From Beirut to Jerusalem: (With a New Preface)

The book came at the best price and was delivered on time. The book was for my dad and he loved it that he completed it in a week.

loved the book but the edition was simply bad..feels cheap and pirated

Received the book in very good condition with a nice little reader's advisory on a post-it slip. I appreciate the pre-view.

A must read for all those who wish to know more about the Israel Palestine conflict. An extremely systematic account

must read

This highly readable books is divided into two parts a)beirut and b)Jerusaleum. Starting with beirut you get to know an indepth history and source of problems leading to the "paris of the middle east" being converted into a battleground. the narrative is unbiased and interesting. It does not read like dry impersonal text book and the reader tends to experience the place first hand through the eyes of friedman. How lucidly Friedman explains the inner conflict of ideologies in israel and the type of jews is simply worth it. I have read this book at the least two times. And may start again after writing this review. A very interesting book if you are even mildly interested in the history and present of the middle east. You sure wont be dissapointed.!!

"Imagine you woken up everyday by the distant gunshots and loud exploding bombs amidst these, screeching F-16's flyby your roof, picking a taxi and rolling on your normal route, then suddenly from nowhere appears the white Toyota Suv and a bunch of guys in black masks holding AK47 flee open the door and rush to you drag you out and your driver sits silent gazing ahead and the crowd just a spectator, in a minute you are hand cuffed, blind folded and kidnapped, driven across 50-60 miles away you could sense the death coming your way after an hour you are dragged out and brought on your knees, when blind fold goes down you would see Ak47 muzzle at your point-block, turn around its a dead place, dry and sunken desert its a no man's land, then few heated arguments and then clack clack...clack, " this is Lebanon and this is the fate of those who are living in there. The author aims in reporting such dreaded acts, bred by the unrest insurgency and never ending civil war, Read it to experience the Unstable Middle East.

Thank you

Erudite and well written. It is an impartial and insightful look into the complicated dynamics of Israel and its neighbours.

Tanto aconteceu desde que o livro foi escrito... E nada mudou. A triste história da destruição do Líbano pela Guerra Civil, por uma testemunha ocular. Infelizmente, muito do que o autor descreve sobre Israel precisa ser reavaliado diante do que aconteceu nos últimos 20 anos. Mesmo assim, boa leitura

As a college student studying International Affairs, I managed to avoid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for 4 years. I never felt like I had a fight in it, and felt the field had "too many cooks in the kitchen." I focused mostly on other regions and topics, generally aware of big picture issues with Israel, settlements, and the plight of Palestinians. I came across this book in searching for books on Syrian history for my job and decided to give it a shot, at least for the portions covering Lebanese history. I have never been a fan of Mr. Friedman's work before, but this book really is a masterpiece, and one that should be read by anyone looking to study history, the Middle East, or international affairs. This book has almost too many good qualities to list. It is excellently nuanced and balanced, detailed enough for the expert, but explained and fast paced enough for the novice of the region. Do not be fooled by the length of the book, it is a genuine page turner, with only a few slow points, and by the end you are wishing someone would take the initiative and cover the years in depth since its printing in 1988. I was initially afraid at a book so old, afraid I would be missing newly found information unavailable at the time of writing, but unfortunately the region, particularly Lebanon and Syria, isn't covered much even by scholars. Mr. Friedman is passionate about the topic, to be sure, but as he notes, true friends are honest with each other. Having lived in Beirut for a number of years, and then moving to Jerusalem, he has friends on both sides of the situation, but isn't afraid to discuss issues for a real and lasting peace. The biggest issue, for both sides, seemed to be a misunderstanding of the other group. While some Palestinians viewed the Israelis as a minor blip in time on the land, who would eventually surrender the land and leave forever, the Israelis viewed the Palestinians under the umbrella of "Arabs" who would be at home anywhere, refusing to distinguish between an Arab in Egypt and an Arab in Iraq. Leadership, or lack of it, fed into those beliefs. Both sides lacked bold leadership, as neither led from the front, but rather led from the polls. Instead of making bold initiatives toward peace, both felt that time was on their side, when it obviously only made the divisions deeper. In the rare case where leaders did make bold moves (Sadat), they were taken out by their own group, making it even more difficult to lead from the front. While the time in Beirut was the most interesting to me, his chapter on religion in Israel is really eye opening. We Americans tend to see other countries in generally black and white (West Germany good, East Germany bad) and forget that not all Israeli Jews are the same. The way Friedman goes into this topic is supremely interesting and profound, and something American Jews should certainly look at and discuss. It is something of a miracle that this book was written, on a region that is so often overlooked. With such an important topic, I'll take away everything bad I ever said about Mr. Friedman. My only regret on this book is that I did not read it earlier. This book is great for someone with very little information on the region or the expert on the region. Read it as soon as you can.

There is no finer book ever written about the Middle East and all its problems than this one. I would go so far as to say I wish every politician on both sides of the Atlantic had read it from cover to cover before intervening in any of the countries but having done so would have understood that it could never have been anything else but a long haul with a heavy dosage of realism if we were ever going to make things better rather than worse. Illuminating at all levels not least the thousands of years culture of an 'eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth' of the Desert peoples as illustrated in Chapter Four's Hama Rules and the Bedouin story of the Old Man's Turkey. It is a truly 'must' read for us all if we are ever going to understand the culture of the Desert.