Our last best chance : the pursuit of peace in a time of peril

A newsbreaking memoir that tackles head-on the toughest challenge in the world today. When a dying King Hussein shocked the world by picking his son rather than his brother, the longtime crown prince, to be the next king of Jordan, no one was more surprised than the young head of Special Operations, who discovered his life was in for a major upheaval. This is the inspirational story of a young prince who went to boarding school in America and military academy in Britain and grew up believing he would be a soldier. Back home, he hunted down terrorists and modernized Jordan's Special Forces. Then, suddenly, he found himself king. Together with his wife, Queen Rania, he transformed what it meant to be a monarch, going undercover to escape the bubble of the court while she became the Muslim world's most passionate advocate of women's rights. In this exceptionally candid memoir, King Abdullah tackles the single toughest issue he faces head-on- how to solve the Israeli-Palestinian standoff- and reveals himself to be an invaluable intermediary between America and the Arab world. He writes about the impact of the Iraq war on his neighborhood and how best to tackle Iran's nuclear ambitions. Why would a sitting head of state choose to write about the most explosive issues he faces? King Abdullah does so now because he believes we face a moment of truth: a last chance for peace in the Middle East. The prize is enormous, the cost of failure far greater than we dare imagine Cover Page 1 Title Page 7 Copyright Page 8 Dedication Page 9 Contents 11 Preface 13 Part One 25 Chapter One: The Conflict Begins 27 Chapter Two: The 1967 War 38 Chapter Three: Dark Clouds over Amman 46 Chapter Four: Arriving in America 55 Part Two 65 Chapter Five: Sandhurst 67 Chapter Six: Qatraneh Nights 74 Chapter Seven: A Secret Mission 80 Chapter Eight: “You Guys Don’t Stand a Chance” 88 Chapter Nine: A Royal Wedding 101 Chapter Ten: Lessons in Diplomacy 110 Chapter Eleven: Very Special Operations 124 Part Three 133 Chapter Twelve: In the Footsteps of a Legend 135 Chapter Thirteen: Becoming King 154 Chapter Fourteen: Friends and Neighbors 166 Chapter Fifteen: Transforming Jordan 179 Chapter Sixteen: Desert Deerfield 201 Part Four 209 Chapter Seventeen: Jerusalem at the Heart of Conflict 211 Chapter Eighteen: Seeking Peace, Getting War 220 Chapter Nineteen: War in the Desert 239 Chapter Twenty: “We Will Be Greeted as Liberators” 249 Part Five 261 Chapter Twenty-one: My Islam 263 Chapter Twenty-two: Jordan’s 9/11 274 Chapter Twenty-three: The Amman Message 281 Part Six 289 Chapter Twenty-four: The End of an Era 291 Chapter Twenty-five: The Mask Slips 304 Chapter Twenty-six: A New Voice from America 315 Chapter Twenty-seven: Fortress Israel or a Fifty-Seven-State Solution? 331 Acknowledgments 353 Index 357 A call for peace by the most dynamic leader of the Arab world. At a time of unprecedented upheaval in the Middle East, King Abdullah II of Jordan is almost unique in enjoying widespread popular support. He is the ultimate modern-day monarch, as comfortable at a business conference as he is at a meeting of the Arab League. In this prescient memoir-cum-manifesto, he makes an urgent plea to push for a solution to the Arab-Israeli crisis. He writes with disarming frankness about his own upbringing and warns of the brewing resentment in the region. A call to arms by the most dynamic young ruler in the Arab world, Our Last Best Chance helps explain the volatile underpinnings of the new Arab awakening The eldest son of Jordan's King Hussein, the author had not expected to ascend to the throne; his father's brother had long been crown prince. But he was chosen by the king on his deathbed. Both a memoir and a frank discussion of how to solve problems in the Middle East