Unilateral action by all may be the only way forward.
Jerome M. Segal's book has one main goal, which is to highlight the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence as a lost inflection point: a rare, pivotal moment that the US, Israel, and even the Palestinian leadership who issued it, could have seized (but did not) to advance Palestinian statehood and peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
In the book I review here, Dr. Segal shares the English-language text of a highly quotable comment he made at the end of an essay he published on April 27, 1988, in the leading Arabic newspaper in Palestine, Al-Quds. This personal note is a perfect place to start:
“If it seems odd that a Jew should offer his thoughts on how Palestinians can be successful in their struggle, let me only add that the struggle for an independent Palestinian state is also the struggle for a humane and safe Israel, and that there can be no Judaism without a commitment to Justice.”
[...]
Mixed feelings
I took away from reading the book three distinct feelings.
First, I felt informed. Dr. Segal reveals some of the behind-the-scenes dynamics of how our Palestinian leadership operated and how the US and Israel reacted. That alone made reading his book a worthwhile investment of time. Second, I was angered but not surprised by his portrayal of how the PLO leadership then (as now) behaved with total disdain for the people’s will and little respect for institutional capacity....
Finally, I also felt insulted. Dr. Segal, being the scholar he is, analyzes affairs as if Palestinians were in a laboratory, in a controlled experiment, yet free to act at will. Without historical context, one could imagine from Dr. Segal’s account that the Palestinian leadership emerged from the halls of Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, rather than from a people shocked into dispersion and forced to mobilize themselves for survival purposes, operating during a relentless and ongoing Israeli and US military campaign to destroy their very existence...
Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American business consultant, writer, and commentator based in Al-Bireh/Ramallah, Palestine. He is the principal of Applied Information Management (AIM), a consultancy specializing in business development and startup advisory services.
Bahour played a foundational role in establishing two of Palestine’s publicly traded companies: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (APSC). He co-founded Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (A4VPE), of which he is now an emeritus member, and served as an independent director on the board of Arab Islamic Bank P.L.C. from 2004 to 2025. He currently serves on the board of Just Vision and The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS).
He frequently gives talks to delegations visiting Palestine on the subjects of Palestine’s political economy, Palestinian Politics 101, and a general orientation to the state of affairs under Israeli military occupation.
A prolific writer on Palestinian affairs, Bahour has been published in major international outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, Haaretz, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera America, Le Monde diplomatique, Al-Monitor, +972 Magazine, The Hill, and Arab News. He has appeared as a commentator on NPR, CNN, BBC, and other broadcast media.
Bahour is the co-editor of Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians (Olive Branch Press, 1993) and was profiled in the bestselling anthology Kingdom of Olives and Ash, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, in a chapter authored by Chabon titled “The Tallest Man in Ramallah.” He holds an Associate’s and Bachelor’s degree in Computer Technology from Youngstown State University, and a Kellogg-Recanati International Executive MBA — a joint program of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.
![The frozen Chosen: Michael Chabon’s "The Yiddish Policemen’s Union" [Book Review]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/BookCover-hires-1.jpg)
