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 participated in the July 2000 Camp David peace summit with President Clinton, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. 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. Never before had Israelis and Palestinians been so close to reaching a peace accord. After leaving
politics, Ben-Ami founded the Toledo Peace Centre in Spain. He is also the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace (Oxford).