Shlomo Ben-ami is an Oxford-trained historian with a long academic career who later served as Israel\'s ambassador in Madrid and then as foreign minister in Ehud Barak\'s government.
He is also the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace (Oxford)..
After leaving politics, Ben-ami founded the Toledo Peace Centre in Spain.
Never before had Israelis and Palestinians been so close to reaching a peace accord.
He subsequently led the Israeli negotiating team in all the phases of the peace process down to the last ditch attempt to save the peace at Taba in January 2001.
He participated in the July 2000 Camp David peace Summit with President Clinton, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Shlomo Ben-ami is an Oxford-trained historian with a long academic career who later served as Israel\'s ambassador in Madrid and then as foreign minister in Ehud Barak\'s government