This book consists of an unprecedented factual and analytic survey of the first eight rounds of the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations that took place in Washington D.C. following the Madrid peace conference of October 1991. The study appraises the results of these negotiations in light of Palestinian national goals. The author locates the negotiations in the political climate that governed decision-making by both sides, especially the Palestinian side. All eight rounds are presented in chronological order, and the documents exchanged are analyzed in detail, as are the main events and landmarks. Also discussed is the development in the positions of the negotiating parties over the course of the process, which ended in January 1993. The book contains the complete texts of all documents exchanged by the two sides. The author is a professor of international relations at the University of Paris, and was one of the advisors to the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks. He is also a member of the Research Committee of the Institute for Palestine Studies. This study is a basic resource for understanding the negotiating strategies and tactics of the two delegations during the critical pre-Oslo phase of the peace process.