This book was defintely written by a person who has truly lost someone she loves..her grandfather. I come from a country where virtually any news on israel or her inhabitants is censored. So a book that introduces Yizthak Rabin, even as a loving husband, father and grandfather not to mention a great statesman is a book worth reading.

Briefly, the author introduces you to her family generally and to her grandfather specifically giving you details on how the man was like seen through the eyes of his family. It touches on the peace process, the conflict in the middle-east and even the military life that young israelis go through.

All in all, I would recommend it for an easy read although I must warn all readers that this book might inspire you to find our more about Mr. Yitzhak Rabin and what he stood for.

I enjoyed this book so much that I bought it for our Lutheran church library. What made me read this book in the first place was the moving eulogy Noa gave at her grandfather's funeral. In front of heads of state, the Israeli government representatives and family, Noa spoke not of her grandfather as prime minister, but what he meant to her as a sabba--he and Mrs. Rabin raised Noa, so Rabin was actually like a father to her. The book is divided into several sections--the assassination and its aftermath, Noa's life, and what it is like to be an Israeli teenager today--very like American living except with compulsory military service and the threat of war always hanging over your head. She calls for world peace. This is an excellent book for teens because it gives them a down-to-earth, real-life story of a young woman in the middle of one of the more important families in political history. I applaud her for writing this story of her life, told touchingly and often humorously. A fine young woman.

This is an excellent book on many levels. First and foremost it is a powerful and emotional look at Rabin, not as a world leader, but as a grandfather. That is what made the authors speech at his funeral so moving. Despite praise from leaders around the world, when his grand daughter spoke and spoke of Rabin in very human terms it was a powerhouse of emotions. But the book is more than just a look at a grandfather by his grand daughter. Its a powerful cry for peace between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East. It is a book about the effects of the Palestinian/Muslim Israeli Conflict. Because of the authors age while writing this book, it is a good book for high school kids about the crisis in that part of the world. Prepare to be very moved if you read this book.

Starting from the little that is known of Masada from the writings of Josephus and the archeological excavations which have taken place at the site, Nachman ben-Yehuda traces the development of the "history" of Masada over the course of the twentieth century and the use to which this history has been put in the building of Israeli national identity. Recognizing that little may be certain as to who was actually at Masada (patriots or thugs) and what actually happened there (suicides or murders), he traces the development of the Masada story into a "never again" national saga. Very interesting reading for anyone interested in the development of historical truth, and how loosely it might relate to what really happened. The book is well written, although somewhat repetitive in places, and (for example, in showing how various youth groups in Palestine and later Israel dealt with Masada) sometimes tells us more than we need to know about the subject. Recommended reading

...but also concerning, - Ahessel writes "to what really happened". The problem is nothing confirmable "really" happened. You see the only record of "what happened" are the questionable writings by Josephus. The contemporary Masada legend of a heroic last stand by patriots does n o t correspond to the writings of Josephus. The logic went (somewhat): "if we assume Josephus is inaccurate because of his own interests, our interpretation can be just as good -- ok: an interpretation combining a physical attachement to the land (sojourns to Masada) and needed national visions -- just because it corresponds with such a need, this doesn't make it untrue."

But it also doesn't make it true -- legend.

The book is a factual account of how this happened and a functional anlysis (functionalism -- a sociological paradigm).

Nachmans account of his interviews with the originators of the Masada legend are exceptional.

I read this book in two sittings. Given current events, I was more motivated than I would have been otherwise. As I write this review, I'm conflicted because I was nauseated by the author's obviously convenient morality while enjoying his depictions of his time in Israel. If you just can't be bothered by your responsibilities to society, I can understand how fashionable it would be to present yourself as a secular, conscientious objector. In the final epilogue, Mr. Black attempts to reconcile his behavior vis a vis Israel's social contract.

I would've been more sympathethic if his rationalizations appeared more honest or if he wasn't a well-educated, well-traveled male, who should, by age 27, the speed at which 3 years passes. However, having read the previous chapters, it felt more like he, like the trust-funded, party boy who resists joining the family business, just couldn't be bothered with his part of the bargain. As I finish this paragraph, I wonder if my Jewish college friends would've dismissively labelled him with that nebulous Yiddish insult--nebbish.

Now with that largely feel-good rant complete, in the main, I enjoyed "meeting" the people he described to us (my personal favorite was the lady making that godawful stuff Turks call coffee). Furthermore, I especially enjoyed the section detailing the sport of Israeli politics during elections as well as the sections on life in the kibbutz. Finally, I got fine laughs out of his interactions with the driver's license examiner and the deferment board.

Bottom line: I enjoyed the book and the author writes well, but found his character unimpressive by the end of the book

Black's debut sends the reader into a contradictory world of beauty and war, of passion and of aggression. To read it is to be there, yet yearn to experience the treasures of the middle east and learn the complexities first hand that make it such a fascinating place. Travalogues can be tedious when too informative and yet when too personal can be frustratingly useless to the traveller. Black, however, strikes a balance that both inspires the reader to go, offering useful advice, in a style that is compelling. The journey from the innocence of youth to the dawning realities of adulthood provides a perfect backdrop to the intricacies of middle-east politics and so opens the reader's eyes to the humanity of what one sees on the news. I was sad I finished it so quickly. I might just have to book a flight...

Black's first effort takes us to a time in our very near past when peace in the Middle East was almost reality.
Both a personal and objective account of the mid-late nineties in one of the most written about countries on the planet.
Black does not bog us down with history but takes us on a fresh and contemporary tour of a region so often divided by politics, religion and war. Whilst his own politics are obvious they are not imposed upon the reader and he presents a somewhat balanced view of all arguments in the conflicts.
However it must be noted that this is also a travlogue and Black often takes us off the beaten path to some of the gems and treasures hidden in deserts, moutains, chasms and alleyways. His desriptions of people places and events are so realistic that you can actually taste the hummous.

First off, by looking at the date of my review, it should come as no surprize that I don't consider myself a Jon Land fan (I bought the book on a whim, over a year after its release). The romantic part of the story was rather predictable...Pakad is a '90s career woman, wants a man, meets Ben, . The only disappointment in their relationship was that there were no real friction between the two. Land could have brought the reader on more of a roller coaster ride if these two culturally diverse agents had actually experienced some bad blood before falling in love. The three stars were earned because of the page-turning qualities of the murder(s) and the desire to see what clues would turn up next. Certainly a good read for the murder mystery fan. My only other complaint about the work was that Land did not make use of some of the secondary characters (esp. Brickman) as much as he could have. The good political message coming out of "Walls" however! ! is that Middle East peace is not a black and white issue wherein there are two sides and each of the two sides is at peace with itself.

I bought this book to try out a new author. I was not dissapointed. A Palestenian detective is paired with a female Shin-Bet investigator to solve a series of serial killings. The Palestenian detective was formerly a detective in Detroit.After the murder of his family he returned home. He and the Shin-Bet agent form a good working relationship that eventually leads to a romantic laison. This book does a good job of describing the worlds of both Palestine and Israel. The team have to deal with some dangerous and seedy characters with their investigation. When they finally reach the guilty parties the killers are very shocking to say the least. A plot to destabilize the peace process is under way. This is definitely a well written book. It also impressed me with Jon Land. Read this. You will not be dissapointed.

Jon Land has done it again ! Step aside Mr. Clancy, Mr. Cussler and Mr. Hunter, Jon Land is numero uno when it comes to the action/adventure genre ! The Walls of Jericho is a political thriller that's a "I can't put it down" book (like all of Land's novels). He's created rich, new characters that will hopefully return in a sequel. When is the NY Times going to wake up and review this guy ? They'd be pleasantly surprised ! (Check out web site : www.geocties.com/Athens/Acropolis/7015

After reading this book I didn't know how to react to much of it. Many of the claims are plausible, many are wildly implausible, and some of the information is just plain factually wrong. Sharon left the IDF in 1973, not 1970 as Menashe says. Shamir retired or "was retired from" the Mossad in 1965 not the "early 1970s." Ben-Menashe is the first person who claims that the IAF has B-52s--two squadrons no less--but he doesn't say where Israel hides these massive eight-engine bombers. He also claimed that the murder of an old American Jewish cripple by Abul Abbas' organization on the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro was an Israeli plot to discredit the PLO. Ben-Menashe doesn't really document any of his claims but asks us just to trust him. His first whopper is to claim that Shimon Peres had been paid millions by Lockheed while defense minister. Since all of Israel's American fighters were built by McDonnel Douglas or General Dynamics this seems highly unlikely. Israel does use the Lockheed C-130, but the Lockheed scandal in Europe at the same time was to get the Belgians, Dutch, and Italians to purchase F-104 Starfighter interceptors. This is typical of Ben-Menashe--he seems to take bits of news and spin it into a plot like a Hollywood screenwriter.

An excellent well documented book by a high level Israeli agent. I have to give Sheridan Square Press's publishers Ellen Ray & Bill the Credit for the content as the author did the same. Most of us out of the publishing, or, media business are not skilled writers. Sheridian Square Press out of N.Y., N.Y. did the same service for the deceased Jim Garrison in his book "On the Trails of Assassins" documenting events leading up to the events of the Kennedy asassination that Oliver Stone made a movie of.

This was a fantastic read. If you really want to know about the workings of world intelligence agencies from the inside, how they manipulate other countries, people, events then you must read this book. Better than a James Bond novel!
As you read further and further into the book you become more and more entangled in the world of espionage and paranoia. Gripping to the end.

There are far too many works of Arabic literature which have not yet been translated into English. Thus it is wonderful to see another epic become available to those of us who cannot read Arab (or Turkish... or Persian...). Lena Jayussi has done a splendid job with the translation, crafting an enjoyable read. Sayf Ben Dhi Yazan's adventures will delight all who enjoy folktales or medieval epic tales (although one does wonder why medieval heroes were so uniformly stupid!).

This book is an indispensible tool for the birder in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, or Myanmar (Burma). Compact, complete, and accurate, King and Woodcock have done a fine job of presenting over a thousand species in a manageable size.

Dickinson's illustrations are good paintings, with the field marks clearly visible, and similar birds grouped for easy comparisons. It seems to me, though, that the heads are too big, especially on the smaller birds. Once the viewer gets used to this, however, the illustrations are very usable.

Unlike the latest American guides, the pictures do not appear opposite the text, but instead are on plates distributed through the book. Unfortunately, the text description for each bird lists only the plate number, not the page; I went through the book and added the facing page number of each plate to the text, a job which should have been done before the book hit the shelves.

The book does not use range maps, but rather breaks the Southeast Asia area into regions: 3 for Vietnam, 3 for Laos, 6 and a subregion for Thailand, and 6 plus several subregions for Myanmar. (Cambodia is a unit.) Since the areas follow natural boundaries more than political ones, the range descriptions are quite accurate as far as I can tell. (I have birded fairly extensively in Thailand.)

The book is not perfect by any means, as is to be expected in an area with as little professional naturalist exploration as Southeast Asia. In addition, sacrifices must be made to get all the birds of the area into a book which can be carried in the field. Any competent birder will discover facts not mentioned by King and Woodcock, and possibly see things that aren't supposed to be where they are. I saw birds which were clearly a given species, but lacked a field mark mentioned in the book; these may have been regional variations which space prevented the authors from discussing. But the authors have accomplished a Herculean task: to present a dizzying array of birds in a clear concise format which allows a stranger to the area to identify most of what he or she sees.

Say what you will about David Ben-Gurion - no one can deny his contribution to the establishment of the state of Israel. He managed, by virtue of his pragmatic politics, his keen eye for important developments (such as the importance of America, the early realization that the Arab States would invade a Jewish state etc), and his forcefull leadership, to do what many though impossible - establish a Jewish state, and defend it by force of arms.

Joseph Heller has writen a thorough book of the diplomatic history of the Yishuv, with Ben-Gurion at its head, from the end of WWII until the end of the War of Independence. Both its foreign relationships (with the US and USSR, for example), and the internal struggles within the Zionist camp are given extensive treatment.

I was impressed by Ben-Gurion's pragmatism and his ability to bind many disparate groups together, as well as his keen eye. Ben-Gurion comes off in this book not as the conspiratorial knave of the New Historians, but a pragmatic national leader, no worse than others, trying under difficult circumstances to look out for the Yishuv's interests.

Indeed, this book manages to properly explain the alleged "collusion" claim between the Yishuv and Abdallah I. Efraim Karsh has already managed to destroy Shlaim's claim that the Abdallah-Meir meeting reached an agreement to divide the country, and this is an extra nail in that coffin.

In order to demonstrate that Ben-Gurion had the right idea and tht his critics were wrong, Heller gives each of them a whole chapter on their appoach to the conflict during that period.

First to go is Ihud, that group of intellectuals who objected to the partition plan and supported a bi-national scheme instead. This group, although they had good intentions, were hopelessly out of touch with reality. The Yishuv saw them as traitors, and the only Arab leader willing to agree to binational regime, albeit probably not with equal numbers, had little power and was quickly assasinated.

Heller deals also with those to the right and left of Ben-Gurion. While his treatment is generally fair, I felt that he hel some deep animosity towards the right wing (the revisionists, the Etzel).

His treatment of Deir Yassin is way off base - Begin not only knew of the operation, he specifically ordered that civilians not be harmed. Furthermore, Begin never admitted that a massacre took place there, let alone brag about its effectiveness (See Deir Yassin: History of A Lie published by ZOA). His portrayal of Lord Moyne is also inaccurate.

Heller's treatment of the left-wing is more fair-minded. In sum, one should read this critique of the right wing against something more symathetic.

That's the good news. The bad news is that Heller's book is very weak and even self-contradictory when it comes to the war itself, and the Palestinian Refugee problem in particular. He seems to be sayins - "Benny Morris is right, but one must put things into context". There is no mention of Shabtai Teveth's or Efraim Karsh's rebuttal's to aspects of Morris's work.

Worse, while Heller at one point says that Morris was right not to give undue importance to Plan D as a factor in the war, at another point he claims that Plan D can be seen within the context of "ethnic cleansing". Which is the right answer?

The absurdity of this comes to the point where Heller treats with scepticism the claim by various Zionists that the Arabs were running away due to fright (which was at least partially true), and gives undue importance to the few expulsions that took place on the eve of the invasion-as if it were the main cause (see "Why did the Palestinians Run Away in 1948" by Yoav Gelber, at mideasttruth.com, for a good overview of what happened).

There are other problems with the book - the treatment of the strength of opposing forces (Arab & Israeli) is scattered, the treatment of the Holocaust bothin general and as a background to the "Revolt" of Menahem Begin and other events is played down, and Heller fails to sufficiently stress the total and uncompromising refusal of the Palestinians to agree to a Jewish state of any shape or size. It also would have been nice if Heller had given a more thorough treatment to his argument with the "New Historians", instead of just a short appendix.

All this aside, Heller's book is an important and informative work of history, and it demonstrates the greatness and foresight of one of the Jewish people's great leaders - David Ben-Gurion.

The birth of the State of Israel, 1945-1949 by Ben Gurion and his critics, presents a look into the first four year history of Isreal. For those who are fimilar with the Torah, better known as the "Old Testement" can see the importance of the Jewish state. The Torah states that G-d had set aside the land for the Israelites.

Many Traditional Jews believe that the established Jewish state was mandated by G-d afther the Holocaust. During the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler, Chancaller of Germany order in his "Final Soluation". Hitler believed that the Jews were evil incarned, and driven by there own greed. He called for the death of ever Jew, including all Jewish children. For the next six years Jewish men, women, and children marched to there death by fire, the Holocaust. An estimated six million Jews were murdered in Hitler's regime.

The aftherwrath of the Holocaust changed the Jewish thought forever. The murder of nearly half of the Jewish population has made many Jews question G-d. Where was G-d? Some Jews lost there faith in G-d by arriving the the conclusion that "A G-d could have not this happen. How can G-d let such a thing happen"? Although some have lost there faith, most Jews haven't. As a noted Jewish thinker once said " The question is not were was G-d, but where was man"?

For anyone who still believes that we have a free, open, and unbiased press in this country, read this book. Before we go to war again against Iraq and start getting the government's highly censored version of events, it will be helpful to understand what we were told last time and why.

A kinder, gentler nation? A compassionate country? Sounds like repeat season. Propaganda indeed, Mr. Bush! Highly recommended!

Ignore the crypto-fascists who were unable to put down their copies of MEIN KAMPF long enough to actually read this book. Very original and thought provoking.

This is a good summary of the 20th century terrorism and scandals involoving Arab/Israeli conflict. The author writes in a narrative form, making these factual occurances seem almost fiction. It is interesting to read and written in a manner which evokes suspense and unveils history.I would primarily reccomend this to someone with an interest in this topic already.