George W. Bush first met Ariel Sharon in 1998 on a fact-finding trip to Israel when he was still governor of Texas and contemplating a run for the White House. According to a U.S. diplomat who knew him well, Sharon had learned from the bruising experience of his Israeli predecessors: "Don't thumb your nose at Washington. Co-opt Washington." From the memorable helicopter tour Sharon gave the future president on that visit until he was incapacitated by a stroke seven years later, Sharon tried to enlist Bush in his dual strategies of quelling a Palestinian uprising and fixing Israel's permanent borders.Bush met him partway but had his own bold ideas: a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a Middle East where democracy replaced tyranny. Neither leader, however, grasped the essential first step toward achieving Bush's vision: a process of tedious negotiation and mutual compromise between Israel and its longtime enemies. Instead Bush and Sharon worsened the Middle East situation by pursuing parallel preemptive wars that destabilized the region.Drawing upon more than a dozen years' experience in reporting on American policy toward the Middle East, two years of on-the-ground reporting and subsequent visits, and dozens of interviews with key figures from the United States, Israel, and the Arab world, Lost Years recreates a contentious and turbulent era in Israeli-American relations and shows how a series of opportunities to stem the bitter conflict were allowed to lapse due to a combination of inattention, deliberate evasion, political pressure, and sheer blindness. Read Less