Reviews (1)

Worth reading for a perspective of the event
The book is not a mover in any sense, the author makes it painstakingly clear that he was not responsible for the IDF's mistakes. The reader is left with either pronouncing him an unrecognized hero or a coward who wouldnot go through with his pasifistic inclinations. Which ever the case itstill lives as aliving document of a person who refused to march to thedrum beat that was offered at the time. for those who have been to Israelyou are aware of the bravado that is placed on their soldiers and this manwas in the autumn of life and had seen enough tradgedy from the secondworld war to fill a life time. Don't go into it expecting to much and youwon't be disappointed. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. History    4. Irmiya, Dov    5. Israeli intervention, 1982-    6. Israeli intervention, 1982-198    7. Israeli intervention, 1982-1984    8. Lebanon    9. Middle East - General    10. Military    11. Personal narratives    12. Political Science / General   

Reviews (10)

Extraordinary, Accurate, Interesting, Amazing
I am still a student in college and I am still struggling try to find my rightful ideology in politics. Professor el Khazen provides the reader with facts that are from official and very legitimate sources. Lebanon has been the desire of many nations in history; the Arab world in general and especially Syria. Syria today continues its occupation of Lebanon all while the whole world remains silent. Professor el Khazen provides historical data of the Arab intentions for Lebanon and provides a factual account of what happened during the `civil war'. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to know the true history of Lebanon and a book with only facts and no opinions about the `civil war'. Ultimately any logical unbiased person could realize this, Pan-Arabism is the biggest threat to Lebanon. Pan-Arabism in its phony context is nothing but an ideology that is trying to generalize and group Lebanon with the rest of the Arab east all while it continues to become a bigger failure everyday. This is a factual account and brings forth the unfortunate circumstances that plagued Lebanon even while a portion of its society is cowardly and blindly following a tyrannical foreign power that is using a `brotherly' cover over it's true intentions; occupation, annexation, and making Lebanon part of its territory.

The Best Book Written on the Subject
For any serious researcher, don't look further, this is the book for you. It is a very good piece of work, obviously well researched and documented. And above all, it is the only objective piece of work I read on the history of Lebanon. El Khazen obviously knows what he is talking about, does not throw biased statements, does not omit incidents, and is supporting all of his arguments. Comprehensive and Insightful
This is a far more insightful and comprehensive work than several books on Lebanon I have read in recent years. Although I take issue with some of the author's arguments, the book is a solid academic work not only on the war but also on Lebanese society and politics.It is also based on new data and research material.The book is highly recommended for specialists on Lebanese and Arab politics. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1946-1975    2. Civil War, 1975-1990    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Lebanon    7. Middle East - General    8. Middle East - History    9. Political stability    10. Politics and government    11. Power (Social sciences)    12. Religion and state    13. Asian / Middle Eastern history    14. History / Middle East    15. Middle East   

Reviews (1)

Best Contemporary Study of Lebanese Hizballah To Date
Ranstorp's work elucidates the key nature of the Lebanese Hizballah, their doctrine, tactics, political objectives, and ties to their state-sponsor Iran.If you want to understand what the future may hold for Lebanon, andthe real prospects for a peace between Israel-Syria/ Israel-Lebanon, thisbook is a must read. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Civil War, 1975-1990    2. Criminology    3. History    4. Hizballah (Lebanon)    5. Hostages    6. International Relations - General    7. Lebanon    8. Middle East - General    9. Politics - Current Events    10. Politics / Current Events    11. Politics/International Relations    12. Social Science    13. Asian / Middle Eastern history    14. Middle East    15. Political Science / General   

Reviews (1)

Truly Exotic Cuisine
The Ottoman Kitchen makes for a delightful journey to this historic area.Having visited Greece and Turkey two years ago, the book immediately caught my attention.Read more

Subjects:  1. Cookery, Turkish    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. Food habits    5. History    6. Regional & Ethnic - Greek    7. Regional & Ethnic - Turkish    8. Turkey   

Features

• Illustrated

Subjects:  1. 1516-1918    2. General    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Lebanon    7. Middle East - General    8. Middle East - History    9. History / General   

Reviews (2)

Good Foreign Service War Stories
"Cursed is the Peacemaker" tells the story of how legendary diplomat Philip Habib negotiated an end to the Israeli siege of Beirut in 1982.The book is based on declassified documents and interviews with friends and colleagues of Habib.It is well-written and does a great job of conveying the atmospherics and intrigue surrounding a sensitive, high-level diplomatic mission.As pure diplomatic history, however, the book leaves much to be desired, since it glosses over the details of the negotiations and often fails to put developments into a broader political context.At times, the history gets buried beneath the war stories, the great quotes, the inside-Washington gossip, and the focus on Habib's colorful personality.But these are quibbles:the book is a real page-turner.Anyone interested in State Department history or the modern Middle East will love it.

Reagan's Special Envoy: Blueprint for Middle East Peace
Here is a true and engaging story that goes to the heart of a Read more

Subjects:  1. 1920-    2. Diplomatic and consular service, American    3. General    4. Habib, Philip Charles,    5. History    6. History & Theory - General    7. History - General History    8. History: World    9. International Relations - Diplomacy    10. Israel    11. Israeli intervention, 1982-198    12. Israeli intervention, 1982-1984    13. Lebanon    14. Middle East - General    15. Habib, Philip Charles    16. History / General    17. Sharon, Ariel   

Reviews (2)

Fascinating scholarship
The Shiite Muslims have been a real puzzle to me, and I have been reading everything that I can get my hands on these days.This book turned on the light for me in terms of how the Shiites gains political awareness.Although it was published in 1987, it is the best thing that I have seen.One wonders whether parallel developments will occur in Iraq.

Amal and the Shi'a
Well written explanation of Amal's (the Shia's) struggles during the lebanese civil war.A must read if you are interested in the current history of lebanon. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1975-1990    2. Amal (Movement)    3. General    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Islam and politics    7. Lebanon    8. Middle East - General    9. Politics and government    10. Shiites   

Reviews (4)

The real McCoy!
This book--as does its predecessor, "The Faces of Lebanon"--warrants attention, because it constitutes an honest attempt at interpreting modern Lebanon's history by examining the ideals, events, wounds, compromises, and realities of Lebanese society.If you are looking for the jaded regurgitation of the same old Arab nationalist cant, this is certainly not the book for you; you're better served with the lackluster historiographies and demagoguery of Lebanophobes of Fisk and AbuKhalil's persuasion.If, however, you are interested in the fresh, honest perspective of a sharp interpreter of Lebanese society, this is the real McCoy.

Reprinting of old theories
You read pages of literature on Lebanon in this book and try to find one original thought that Harris might have to offer about the country, but to no avail. Additionally, the cover of the book featuring a picture from the 2005 massive rallies in Beirut that led to the Syrian withdrawal form Lebanon gives the impression that this book was compiled in the aftermath of this event whereas in fact it was not. The book is a reprint of an earlier edition with an updated chapter.
"Highly recommended."--Choice Magazine
"Packed with solid information about the complex reality of the Levant...in its historical, geographical, and political aspects during the past two millennia....The survey is remarkably balanced in its depiction of ideologies and rivalries and is replete with useful maps and bibliography...Highly recommended."--Choice Magazine ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1990-    2. Civil War, 1975-1990    3. History    4. History: World    5. Lebanon    6. World - General    7. 20th century    8. Asian / Middle Eastern history: from c 1900 -   

Subjects:  1. Bible - Study - General    2. Bible - Study - New Testament    3. Religion    4. Religion - Biblical Studies    5. Christian pilgrimage    6. Crete    7. Cyprus    8. Early Church    9. Greece    10. Italy    11. Malta    12. Museum, historic sites, gallery & art guides    13. New Testament    14. Turkey   

Subjects:  1. Children's Books/Young Adult Misc. Nonfiction    2. Children: Grades 3-4    3. Foreign relations    4. History    5. Lebanon    6. Middle East - General    7. Terrorism    8. United States    9. United States Marine Compound    10. United States Marine Compound Bombing, Beirut, Lebanon, 1983   

Subjects:  1. Case studies    2. Ethnic Studies - General    3. Foreign Relations    4. History    5. History - General History    6. Israeli intervention, 1982-198    7. Lebanon    8. Middle East    9. Middle East - General    10. Political leadership    11. Politicians    12. Politics/International Relations    13. Social Science    14. International relations    15. Social Science / Ethnic Studies   

Subjects:  1. General    2. International Relations - General    3. Middle East - General    4. Political Science    5. Politics / Current Events    6. Politics/International Relations    7. Asian / Middle Eastern history: from c 1900 -    8. History of ideas, intellectual history    9. Lebanon    10. Nationalism   

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Civil War, 1975-    3. History    4. Israeli intervention, 1982-1984    5. Journalists    6. Lebanon    7. Randal, Jonathan C    8. United States   

Reviews (6)

The proof is in the pudding!
In the end, Soha puts love of her country and nationalism as the primary motivating factor behind her actions. This is a very interesting read in light of present day events, which support both sides of the argument of Israel as occupier versus Israel as defender. Lebanon is a small country divided by religion, ideology and perhaps even race. As the middle east connection to the mediteranean and Europe it is also highly desirable territory. Read in light of present day events, this will make you think!

riveting, and yet missing essential element
Having grown up in the war in Beirut I was particularly fascinated reading about Soha Bechara's experiences, in part because they were so utterly different from mine--though very traumatized by the war, I was nevertheless sheltered in that I did not participate in it. I think this book is a powerful and compelling evocation of life in war and the process of transforming a young, idealistic pacifist into a murderer. (I use the word murderer because as much as I myself hated the SLA, the occupation, all of it, I cannot bring myself to call shooting a man point blank in the chest after months of planning, anything other than murder, no matter the cause.) This is where for me the book is missing something essential, and that is self-reflection--she describes the events of her life and evokes the difficulty and confusion of entering this violent world, but she does not look back from her new vantage as someone living in Paris and writing a book. Does she still rue limiting herself to only 2 bullets? Does she believe her operation made a difference, and why? Does she believe it wouldn't make a difference? Does she have any regret, or does she still feel as passionately as she did at 16, when she was striving so hard to join the resistance? I was left wondering who she is now. As someone who abhors violence as much as she claims to throughout the book, I needed to hear about how she reconciles that stance with what she did and even more particularly what was done to her--the accounts of her torture are not followed by any reflection on its effect, and one gets the impression she went in and came out the exact same person, which I find impossible to believe. I needed to understand how she reconciles everything she did and all that happened now, in the present, in her entirely different life, for the book to feel complete.
A primary source on the Israeli occupation of Lebanon
Whether you think of Suha Beshara as a freedom fighter or a worthless terrorist, there is one truth about this woman: that she sets a precedent in women's role in the Arab world. She stood up for her beliefs as she ended the male monopoly of all kinds of military activity in the oriental societies.
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Subjects:  1. Arab-Israeli conflict    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. History    6. Lebanon    7. Personal narratives    8. Political    9. Political prisoners    10. Women    11. Biography: general    12. Political activism   

Subjects:  1. Arab countries    2. Civil War, 1975-1990    3. Ethnic Studies - General    4. History    5. Intellectuals    6. Lebanon    7. Middle East - General    8. Social History    9. Social Science    10. Social change    11. Sociology    12. Asian / Middle Eastern history    13. Education / Multicultural Education    14. History of ideas, intellectual history    15. Middle East    16. Social Science / Ethnic Studies   

Reviews (6)

A moderate account of the conflict
Like much scholarship on the modern middle east this book justifies terror by saying `it was popular action...and due to societal changes' as if just because society changes then people have a right to go on a racist rampage.In many ways the author seems to look at Lebanon as if it was the Post-Civil war south.In 1860 Lebanon was going through a foreign intervention of Europeans whose investments were enriching the Maronites and therefore `upsetting' the delicate ethnic balance between Druze and Maronite.The problem is that this `balance' had been based on Islamic supremacy, and that was the only thing the Druze would allow.Jealousy and a fear that the Druze might actually end up poorer then their Maronite neighbors led the Druze to go on a rampage murdering as many as a hundred thousand Christians, they were only stopped in their attacks by international intervention.In many respects the `popular action' of genocide in Lebanon presaged the Armenian massacres of 1915, the Assyrian massacres of 1920 and the Sikh massacres of 1948, each involved a community committing genocide against an ancient minority community, mostly due to the fact that the world wasn't watching and using societal upheaval and chaos as an excuse.Yet in Lebanon in 1860 the international community did notice and intervened.But in the end all this did was postpone the genocidal conflict until the 1980s when new terrorists would go on new rampages while the world ignored the conflict and the media in fact aided and abbeded the terrorists by calling it a `civil war' when their was nothing civil about it and the war entailed a superior majority rounding up aan unarmed minority and killing them all.This book, like so many of its ilk, is biased and flawed but it is one of the few on the subject.

A biased account but one of the few on the subject
Like much scholarship on the modern middle east this book justifies terror by saying �it was popular action�and due to societal changes� as if just because society changes then people have a right to go on a racist rampage.In many ways the author seems to look at Lebanon as if it was the Post-Civil war south where racist gangs went on rampages.In 1860 Lebanon apparently was going through a similar foreign intervention of carpet baggers in the form of Europeans whose investments were enriching the Maronites and therefore �upsetting� the delicate ethnic balance between Druze and Maronite.The problem is that this �balance� had been based on Islamic supremacy, and that was the only thing the Druze would allow.Jealousy and a fear that Muslims might actually end up poorer then their Christian neighbors led the Druze to go on a rampage murdering as many as a hundred thousand Christians, they were only stopped in their genocide by international intervention.In many respects the �popular action� of genocide in Lebanon presaged the Armenian massacres of 1915, the Assyrian massacres of 1920 and the Sikh massacres of 1948, each involved a muslim community committing genocide against an ancient minority community, mostly due to the fact that the world wasn�t watching and using societal upheaval and chaos as an excuse.Yet in Lebanon in 1860 the international community did notice and intervened.But in the end all this did was postpone the genocidal conflict until the 1980s when new terrorists would go on new rampages and kill another 100,000 Christians while the world ignored the conflict and the media in fact aided and abbeded the terrorists by calling it a �civil war� when their was nothing civil about it and the war entailed a superior majority rounding up aan unarmed minority and killing them all.This book, like so many of its ilk, is biased and flawed but it is one of the few on the subject.

I must agree with the other reviews
The author is clearly biased, she has tailored her research and the subsequent conclusions to idealize one side of the conflict while demonizing the other. On some occasions she dives into treacherous scholastic investigation, revealing the number of cows, pigs, and sheep slaughtered during a marauding but then makes blatant generalizations and oversimplifications on issues that matter greatly, most notably the issue of identities, narratives and historical oppression in the Mountain. On one occasion she writes something like: The Maronites are most likely (it could have been "probably") Arabs." Where did the analytical analyses go? It seems to me that such a fact is significantly relevant and might have warranted a bit more research which would have eliminated the uncertainty in her statement. She also gives way too much credit to the economical disparities in the Mountain which is indicative of her school of thought but fails to capture the spirit of the conflict. This is quite simply a bad book, aside from the biography it is worthless. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 19th century    2. Christians    3. Damascus    4. Druze and Maronite conflict, 1860    5. General    6. History    7. History - General History    8. History: World    9. Lebanon    10. Massacres    11. Middle East - General    12. Syria    13. Asian / Middle Eastern history: postwar, from c 1945 -    14. History / General   

Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. Emigration and immigration    3. Gender Studies    4. History    5. Lebanese    6. Lebanon    7. Return migration    8. Sex role    9. Social Science    10. Sociology    11. United States    12. 20th century    13. History / General    14. Immigration & emigration    15. North America    16. Social & cultural anthropology    17. The Americas    18. c 1800 to c 1900   

Reviews (1)

The first accurate version on Lebanese history
Noted historian Kamal Salibi wrote this book right after he had acquired his PhD in the mid-1960s. His skill and genius is evident as the book covers the history of the most of the fragments of the Lebanese society that has been since the dawn of history divided into sectarian communities.
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Subjects:  1. 1516-    2. History    3. History - General History    4. Lebanon    5. Middle East - General   

Subjects:  1. Foreign Relations 1990-    2. History    3. Israeli intervention, 1982-198    4. Israeli intervention, 1982-1984    5. Lebanon    6. Munaòzòzamat al-Taòhråir al-Filasòtåinåiyah    7. Palestinian Arabs    8. Politics and government