Book Review: Dynamite in the Middle East
| Date | 01 December 1956 |
| Author | Richard M. Saunders |
| Published date | 01 December 1956 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205601100415 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
307
DYNAMITE
IN
THE
MIDDLE
EAST.
By
Khalil
Totah.
1955.
(New
York:
Philosophical
Library.
xvi,
240pp.)
On
the
surface
this
book
is
the
record
of
a
traveller's
im-
pressions.
But
Dr.
Khalil
Totah
is
no
ordinary traveller
in
the
Middle
East.
A
native
of
the
lands
which
he
is
visiting,
one-
time
Principal
of
the Friends
School
at
Ramallah
in
Palestine,
and
for
years Director
of
the
Institute
of
Arab-American
Affairs
in
New
York,
Dr.
Totah
has
both
deep
personal
roots
in
this
area
and
a
profound
understanding
of
its
peoples
and
problems.
He
went
with
a
seeing
eye;
and
the
result,
for
him
who
will
read
with
care,
is
one
of
the
most
penetrating
analyses
of
the
temper
of
mind,
of
the
troubles,
grievances
and
hopes
of
the
Arab
world
that
I
have
read.
To
one who
has
lived
in
that
world,
and
has
seen
something
of
the
way
things
go
out
there,
this
account
has
the
ring
of
honesty
and
sincerity,
of
faithful
reporting,
as
well
as
of
real
conviction
and
high
dreams.
With
all
such
books
the
details
of
the
report
may
get
out
of
date
as
soon
as
they
are printed.
In
this
book
not
the
details
but
the
searching
out of
the
basic
causes
for
Arab
disunity,
of
the
Arab
attitude
to
the
West
and
to
Communism,
of
the
heart
of
the
Arab
refugee
problem,
of
the
outlook
for
the
future
are
what
makes
it
of
permanent
value.
Considering
the
state
of
emotional
excitement
connected
with
the
crisis
in
the
Middle
East
Dr.
Totah
has
written
with
remark-
able
restraint
and
insight.
What
he
has
to
say
will
not
be
pleasant reading
but
to
anyone
who
wants
a
real
idea
of
how
the
peoples
of
these
countries
feel
and
think,
and
why
they
react
explosively
and
surprisingly
Dynamite
in
the
Middle
East
is
strongly
recommended
reading.
University
of
Toronto
RICHARD
M.
SAUNDERS
BIBLE
AND
SWORD--England
and
Palestine
from
the
Bronze
Age
to
Balfour.
By
Barbara
Tuchman.
1956.
(New
York:
New
York
University
Press.
xiv,
268pp.
$5.00)
This
readable
book
is
devoted
to
proving
that
when
the
British
developed
a
national
conscience,
that
conscience
then
kept urging
the
British
to
"restore"
Palestine
to
Israel,
thus
recognising
the
"immeasurable debt"
which
the
Christian
world
owed
to
the
Jews
whose
ancient
rights
in
Palestine
had
not
lapsed
through
nineteen
centuries.
But
Mrs.
Tuchman
would
seem
to
believe
that
few
statesmen,
and
apparently
no
British
statesmen,
ever
did
anything
for
simple
moral reasons,
and
her
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