The authors provided a host of factual information and quotations, providing a vivid picture of the military conquest by theUS-led military forces in a short, quick read compact format. Theirfollow up book on the weapons that will be employed by the united states in its future wars against powerless 3rd world countries is cause for great concern.

I have owned a copy of this book since I was 15 years old in 1983. I ordered that copy from the now-defunct Outdoor Life Book Club, and that fact that I recently ordered another copy from Amazon.com, to ensure that I'll be able to read and re-read it for years to come, should tell you what I think of it. The late Ben East (he passed away in 1990) was a fine wordsmith with a voluminous knowledge of the outdoors in general and bears specifically that sprang from 60+ years of experience. He writes with an easy, very readable and entertaining style, with many anecdotes of bear behavior, bear hunting and even bear attacks that will cause you to read and re-read this book for years. Just as I have. Very highly recommended.

Shabtai Teveth (Weizmann Institute, Tel-Aviv University) is one of the few official Ben-Gurion's biographers. Teveth made a great effort in researching the evolution of Ben-Gurion's mindset (based on declassified behind close door transcripts and personal dairy) regarding the "Arab question." The book focuses on Ben-Gurion's limited contacts with the Palestinian Arab leaders, and clearly paints a different picture than then one usually available for public consumption. Surprisingly, Ben-Gurion displayed a pragmatic understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which publicly has been suppressed for propaganda purposes. From my point of view, this book is a must read book.

This book is a collection of true-life adventure tales which were ghost written by the legendary outdoor writer Ben East and which originally appeared in Outdoor Life magazine. Highly recommended.

This is an excellent and well-researched survey of US-Israeli relations between 1953 and 1962. Ben-Zvi recounts how at first the US Government sought to contain the supposed Soviet threat to the Middle East by uniting the nations of the region, and saw Israel as a hindrance to this.

But the anti-colonial revolutions of 1957-58 destroyed this policy. The US Government moved to support 'moderate' Arab regimes against Arab nationalism. In April 1957, President Eisenhower sent the US 6th Fleet to help King Hussein of Jordan, and $30 million aid, after Hussein had dismissed the elected Government and declared martial law. Eisenhower then got Turkey, Iraq and Jordan to mobilise their armed forces against Syria, after nationalist forces gained power there.

In July 1958, the Iraqi people overthrew their pro-British Government. The US Government sent 14,000 troops to Lebanon to threaten Iraq, also to prevent revolution in Lebanon. The British Government sent 2,200 paratroops to Jordan to help Hussein: Israel allowed them to fly their troops in through Israeli airspace. This convinced the US Government that it should support Israel.

In August 1962, President Kennedy decided to sell Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Israel, hoping it would then let the US inspect Israel's nuclear weapons facilities at Dimona and would allow 100,000-150,000 Palestinians to return home. Israel rejected both proposals, yet still got the Hawks.

This set a pattern for the next 35 years: Israel received huge military and economic support, but made no policy concessions. The US Government developed Israel as its military proxy in the Middle East, however unpopular this made Israel, and the USA. The costs to the region have been enormous: regular wars, the continual repression of the Palestinians, lack of political and economic progress. But this policy finally failed in the Gulf War, when the USA had to keep Israel out of the coalition against Iraq, for fear of wrecking it.

What Yitschak Ben Gad has done in this 1991 book is debunk many of the more common myths of the Middle East in an easy-to-read Q&A (Questions and Answers) form accompanied by many references, quotes, source documents, and political cartoons.

The book is extremely well documented and the political cartoons come from many sources including Dry Bones (a popular cartoon in many syndicated papers in Israel), Sawt-El-Arab (an Egyptian daily newspaper), El-Shaab (another Egyptian daily newspaper), Al-Nadwa (A Saudi Arabian newspaper), Achbar Al-Chaleege (a Bahrainian newspaper), and from many other publications around the world. Many of the pages include the original Arabic, Hebrew, or other-language documents that Ban Gad uses for references. If you read Arabic then this book is an extremely good source for political commentary in the Arabic language (a huge variety of pages from newspapers around the Arab world are featured in the original Arabic). Because of the unadulterated nature of political cartoons and unambiguous statements from Arabic media sources, the book in many places reads like a history of anti-Semitism.

Books like this helped to lead to Internet groups like MEMRI.org that translate Arabic newspapers and other media into English for anyone interested (mostly for politicians, professors, etc.).

I found the cartoons to be very powerful indicators of political opinion in the Middle East since standards of decency are very different in the Arab world and Israel. For instance many of the cartoons from Arab newspapers show horrific depictions of bloody hands, dismembered bodies, racist caricatures (hook-nosed Jews, swastikas, Nazi references, etc.), and every kind of desecration of the Star of David or the Menorah (symbols of Judaism and Israel) that might be possible. The Israeli political cartoons featured in this book have great sarcasm and irony, but feature none of the horrific images that are commonplace in the majority of newspapers in the Arab world.

One of my criticisms of the book is that while it features many wonderful and authentic source documents, it is all in black and white format, which in many places makes the source materials very difficult to read. Some of the photographs are very difficult to make out in black and white format. However, I found this shortcoming manageable and not overwhelming.

Here's what Yitschak Ben Gad wrote about the book (page xviii):

<<<< This book is based on a great collection of material from different sources in a number of languages, and especially from the material of the Israeli Foreign office and PLO publications (see detailed list in the bibliography at the end of the book). The approach of the book is unique. It is composed of thousands of short questions, answers, comments, and quotations from various sources dealing with subjects concerning the Middle East. This is not meant to be a history book.

The goal is to enable the average reader, who may show some interest in our troubled area, to get an idea about most of the subjects without having to strive or read at great length. The questions and subjects are based upon my selective and subjective discretion. I have no intention of dealing with all aspects of the conflict. The idea is to deal with either forgotten issues or with subjects that demonstrate the absurdity of the conflict and the great injustice inflicted upon the Jewish people. The quotations are meant to strengthen the points dealt with in each chapter...

Last but not least, I hope this book will help to put history in its proper perspective. I believe that only when the facts are known will the chances for peace in our troubled area, based upon justice, be enhanced. Our prophet, Zachariah, said: "You should love truth and peace." This comes to show that truth precedes peace. >>>>

This book is very similar to others of its kind including "Battleground: Fact & Fantasy in Palestine"
by Samuel Katz, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflict (2nd Edition)" by Mitchell G. Bard, "Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789-1923" by Efraim Karsh, "Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict" by Mitchell Geoffrey Bard, and others. It works well on its' own or as a complementary volume to any or all of the above book titles.

I highly recommend this book as an excellent way to quickly learn about the Middle East and many of its myths.

Between the years 1949 and 1952, over 130,000 Jews immigrated to Israel from Iraq, thanks largely to the efforts of emissaries from Israel. This astounding Zionist accomplishment, known as Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, gave a final and glorious curtain call to the ancient Babylonian exile. Superbly narrated by someone who was in the hub of this modern day miracle. Mordechai Ben-Porat escaped from Baghdad to Israel in 1945, and went back in 1949, on behalf of Israel, to organize and manage the great clandestine emigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel. Throughout his life Ben-Porat served the country of Israel, either as an emissary in Iraq or Iran, or as a member of Knesset and Minister.

If you like to drive, read this book. If you like nature, read this book. If you like to look at the pictures, read this book. This book and $20 for a tank of gas has become my favorite wedding/etc. present for friends. A wonderful coverage of the roads, the state they wind through and the minds of the authors and photojournalists.

A story of a courageous strong woman. Descriptions of the environment (land & conditions) enticing. I found myself being scared right along side of Olive. A real adventure story.

A fresh, uncomplicated tale of the people who adventured north in the past. Action packed, engaging and reveling, this book will remain for ever one of my favorite adventure and romance stories. It shows much about how people may face a foreign environment, difficulties, and above all themselves. All comes out in very simple and clear language, with suits the story and the characters divinely.

This was a favorite, and it was done with no bad words or violence, other than from nature, I loved it and still wonder what happened to Olive and her second husband after they were married and flew off in the airplane. I watch it everytime it comes on tv. I have taped it and shown it many times to company.

i picked this book after hearing a friend talk about his trip to egypt.. i expected a more descrptive kind of book about egypt and was pleasantly surprised with the novella flavour that it actually has.. the author introduces very ordinary characters from present times living through their life.. he juxtaposes this with accounts of the life of a jewish merchant and his indian slave from the 10th century.. and then draws parallels between the social issues during the two time periods which seem surprisingly similar..
but the part that i thourougly enjoyed in this book was the village life and characters from the egyptian village and the real life struggles that they were going through.. made me want to hop on the next plane to egypt and see these ppl for myself..

This is a must read book. Ghosh somehow weaves together the history of Cairo, a traveling Jewish merchant, marginalization, the fate of 2nd world countries, and a diary of his time in Egypt-- and makes it really, lively, and relavant to anyone's life. and it is written in a lovely, lyrical style

A stupifying experience to read about the experience of one ofthe most prolific, original, fantasy writers from India. This bookdeals with the delicate norms of the life led in the rural Egypt. The book catches the knowledge even though little, of the people about India in Egypt. And to compare the lifestyles which existed between the two countries in two different periods of history has been done to the delight of the aged historian. The subtle existence of similarity in two proclaimed dis-similar cultures is definitely a forte for the mastercraftsman called Amitav. Surely, a delight for all the readers who want to have an alternate view of travelogues and who love to read about cultures which exists in the deepest parts of the world. A well-written book in general. Let us expect some more interesting writings from the author in the area of travel literature!!!