My peace mission in the Middle East, by Miguel Angel Moratinos

(B2) Miguel Angel Moratinos was Spanish Foreign Minister, Spanish Ambassador to Israel, then EU Special Envoy for the Middle East. For seven years, from 1996 to 2003, he traveled the region with one goal: peace between Israel and Palestine. He delivers his testimony, and his geopolitical analyses. But declarations are not enough either.

You don't need to be a connoisseur of the conflict between Israel and Palestine to read this book. The former special correspondent takes the reader with him, like a confidant, and describes the places, the characters... It's as if you were in the negotiation room. He doesn't mince his words either, saying sharply what others are saying lower.

A lack of leadership in Europe on the Middle East

« The Europeans always hid their bad conscience by paying, since they did not have the courage to exert more political pressure on the United States “, clearly denounces Miguel Angel Moratinos in his book.

But declarations are not enough either. " Unanimity in the forms, in the principles, in the declarations, in the conclusions, that is very good, but when it is necessary to move on to real political action, there are divergences because there is not, in Europe, of leadership. An important advice at the time of the Geopolitical Commission wanted by Ursula von der Leyen.

The former special envoy Is convinced that Europe is sufficiently responsible and capable of helping to bring about peace in the Middle East and that the Europeans, even if they doubt their resources and their potential, have the capacity to move the things ».

Peace is not a utopia... or almost

« Yes, peace is not a utopia; yes, peace is possible. “Miguel Angel Moratinos is formal. There is hope. And it is this feeling that his book gives.

Nevertheless, the former ambassador remains realistic. He laments, for example, that " this peace process, necessary at the beginning, has unfortunately become over time an 'end in itself' and not the quest for the final goal, namely definitive peace ". " The international community has come to terms, wearily with a wobbly situation, and contented itself with a process which, with its ups and downs and procrastination, ultimately proved incapable of resolving definitively the historical conflict. Today, there is neither a sheet nor a plan, but what is most serious is that there is no road either. ».

Finally... Don't miss the last part. It establishes a complete panorama of the claims of the two parties, and offers a chronological timeline. Very useful for neophytes as well as aesthetes. We all get a little lost sometimes!

(Aurelie Pugnet)

• Editions L'Harmattan, 2019, Paris, 296 pages, 32 euros