Includes bibliographical references and index.

A negotiator's tale -- Gulliver's troubles: a great power in a world of small ones -- Israel's lawyers: how domestic politics shapes America's Arab-Israeli diplomacy -- Henry Kissinger: strategist -- Jimmy Carter: missionary -- James Baker: negotiator -- Caterer, cash man, and crisis manager, 1993-99 -- Mr. Nice Guy: Bill Clinton and the Arabs and Israelis he loved too much, 1999-2001 -- The disengager: George W. Bush and the pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace, 2001-2007 -- One more last chance: is Arab-Israeli peace possible, and what can America do about it?

For nearly twenty years, Aaron David Miller has played a central role in U.S. efforts to broker Arab-Israeli peace. His position as an advisor to presidents, secretaries of state, and national security advisors has given him a unique perspective on a problem that American leaders have wrestled with for more than half a century. Why has the world's greatest superpower failed to broker, or impose, a solution in the Middle East? If a solution is possible, what would it take? And why after so many years of struggle and failure, with the entire region even more unsettled than ever, should Americans even care? Is Israel/Palestine really the "much too promised land"? This insightful first-person account offers a brilliant new analysis of the problem of Arab-Israeli peace and how, against all odds, it still might be solved.--From publisher description.