Review: Middle East: A Blood-Dimmed Tale
| Published date | 01 March 1998 |
| Date | 01 March 1998 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070209805300117 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
of
Saudi
culture
and
values,
the amusing
anecdotes
and
enhanced
author
occasionally
glosses
over by
penetrating
pen
portraits
of
some
of
the
kingdom's
less
attractive
leaders
such
as
Dayan,
Begin,
features such
as
rampant
politico-
Shamir,
Arafat,
and
Mubarak,
this
economic
corruption
and
the
dis-
work
is
notable
above
all
for
its
per-
crimination
endured
by
many
Saudi
ceptive
analyses
and
forthright
women and most
foreign labourers.
judgments.
Thus,
in
assessing
the
In
general, however,
the
analysis
is
reasons for
the
outbreak
of
the
sophisticated and
penetrating.
Palestinian
uprising or
Intifada
in
1987,
he
writes:
'Twenty
years
of
A
BLOOD-DIMMED
TALE
short-sighted
Israeli policies
lie
bat-
Dispatches
from
the
Middle
East
tered
in
the
streets
of
the
West
Amos
Elon
Bank,
Gaza
and
East Jerusalem.
New
York:
Columbia
University
Press,
The
writing
was
on
the
wall
for
1997,
33
2
pp,
US$24.95
years,
but
most
Israelis
never
both-
ered
to
read it.
Some
were
distracted
Written
by
a
well-known
Israeli
by
real
or
imaginary
security
con-
journalist,
this
is
a
collection
of
cerns
...
Other
Israelis
were
blinded
essays
dealing
with
Israeli
politics
by
nationalist
or
religious
rhetoric
and
with
Arab-Israeli
relations
over
and
by
the
apparent
ease
and
low
a
thirty-year period
between
1967
maintenance
costs
of
a
military
and
1997.
Elon's
themes
are
central
occupation
that
for
more
than
two
to
an
understanding
of
contempo-
decades
has
held
1.5
million
Pales-
rary
Middle
Eastern
realities.
His tinians
as
pawns,
or
bargaining
treatment
of
the often
conflicting
chips,
and
as
a
source
of
cheap
strands
of
religion
and
secularism
in
menial
labor,
while
denying
them
Israeli
politics
and
in
Zionist
ideolo-
the
most
basic
human
rights.'
gy
is
particularly
illuminating.
The
Amos
Elon
brings
to
his
writing
a
approach
taken
to
Arab-Israeli
rare
combination
of
knowledge
and
affairs
is
remarkably
fair
and
even-
experience,
culture
and
reflection,
handed.
Elon
deplores at
length
the wit
and
compassion,
which
all
add
opportunities
for
peace
which
were
up
to
wisdom.
repeatedly
missed
because
of
the
short-sightedness,
stubbornness,
ARMING
IRAQ
and
sheer
bloody-mindedness
dis-
How
the
U.S.
and
Britain
secretly
played
by
leaders
on
both
sides
of
built
Sadam's
war
machine
the
Arab-Israeli
divide,
from
Nasser
Mark Phythian
to
Netanyahu.
Boston:
Northeastern
University
Press,
While
replete
with
colourful
and
1997,
xxvii,
325pp,
US$30.00
186
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter
1997-8
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