A Voice Of Reason

When violence erupts in the West Bank and Gaza, Hanan Ashrawi is the one the media turn to for commentary. She has become as linked with the Palestinian cause as Yasir Arafat, and her astute political performance is the reason she has become the Israelis' public relations nightmare. She is a wife, a mother, a Christian, an Arab, and a scholar, and she has pulled off a near impossible PR coup: changing the image of the PLO from terrorism to diplomacy. How did she succeed (where Arafat failed) in bringing the factions within the PLO to the negotiating table for one of the most important peace conferences in fifty years? And why have the leaders of one of the most sexist societies in the world put their fate and the fate of their people in the hands of this Christian woman? A Voice of Reason is the story of how a remarkable woman was able to influence and significantly alter the politics of the Middle East.