Middle East Books

Given the often lightweight nature of 'guidebooks', Carolone Williams' guide is a real breath of fresh air. It is not an academic tome but instead is written in a way that informs and instructs newcomers about Cairo's wonderful heritage of Islamic Architecture. The maps are useful, though occasionally confusing, and the index takes a while to get to grips with but overall it is a thoroughly useful addition to the world of guide books. I look forward to future additions - perhaps including some of Nicholas Warner's superb maps and isometric drawings.

Caroline Williams has set the standard for all future books dealing with Cairo's Islamic heritage. Each chapter covers a specific area in medieval Cairo and starts with a list of the structures to be discussed. The buildings are ranked according to quality - a feature that tourists with limited time will find invaluable. The book reads easily and in addition to describing the architectural features of the mosques, palaces and madrasas goes on to give a brief history of each monument's builder. Detailed and accurate maps are given at the end of the book. An introductory chapter describing the features of Islamic architecture in general is included. However, if you're looking for a book of photographs this is not it.

For those of us still struggling to understand who Dr. Shariatie was and the role he has played in shaping the lives of many of us, this book is a must. Rahnema's depiction of the other Ali's life is a well documented, smart, and poetically presented masterpiece. Definitely put this book on your reading list.

Ali Shariati is the quintessential example of why institutions and governments fear intellectuals. Ali Rahnema's biography is probably a textbook example of how to write biography.

Dr Rahnema has given us an example of objective writing. He offers insights into the complex life, actions and writings of Shariati while never burdening us with judgement or synthesizing the matter for us. He lays the story out and let's us draw our own judgements. Rahnema gives us facts from the sources and doesn't draw conclusions or lead us to a thesis. He let's us draw our own.

The story is divided into three parts - the young Shariati at odds with his intelligence finding a haven in poetry. He then takes up the struggle between classical poetry and modern poetry. Rahnema uses this to prepare us for the last third of the book where Shariati carves out a modernist theology of Shia Islam in the face of the classical and institutionalized system. In the middle we learn of his education and exposure to the post war critical thinkers in Paris. Rahnema takes us through Shariati's complex synthesis of Economic theory, political theory, liberation theology, Sunni and Shia thought and how Shariati wove these sometimes with his own fictive additions to arrive at a living Shia ism which was definitely at odds with the traditional interpretations. Shariati found himself trying to change Shia thoughts and beliefs into a dynamic revolutionary system -- not anti western, but true to Iranian culture and history and the problems of Iran, not regurgitated problems of the West. His was definitely an Iranian centric view of the world, but taking from and using Eastern and Western thought where it was appropriate.

To Rahnema's credit he never bothers us with his judgement or critique of Shariati's work. He presents a man whose thoughts are complex and who often revised his own thinking. He presented the facts as he could of Shariati's concessions to SAVAK and his role as one of the flames of the Revolution. But through all this we see a man who was often frustrating to his supporters and critics and yet true to himself, even as his ideas may have evolved.

This isn't a quick read but it will definitely enlighten you and fuel your desire to go further with Shariati and inner complexities of Iran, the Shia themselves, Sufism and ideological transition and revolt.

Bravo *****

Is terrorism a possible threat to society? Of course. Right now, we're seeing some carefully organized terrorism from Muslim fanatics. Raphael Israeli explains the nature of it and has some recommendations.

I find this topic interesting, given that I feel that there is plenty at stake. The United States and Europe are Western democracies that are relatively free and rich. We have plenty of strength as well as plenty we can lose. The Arabs have a huge amount of land and resources, so they have plenty to lose as well. By the way, Israel is small and has rather little land or resources, so it has less at stake, but it is threatened as well.

The author chooses the term "Islamikaze" rather than "suicide bomber." He explains that suicidal people plan to take their own lives and carry out their own plans to do that. On the contrary, Islamikazes follow the plans of others to kill a perceived enemy. In any case, I see their actions as manifestly counterproductive and therefore I think they merit serious study.

Israeli starts by sampling Muslim reactions to the horrors of 9/11/2001. These reactions are clearly a cause for concern. The author is suspicious of the long-term loyalty of Muslim immigrants to Western nations. While I am not quite so concerned about loyalty of Muslims in general, I do think we need to separate the sheep from the goats here. I take sedition seriously. And the author does demonstrate that there is a serious cultural intent on the part of many Muslims not to cooperate with the West but to wreck it.

Reading this book, I could see from the wild misrepresentations of the West and of Zionism that the Enemy of Islamist fantasies is very different than real-life Westerners and Zionists. That is not a good sign. Now, what about our views of the terrorists? Do they really seek to impose an arbitrary tyranny on everyone? Israeli shows that for the most part, that's exactly their plan.

Israeli shows that just as the Germans used extravagant libels, incitement, and aggression against the Jews to start their attacks on their neighbors, Muslim fanatics are using libels, incitement, and aggression against Jews to start similar attacks on the West. I can see that support for such libels and incitement have become a litmus test of sorts for some terrorist sympathizers. But Israeli turns that litmus test around, quite properly in my opinion. He shows that once we refuse to support the antizionist libels and taunts, we've taken a decisive step towards opposing the Islamikazes.

Well, what is to be done about the Islamikaze attacks on the West? The author recommends truth and reciprocity. His specific recommendations include:

* Forming an alliance of Western and Democratic States (AWADS)
* Having AWADS adopt an iron-clad definition of terror
* Importing books and culture to the West from Muslim nations only to the extent that these nations allow free flow of similar Western assets into their lands
* Forbidding by law the dissemination of hate and acting upon that law
* Accepting support from Saudi Arabia in building mosques in the West only if there is parallel permission from Saudi Arabia to build churches and synagogues in Saudi Arabia without incitement or hatred there
* Stopping transfer of military supplies from AWADS nations to non-AWADS nations
* Basing economic aid to non-AWADS states on human rights in those states
* Controlling immigration of anti-Western immigrants to non-AWADS states

Do these ideas sound politically incorrect or extreme? Well, so does a big war! I think these are ideas we need to consider now, when we have a chance to reflect on them somewhat dispassionately.

In FrontPageMag, Andrew Bostom's review of this book explains the weird title:
"At the end of June 1996, an article which had originally appeared in the London Arabic publication Al-Watan al-Arabi, was translated into English and cited by Ha'aretz, describing a slogan proudly displayed at the main entrance to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, which became known as the 'Kamikaze Barracks'. The proclamation was: 'Jihad-Istishhad-Paradise-Islamic Kamikaze-Human Bombs', meaning, 'The Holy War of Islam-Death in Martyrdom-The Promised Hereafter-By Means of Muslim Kamikaze-who are Human Bombs'. This banner captures the essential elements embodied by Raphael Israeli's designation, 'Islamikaze'. . . .

To understand why it's important to read this book you just have to know what jihad is. Here is the definition by Robert Spencer, author of Onward Muslim Soldiers:
Jihad is a central duty of every Muslim. Modern Muslim theologians have spoken of many things as jihads: defending the faith from critics, supporting its growth and defense financially, even migrating to non-Muslim lands for the purpose of spreading Islam. But violent jihad is a constant of Islamic history. Many passages of the Qur'an and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad are used by radical Muslims today to justify their actions and gain new recruits. No major Muslim group has ever repudiated the doctrines of armed jihad. The theology of jihad, which denies unbelievers equality of human rights and dignity, is available today for anyone with the will and means to bring it to life.
Bostom goes on to say:
"Islamikaze is an uncompromising, and meticulously documented work. The author first traces the development and largely unchallenged proliferation of Islamikaze to two unique Islamic institutions - jihad war, and its corollary institution dhimmitude. He summarizes elegantly the salient features of Bat Ye'or's conception of dhimmitude as, ' ...not only a subservient status...in political, social, economic, and judicial terms, conferred on Jews and Christians...from which they could not disengage unless they converted to Islam, but it also became a state of mind..which dictated caution, surreptitious maneuvering in order to survive and a self-humiliating sycophancy towards the Muslim ruler in the hope of gaining his favor...[amounting] in the final analysis, after many centuries of oppression and contempt by the rule of Islam, to self-diminution of the dhimmis...self-flagellation...and a total distortion of their self-image and the image of their oppressors. So much so that many Christians and Jews, years after being liberated from dhimmitude continued to think and act as dhimmis, namely to hold themselves grateful to their Muslim masters who beat, humiliated and mistreated them. What is more , the spirit of dhimmitude has been adopted, or taken over, by many Western societies today which for reasons hard to understand or explain, pretend not to hear or comprehend Muslim threats, smile and evince `understanding' in the face of those threats, and seem to be marching foolishly towards spiritual and cultural capitulation and enslavement.'"

"Israeli also maintains that a widespread societal dhimmitude renders the West susceptible to wanton acts of terror by Muslim perpetrators, sanctioned by jihad - an institution Islamic societies have never abrogated. And, he notes, it '...remains only a question of practicability whether [jihad] is enforced or postponed to better days.'

"The specific ideology and basic goals of Islamikaze can be gleaned from various Islamist writings presented by the author, including those of the prominent Muslim Brotherhood cleric (and Al-Jazeera 'television personality') Yusuf Qaradawi, and Umar al-Bakri, leader of the Islamic Movement in Britain. In various fatwas, Qaradawi sanctions 'martyrdom operations', murderous Islamikaze attacks, particularly against Israelis, all of whom are considered legitimate targets. Despite the Qur'anic prohibition against 'suicide', Qaradawi argues cogently, that Islamikaze attacks, as acts of 'martyrdom', are sanctioned, and in fact, sacred. . . . "

We need to be aware of where these fundamentalist radicals are coming from and what their intentions are because they seek to affect all our lives in some very deep ways. The Muslim invasions of Europe which were only halted at Vienna in 1643 were a jihad and this "War on Terror" is really a defense against jihad.

Israeli also gives some specific recommendations as to how western civilization should go about defending itself without riding roughshod over other civilizations.

This is an unprecedented work of scholarly insight, a must have for anyone interested in Isma'ilism although you never really read this sort of work from cover to cover, it's useful to dip in, on every issue.

The history covers the development of Shiism...right through to Ismailism to the modern day...that's 1400yrs of development and history not too mention all the branchs and movemnets that split off and their current status.

I can't praise this book enough. One issue though is regarding the modern Bohra's (Mustalian Tayyibi's), I would recommend Jonah Blanks "Mullahs on the Mainframe" to understand them in the modern period; as Daftary used too much information from the Bohra reformers in regards to that branch of the Isma'ilis...however an excellent work all round. if you haven't dipped in here you are missing out.

The most detailed book on Isma'ilis - the best unbiased, factual and complete book on Isma'ilis out there.

This books provides an excellent and balanced portrait of Israel, but because it was published in 2000, its description of the peace process is somewhat out of date. Since the political issues take a back seat to culture and history in this book, this is still a very worthwhile purchase.

This book gives the reader an excellent picture of Israel today including previous wars (except over the past year). It is written relatively simply so intermediate children can understand. Also included are a few important people with a paragraph or two about them. Excellent photos enhance the book. It is a great book to have in home, school and synagogue libraries. I plan to use it in the coming year teaching 4th-6th graders a unit on Israel in Hebrew school.

I believe nobody can deny the high quality of this book. It is not only about the history of Israel-Arab struggle but also about the history of European diplomacy toward Israel and Arab nations. Professor Sachar classified European political leaders (Adenauer, Erhard, Brandt, Schmidt, Kohl, de Gaulle, Pompidou, Giscard d'Estaing, Mitterand, Chirac, Kreisky, Eden, Wilson et el) into pro-Israel and pro-Arab, and showed how some of them (for example Willy Brandt) had to shift their stances according to situations. But this book also contains some factual errors most of which are trivial. I'd like to point out one thing which seemed to me more than trivial. In page 226 and 227, the author said,"In 1967 a cabal of army colonels seized power (in Cyprus), and held it for the next 7 years in an effort to press through enosis, a union of Cyprus with the Greek mainland. Yet all the colonels achieved for their effort was international isolation and a Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974." But according to 'Oxford Dictionary of Twentieth-Century World History,' (see page 154-155, 384) the coup occurred in 1974 instead of 1967. Despite this error, this book is too good for only 4 stars.

Howard Sachar has done it again! Like his previous works, he has weaved another great tale. The book goes into detail about Israel's diplomatic efforts vis-a-vis the Europeans. The book deals with such as issues as German Reparations to Israel, European aid or lack of aid in Israel's quest for survival, the furtive German arms sales to Israel of the sixties, as well as relations with the various other European powers. Granted, much of the book is a "cut and paste" from his other books, but still a great effort. Finally, the book shows the "relevance" of German-Israeli relations. During the Gulf War, Hans Dietrich Genscher gave the Israeli's aid in the form of three submarines. One of them, the Dolphin, was just launched. These vessels are armed with nuclear missles. Given that the EU is moving towards forming a separate military command from NATO, and that the EU may become a new superpower, this book's importance should not be underestimated in understanding the future of European-Israeli relations. Undoubtedly, it will be the defining work for years to come on the subject; a masterpiece!

For anyone who is interested in the field largely known as 'holocaust studies', as well as in the middle-eastern conflict, this is a must read. Zertal explores aspects of Israeli nationalism and national identity, tracing it to events in the past (Tel Hai, the death of Y. Trumpledor etc) but also, more centrally to the book's theme, tracing it to more recent historical events such as the second world war and the holocaust.

Her main argument has to do with the close, entangled relation between considerations of the holocaust and the state of Israel. She shows, with a lot of interesting and thought provoking documentation, how this relation manifests itself. The holocaust, she believes, not only informs but actively shapes israeli national identity, and is negotiated constantly within Israeli society, often in the justification of military actions.

A large part of her book has to do with Hannah Arendt's work and the way it has been received (especially in the past, around the time of Eichmann's trial) in Israel. According to Zertal, Arendt has been greatly misunderstood in Israeli society, and her work has been unfairly treated, possibly because it does not 'fit' into the religiously-inspired schema of absolute evil vs. absolute good that is an important construction, serving as a framework to understand the holocaust (and, Zertal argues, Israeli society itself sometimes). Arendt's work moves away from a monodimensional, religious understanding of the Jewish people as eternally doomed to be victims, and this is not, it seems, an easily acceptable argument for parts of Israeli society.

For me, the most interesting part of Zertal's book had to do with the way she thinks about the identity of the victim that seems to be a constant shadow within Israeli nationhood, and the implications of such an identity for Israeli life. Her book, all in all, is an excellent and provocative read, and very imporant in light of recent events.

This is a fantastic book -- it actually starts before the Holocaust with the battle of Tel-Hai and the death of Yosef Trumpledor and touches also on the ghetto fighters, the Exodus affair, the Kastner trial, the Eichmann trial, the 1967 war, and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin -- focused on exploring the treatment of the Holocaust and related issues by the Israeli political elite (especially Ben-Gurion) in their quest to craft an "Israeli national identity." As mentioned, the book touches on a number of different incidents and issues, but the keystone is the Eichmann trial and Hannah Arendt's book "Eichmann in Jerusalem" and the controversy that accompanied it. It is quite clear that Zertal is an admirer of Arendt, and has published on Arendt and her work before. It is well footnoted and very accessable (that is, you don't have to be an academic to really get a lot out of this book).

Here is it July 2006, and Israel is bombing Lebanon "back to the Stone Age" and "respectable" academics are writing anti-Semitic tomes...what a good time to read this small but important and well-documented pamphlet!
In these two serious articles re-printed from other periodicals, Reissner and Frankel take up the critical questions of the very existence of the state of Israel and why it is a deathtrap for Jews.
Reissner, in particular, gives an excellent history of the creation and purpose of Israel as a bastion of European, and later, U.S. imperialism against the Arab states. Frankel's article emphasizes the role of the PLO and the Palestinian resistance in the 1980s. Both articles are extremely helpful in understanding where and why things are the way they are today. If you can't get this pamphlet from Amazon, try books from Pathfinder at the "new and used" button above.

While every minor injury to an Israeli is magnified and exaggerated all over the world, the relentless war that the Israeli colonialists have wages for nearly one-hundred years against the Palestinian people is rarely documented by the dominant media. This pamphlet documents the attacks and harassment, the gestapo-style tactics, that the Israelis used to attempt to crush the uprising of Palestinian youth in the 1980s. That failed, as will any attempt to stop the struggle of the Palestinians until a democratic state with equal rights for Palestinians and Israeli jews replaces the Israeli settler colony.

While this book may not be able on Amazon at times, it is always available from booksfrompathfinder, a vendor you can reach by clicking on new and used higher up this page.

I have just finished reading Jeff Halper's An Israeli in Palestine and found it almost impossible to put down.
Halper has laid out the history of the establishment of the Zionist state in an easy to read manner although what he has written is not easy to digest.
As an American Jew who once staunchly supported Israel, I am horrified at how that state came into being with the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians who had been on the land for many generations. Halper quotes early and later Zionist leaders who acknowledge that with a large Arab population there could not be a Jewish state. He shows how the dispossession of the Palestinians was accomplished. this included the destruction of at least 500 Palestinian villages and taking the lands of the Arabs who remained, many of whom now live in what Israel calls unrecognized villages which lack electricity, roads and water supplies.
Halper has coined a more apt word for Israel than "democracy." Israel, he says, is an ethnocracy run for the benefit of the 70% Jewish population. In Israel today Arabs are barred from living on 93% of the land and, while they pay the same taxes, they do not get the same services. I wonder how America's Jews would feel if, in this so-called "Christian" nation we were barred from living on 93% of the land. I imagine that we would fight like hell against such blatant discrimination.
But it is in the Occupied Territories that Israel has committed the greatest sins. Since 1967 Israel has demolished at least 18,000 Palestinian homes. Palestinians cannot build new homes without permits but the irony is that the permits are rarely, if ever, granted to Palestinians who must pay large fees for the "privilege" of applying. When the permits are turned down the Palestinians, who are in dire need of housing, will build without the permit. Sooner or later it is likely that the bulldozers will arrive to destroy the house and everything in it. Jewish built homes built without permit are never bulldozed.
It is interesting to note that the Palestinian who last week overturned a bus in Jerusalem with a bulldozer was the victim of an Israeli bulldozer that demolished his home a few years ago.
Halper points out that Israel has for years avoided any chance of making peace with the Palestinians if that peace meant giving up the land and water resources it had already stolen. In the paperback version of the book he devotes six pages to listing all the opportunities for peace at which Israel thumbed its nose.
Halper makes it abundantly clear that what Israel wants is as much land and resources as possible with as few Palestinians as possible on that land. That is not a formula for peace.
This is a book that I wish would be read by every American whose tax dollars go to support the apartheid Israeli system. I wish that it would be read by every member of Congress who, if they were not too cowed by AIPAC, might just get up and say "Not one penny more."

If there was one book I would like to put in every library in America - it would be this book! I would have to say that this books is the most complete book I have ever read in explaining clearly what is wrong with the occupation and how absolutely awful it really is. Both anecdotally and with facts and figures, the book lays out in very clear and concise terms what is wrong with the whole Oslo process and post Oslo negotiations and what is wrong with the kind of two-state solution Israel and the U.S. are trying to foist off on the Palestinians.

To those who are not familiar with Jeff Halper's work; Professor Halper is Professor of Anthropology at Tel Aviv University and he is founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition.

Please allow me to quote from the first paragraph of the first chapter of this excellent book:

Quote:

"I first became aware of being an "Israeli in Palestine" on July 9, 1998, the day my friend Salim Shawamrch calls "that black day in my life and the life of my family." On that day the bulldozers of Israel's Civil Administration, its military government in the West Bank, demolished his home for the first time. It was an act so, unjust, so at odds with the ethos of the benign, democratic, Jewish Israel fighting for its survival I had absorbed on "my side" of the Green Line that it was inexplicable in any terms I could fathom. It had nothing to do with terrorism or security. It was not an act of defense or even keeping Palestinians away from Israeli settlements or roads. It was purely unjust and brutal. As the bulldozer pushed through the walls of Salim's home, it pushed me through all the ideological rationalizations, the pretexts, the lies and the bullshit that my country had erected to prevent us from seeing the truth: that oppression must accompany an attempt to deny the existence and claims of another people in order to establish an ethnically pure state for yourself."


Many people are under the absolutely false impression that most house demolitions are demolitions of the homes of suspected terrorist. Actually 95% of home demolitions are done ostensibly on the ground that the homes were built or extended without building permits. And the occupations authorities and even the civil authorities inside Israel rarely grant building permits to Palestinians either in the Occupied Territories or even within Israel itself, no matter how drastic the housing shortage is. Most Palestinians on both sides of the green line who have the means and the desire to build a house, spend thousand of dollars in fees and fines and wait years and years only to have their permits denied again, again and again.

Professor Halper's opinions are much more nuanced than some would presume. Dr. Halper actually supports the the two-solution and does not particularly favor the single state or binational state solution although he is favorable to their democratic principles. Dr. Halper does not describe himself as either a Zionist or an anti-Zionist. In fact he is quite favorable to the whole concept of cultural Zionism - the Hebrew cultural revival and renaissance; but not political Zionism which he views as an idea rooted in outmoded 19th Century Eastern European "ethnocratic" nationalism. His main point is that for there to be long term peace in the region, Israel must move beyond an ethnocratic, "state for the Jews' and become a real multi-ethnic, multi-religious modern democracy that is a state for all of its citizens.

Another point Dr. Halper emphasizes is that Israel must completely move away from the whole confrontational, " Iron Wall" approach to the Arab and Muslim world and seek full integration into the region. His long term picture is a situation in which Israel eventually becomes part of an EU type configuration with their neighbors. His actual view is a two-state solution that hopefully can evolve into a binational state in an economic and political community with their neighbors. This would be among other things a way to help resolve the refugee problem. The right of return would be far more acceptable to Israelis if Palestinians who chose to live in Israel would either be citizens of a Palestinian state or of neighboring countries. The issue of settlers would be completely different if those Israelis who chose to live within a Palestinian state would remain Israeli citizens but living as equals in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Gaza - which would be far more acceptable to Palestinians if the settlers were living as equals and they - the Palestinians also had the right to live in Israel. And of course the whole issue of Jerusalem would be put on an entirely different level.

A few decades ago Australia moved away from the concept of being a western outpost in Asia - to recognizing that their own viability and long term survival required Australia to seek integrating into East Asia and become a vital part of the East Asian family of nations. It's hard to imagine today, but only in the 60's Australia had a "white Australia" policy which essentially only welcomed White-Christians as citizens. NO amount of military power and prowess can out muscle geography and demographics forever. Dr. Halper challenges everyone to move from the "Iron Wall" - either we win and they lose or they lose and we win paradigm to a win/win paradigm.

As Professor Halper points out, integration into the region is for the Israelis not simply a matter of idealism or multiculuralism. It is a matter of viability and even survival. And as Professor Halper points out in his book, the one real power the Palestinians have is that they - the Palestinians are the gatekeepers of Israel's acceptance and integration into the Middle East.

Professor Halper's main point in discussing the two-state solution which he does support - is that the type of two-state solution currently being cooked up for the Palestinians is an nonviable apartheid arrangement that will not bring independence, peace, justice or security or acceptance into the region. It must be vigorously opposed.

Professor Halper has goes into great detail in his book and he has written elsewhere about how the whole system of how settlements, bypass roads, walls, tunnels, borders controls and infrastructure completely dissect the entire West Bank and Occupied Territories into a system of economically and politically nonviable cantons which make political and economic independence absolutely impossible and creates a Matrix of Control over virtually every aspect of their lives.

You can also read more about how this Matrix of Control operates in the real world at this website:

[...]

The book goes into far more details of the on-the ground realities


I cannot recommend this book enough. Some have asked, "what can be done to really help the Palestinians and improve their situation while recognizing that only a full end to the occupation is the real answer?" This is a hard question to answer considering that it does not look likely that a full end to the occupation is coming any time soon. In 1996 Professor Halper took this question to numerous Palestinians. What can we do to help that can both thwart the occupation and contribute to its demise while at the same time doing something productive that helps Palestinians in their day to day lives? That is when he joined with others in founding The Israeli Committee Against House Demolition.

For a Youtube interview with Jeff Halper - bottom of the page:

[...]

Website for the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition:
[...]

The author provides the reader with an extremely informative and insightful explanation of why we have been unable to achieve peace in the middle east. The book's discussion of both blatant and subtle propoganda is clearly referenced with bibliographies. The years of research and the effort which went into writing this book is readily apparent. The author's style and analytical abilities are indeed commendable.

The book is hard-hitting but readable. The author makes the case that when we assume that those from the Middle East see things as we do, we make a grievous error. Although apparently written before 9/11, he predicts these awful events precisely because we fail to understand the "honor shame" codes of our adversaries. There is a particularly well written chapter (a post-script) about the 9/11 tragedy.

The book is wrenching, in one sense, because when we no longer assume that we have rational negotiating partners in the Middle East, then at least initially, we can expect much continued violence--at least until the various and sundry dictators are removed from office and genuine democratic reform occur in the Arab and Middle Eastern worlds.