation between a solemn Yasser Arafat and a reluctant Yitzhak Rabin was the result of a long and arduous process that had its roots in years of tentative contacts between the two sides. From Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to Madrid and Oslo, A Fire in Zion tells the startling story of the Israeli-Palestinian search for peace - and the searing and often tragic events that led to the peace agreement. In A Fire in Zion, Washington-based journalist Mark Perry captures for the first time the complete history of the Israeli-Palestinian accord. Spanning the period from December 1987 to the signing of the final accord on the White House lawn, the author sketches vivid portraits of the most important political and diplomatic figures of our time and the people who made peace possible: PLO chief Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, former Secretary of State James Baker, and a host of others. In each case the author was given extraordinary access to the decision-makers who brought the two antagonists to the peace table. . A Fire in Zion begins where From Beirut to Jerusalem left off - revealing in timely, riveting detail how the Middle East conflict is now slowly being resolved. The author provides an incisive commentary on the divisions between American and Israeli Jews, the conflict inside the PLO, the struggle for peace inside the Israeli government, and the often vicious fights in both the Bush and Clinton administrations over just what a Middle East peace should look like. A Fire in Zion is much more than a dramatic recounting of international intrigue; it is also a saga of two very different peoples, and two dreams. Here are the often unheard voices of individual Palestinian and Israeli men, women, and children, who, in their desperate search for peace, find themselves caught in a deadly and seemingly endless conflict. This book takes the reader on a journey from Jericho in the occupied territories to Jericho, New York, from the fetid refugee camps of the Gaza Strip to the stony steps of Bethlehem, from PLO headquarters in Tunis to the halls of the Knesset.