With Iran’s nuclear pro­gram heat­ing up, and rock­ets once again fir­ing between Tel Aviv and Gaza, the whole world’s eyes are once again on Israel’s dif­fi­cult rela­tion­ship with their neigh­bors in the Mid­dle East. At the heart of this con­flict is Pales­tine, which many believe Israel keeps down­trod­den as a bar­ri­er against its own ene­mies. In State of Fail­ure, Israeli-Pales­tine expert Jonathan Schanz­er argues that the rea­sons behind Palestine’s iner­tia are far more com­plex than its sup­port­ers believe, and that, despite recent rum­blings, the dream of state­hood may again be scut­tled by inter­nal cor­rup­tion and incom­pe­tence. Draw­ing on exclu­sive sources with­in the Pales­tin­ian Author­i­ty, Schanz­er shows how Mah­moud Abbas used Pres­i­dent George W. Bush’s sup­port to cat­a­pult him­self into the pres­i­den­cy. Schanz­er reveals how Abbas, now four years past the end of his legit­i­mate term, may cost the Pales­tini­ans every­thing. This is a must-read for both pro-Israel and pro-Pales­tin­ian par­ti­sans at this crit­i­cal junc­ture in Mid­dle East­ern politics.