According to TPMCafe regular MJ Rosenberg, Clayton Swisher has written the best account of what went wrong in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process during the Clinton Administration.  Nevertheless, there appears to be some controversy over his account.  One critique over at the Peace With Realism website suggests that Mr. Swisher omits certain details and comments in order to advance a narrative that would satisfy an anti-Israel perspective.  I can't say for sure, one way or the other, and I cannot vouch for the credibility of Peace With Realism.  But the official Palestinian Response to the Clinton Parameters and statements made by PA negotiator Ahmed Qurei remain compelling.

[Swisher] discusses the Palestinian reaction to the Clinton Parameters of December 2000, trying to show that the Palestinians did not in fact reject them.

"On the Palestinian side, Arafat showed detailed interest while listing his own reservations in a letter faxed to Clinton on December 28. It is worth reprinting the letter in full, in order to puncture yet another myth of Palestinian rejectionism, this one regarding the Clinton Parameters; namely, that the Israelis accepted them while the Palestinians rejected them."

On the same page (399) Swisher slams Ross for spreading the "fairy tale" of Palestinian rejection. He then reprints a letter from Arafat to Clinton dated December 28, in which Arafat expresses several reservations about the Clinton ideas but does not seem to reject them outright.

But this was not Arafat's last word on the matter. Five days later Arafat met with Clinton at the White House, informed Clinton that his reservations still stood, and presented Clinton with a response that rejected virtually every provision of the Clinton Parameters (see Camp David 2000).

Swisher makes no mention of this document, the Official Palestinian Response to the Clinton Parameters, an extremely odd omission considering that he saw fit to reprint in full the much less significant text of Arafat's earlier letter. Swisher's attempt to show that the Palestinian rejection of the Clinton Parameters was a "fairy tale" flies in the face of logic. Israel had accepted the Parameters. Had the Palestinians done likewise, we would have a deal today. Swisher leaves the impression that the process failed because time ran out on the Barak and Clinton administrations. Yet had the Palestinians truly accepted the Clinton Parameters, there would have been a basis to continue. Instead, at Taba the Palestinian position hardened even more.

Ahmed Qurei admitted what Swisher will not, that the Palestinians indeed rejected the Clinton Parameters while Israel accepted them: "We refused to accept the Clinton initiative as a basis for the negotiations. The Israelis said that the Clinton proposals should be the basis, but we rejected it."

By his manipulation of the sources and omission of the most significant material, Swisher leaves the uninformed reader with an impression that is contrary to the truth.