From Beirut to Jerusalem

[southerndog]

I've requested this book from the library. Any thoughts on the book and or its author?

Thanks,

Dog

[Chris Alger]

At Nicky's suggestion, I'm reading it "all the way through" for the first time. It's a very interesting account of life in Beruit during the civil war, the 1982 Israeli invasion and the first intifada, all while Freidman was Bureau Chief for the Times. The prose is a bit distracting as Friedman often writes either as if he were still in college or believes everyone else is, a newspaperman's "by gosh" account of what he saw, all amazed at the exotic Middle East. But he can write economically when he wants to, has a good eye and keeps the story moving. The short chronology at the beginning provides the context for how Friedman looks at Middle Eastern: events are often defined by how they affected Israel or the U.S., there is little mention of the Arab arguments and no mention at all of the creation of the Palestinian refugees. There's a lot of the usual liberal nonsense characterizing the Isreali right as abberant from the sensible peace-driven policies fo liberal heros like Rabin. As with a lot of journalists, however, Lebanon and the intifada opened Friedman's eyes to how brutal Israel was capable of acting, at least under Begin and Shamir. I'd recommend it but wouldn't rely on Friedman alone for a decent account of these events. (His regular journalism is inifinitely better than the political analysis in his columns, which basically are dumbed-down compendiums of the conventional wisdom with the occasional bizarre twist).