Tatchell takes us on a tour of the city with an outlook that s part native, part critic, part wide-eyed traveler. The result is a truly original collage of perspectives and images, from a regal expatriate whose husband was one of the first Brits to settle in Abu Dhabi to young Emirati artists celebrating their newfound freedom of expression. A compelling piece of history told with an intimate narrative voice, A Diamond in the Desert is an eye-opening and often haunting perspective on just how much this fascinating city has changedand, for better or for worse, how much it has stayed the same." View More...
A New York Times Notable Book of 2016 One of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2016, Publishers Weekly One of the Best Books of 2016, NPRWinner of the 2017 Lionel Gelber PrizeOne of 20 Notable Reads from 2016, Mother JonesFinalist for the 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Current InterestSilver Medal Winner of the 2017 Arthur Ross Book AwardIn 2011, a wave of revolution spread through the Middle East as protesters demanded an end to tyranny, corruption, and economic decay. From Egypt to Yemen, a generation of young Arabs insisted on a new ethos of common citizenship. Their bravery and idealism s... View More...
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD - A searing reassessment of U.S. military policy in the Middle East over the past four decades from retired army colonel and New York Times bestselling author Andrew J. Bacevich From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift? Andrew J. Bacevich, one of the country's most respected voices on foreign affairs, offers an incisive critical history of this ongoing mil... View More...
Arabs & Israel For Beginners covers the Middle East from ancient times to the present, tells the truth in plain English, and is one of the few non-scholarly books that is relentlessly fair to both Jews and Arabs. If you want to continue to believe fairy tales about Arabs in Israel, don't touch this book - it will surely be hazardous to your closed mind. If you want the truth about 12,000 years of Middle Eastern History, then Arabs & Israel For Beginners is the perfect place to start. View More...
Painful truths about the Zionist rape of Palestine and deliberate planting of anti-Semitism in Iraqi Jewish communities during David Ben-Gurion's political career to persuade Iraqi Jews to immigrate to Israel. The Zionists' goal was to import raw Jewish labor from the Middle East to farm the newly-vacated lands and fill the military ranks with conscripts, to defend the stolen lands. View More...
For years the authoritarian regimes of the Arab world displayed remarkable persistence. Then, beginning in December 2010, much of the region underwent rapid and remarkable political change. This volume explores the precursors, nature, and trajectory of the dynamics unleashed by the Arab Spring. View More...
What does Israel hope to achieve with its recent withdrawal from Gaza and the building of a 700km wall around the West Bank? Jonathan Cook, who has reported on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the Second Intifada, presents a lucid account of the Jewish state's motives. The heart of the issue, he argues, is demography. Israel fears the moment when the region's Palestinians - Israel's own Palestinian citizens and those in the Occupied Territories - become a majority. Inevitable comparisons with apartheid in South Africa will be drawn. The book charts Israel's increasingly desperate respon... View More...
A major modern conundrum is how the Arab/Israel conflict remains unresolved and, seemingly, unresolvable. In this inspirational book, Rabbi Michael Lerner suggests that a change in consciousness is crucial. With clarity and honesty, he examines how the mutual demonization and discounting of each sides' legitimate needs drive the debate, and he points to new ways of thinking that can lead to a solution. Lerner emphasizes that this new approach to the issue requires giving primacy to love, kindness, and generosity. It calls for challenging the master narratives in both Israel and Palestine as we... View More...
Epic Encounters examines how popular culture has shaped the ways Americans define their "interests" in the Middle East. In this innovative book-now brought up-to-date to include 9/11 and the Iraq war-Melani McAlister argues that U.S. foreign policy, while grounded in material and military realities, is also developed in a cultural context. American understandings of the region are framed by narratives that draw on religious belief, news media accounts, and popular culture. This remarkable and pathbreaking book skillfully weaves lively and accessible readings of film, media, and music with a ri... View More...
The Middle East has long been a volatile yet vital region in world politics. In his captivating new book, In the Shadow of the Prophet, journalist Milton Viorst illuminates the complex struggle to reconcile the Muslim community's fierce determination to live by traditional Islamic law and beliefs with the desire for economic and political power in today's world. Throughout the Middle East, a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism has attempted to overturn moderate or secular government, creating in its place an Islamic state based on the ancient moral code of Muhammad's time. Conservative and f... View More...
The Industry of Lies is one of the greatest frauds of recent decades - a fraud of historic, even epic, proportions. When almost half of all Europeans believe that Israel treats the Palestinians just like the Nazis treated the Jews, when leading politicians assert that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the central cause of violence in the world, and when prominent intellectuals argue that Israel is an apartheid state, the unfortunate reality is that the lies are winning.As a result, Israel has become the devil incarnate in the eyes of many otherwise good and reasonable people - people who genuinely ... View More...
In July 2004, federal agents raided the homes of five Palestinian-American families, arresting the five dads. The first trial of the "Holy Land Foundation Five" ended in a hung jury. The second, marked by highly questionable procedures, resulted in very lengthy sentences--for "supporting terrorism" by donating to charities that the U.S. government itself and other respected international agencies had long worked with. In 2013, human rights activist and author Miko Peled started investigating this case. He discussed the miscarriages of justice with the men's lawyers and heard from the men's fam... View More...
The relationship between America and Pakistan is based on mutual incomprehension and always has been. Pakistan--to American eyes--has gone from being a quirky irrelevance, to a stabilizing friend, to an essential military ally, to a seedbed of terror. America--to Pakistani eyes--has been a guarantee of security, a coldly distant scold, an enthusiastic military enabler, and is now a threat to national security and a source of humiliation. The countries are not merely at odds. Each believes it can play the other--with sometimes absurd, sometimes tragic, results. The conventional narrative about ... View More...
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND THE ECONOMIST Winner of the Natan Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book AwardAn authoritative and deeply personal narrative history of the State of Israel, by one of the most influential journalists writing about the Middle East today Not since Thomas L. Friedman's groundbreaking From Beirut to Jerusalem has a book captured the essence and the beating heart of the Middle East as keenly and dynamically as My Promised Land. Facing unprecedented internal an... View More...
Extending back to the first demonstrations of 2011, No Turning Back dissects the tangle of ideologies and allegiances that make up the Syrian conflict. As protests ignited in Daraa, some citizens were brimming with a sense of possibility. A privileged young man named Suleiman posted videos of the protests online, full of hope for justice and democracy. A father of two named Mohammad, secretly radicalized and newly released from prison, saw a darker opportunity in the unrest. When violence broke out in Homs, a poet named Abu Azzam became an unlikely commander in a Free Syrian Army militia. The ... View More...
In a brilliant piece of detective work, Karl Sabbagh investigates the story of his Palestinian ancestors and through it the history of what was, and may become again, Palestine. Born the son of a Palestinian father but raised by his English mother in south London, Sabbagh was only a child when the United Nations voted in 1947 to divide Palestine into two states. Palestine and Palestinians had existed for centuries, their roots in the m lange of tribes, ethnic groups, and religions that peopled the area for thousands of years. Using his family tree as a guide, Sabbagh details how the descendant... View More...
This best-selling history is the first fully comprehensive history of America s involvement in the Middle East from George Washington to George W. Bush. As Niall Ferguson writes, If you think America s entanglement in the Middle East began with Roosevelt and Truman, Michael Oren s deeply researched and brilliantly written history will be a revelation to you, as it was to me. With its cast of fascinating characters earnest missionaries, maverick converts, wide-eyed tourists, and even a nineteenth-century George Bush Power, Faith, and Fantasy is not only a terrific read, it is also proof that yo... View More...
From the author of the #1 bestseller Three Cups of Tea, the continuing story of this determined humanitarian's efforts to promote peace through education In this dramatic first-person narrative, Greg Mortenson picks up where Three Cups of Tea left off in 2003, recounting his relentless, ongoing efforts to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan; his extensive work in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan after a massive earthquake hit the region in 2005; and the unique ways he has built relationships with Islamic clerics, militia commanders, and tribal leaders. He shares for the first time his broader ... View More...
While critics claim that a nefarious Israel Lobby dictates U.S. policy in the Middle East, the Arab Lobby in this country is older, richer, and more powerful than the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The Arab Lobby is the first book in more than 25 years to investigate the scope and activities of this diffuse yet powerful network. Author Mitchell Bard courageously explores the invisible alliance that threatens Israel and undermines America's interests in the Middle East.
A chronicle of American diplomacy in the Middle East reveals the untold story of the expatriate elite who helped shape U.S. policy in the region for over a century. View More...
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The extraordinary story of the women who took on the Islamic State and won The Daughters of Kobani is an unforgettable and nearly mythic tale of women's power and courage. The young women profiled in this book fought a fearsome war against brutal men in impossible circumstances--and proved in the process what girls and women can accomplish when given the chance to lead. Brilliantly researched and respectfully reported, this book is a lesson in heroism, sacrifice, and the real meaning of sisterhood. I am so grateful that this story has been told.--Elizabeth Gilbert, ... View More...
For every great historical event, seemingly, at least one reporter writes an eyewitness account of such power and literary weight that it becomes joined with its subject in our minds-George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" and the Spanish Civil War; John Hersey's "Hiroshima" and the dropping of the first atomic bomb; Philip Gourevitch's "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories of Rwanda" and the Rwandan genocide. Whatever else is written about the Iraqi people and the fall of Saddam, Jon Lee Anderson's "The Fall of Baghdad" is worthy of mention in this co... View More...
As the second-largest religion in the world, more than a billion Muslims turn to Islam for serenity and spiritual peace, as well as moral and ethical guidance. While the West sees extremists as the most visible adherents of Islam, moderates constitute the majority of Muslims worldwide. In The Great Theft, leading Islamic scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl argues that Islam is currently passing through a transformative moment no less dramatic than the Protestant Reformation. Two completely opposed worldviews within Islam are competing to define this great world religion, and the future of the Muslim ... View More...
As it Celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, the State of Israel could count many important successes, but its conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world at large casts a long shadow over its history. What was promulgated as an "iron-wall" strategy -- dealing with the Arabs from a position of unassailable strength -- was meant to yield to a further stage where Israel would be strong enough to negotiate a satisfactory peace with its neighbors. The goal remains elusive.In this penetrating studv. Avi Shlaim examines how variations of the iron-wall philosophy have guided Israel's leaders; he ... View More...
The tale of a simple act of faith between two young people - one Israeli, one Palestinian - that symbolizes the hope for peace in the Middle East.In 1967, not long after the Six-Day War, three young Arab men ventured into the town of Ramle, in what is now Jewish Israel. They were cousins, on a pilgrimage to see their childhood homes; their families had been driven out of Palestine nearly twenty years earlier. One cousin had a door slammed in his face, and another found his old house had been converted into a school. But the third, Bashir Al-Khairi, was met at the door by a young woman called D... View More...
Drawn from the first-hand accounts of eyewitnesses, Roy Mottahedeh's account of Islam and politics in revolutionary Iran is widely regarded as one the best records ofd that turbulent time ever written. View More...
With a death toll that mounts obscenely, claiming both Iraqi and American lives, the fiction that the war in Iraq is over has long been laid bare. Taking the reader on a tour of a war in progress from a correspondent's-eye-view, this book talks about the political machinations that led inexorably to the quagmire. View More...
By all accounts, the 1948 Palestine war was one of the most significant milestones in the modern history of the Middle East and remains one of the most intractable conflicts of modern times. Israelis call the 1948 war "The War of Independence" while Arabs call it al-Nakba or the disaster. The conventional Israeli version portrays 1948 as an unequal struggle between a Jewish David and an Arab Goliath, as a desperate, heroic, and ultimately successful battle for survival against overwhelming odds. In this version all the surrounding Arab states sent their armies into Palestine to strangle the Je... View More...
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW' S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAROne of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, The Economist, The Daily Beast, St. Louis Post-Dispatch In September 1978, three world leaders--Menachem Begin of Israel, Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and U.S. president Jimmy Carter--met at Camp David to broker a peace agreement between the two Middle East nations. During the thirteen-day conference, Begin and Sadat got into screaming matches and had to be physically separated; both attempted to walk away multiple times. ... View More...
All Americans must read this book in order to truly understand the reasons why radical Muslims like Osama bin Laden and his followers have declared war on America and the West. Furthermore, only this book accurately describes the severity of the threat they will continue to pose, with or without bin Laden's leadership, to our national security. To win the war against terrorism, the author argues that we must first stop dismissing militant Muslims as "extremists" or "religious fanatics." Formulating a successful military strategy requires that we must see the enemy as they perceive themselves--... View More...
In this stunning read, veteran foreign correspondent Eric Margolis presents a revelatory history of the complicated and volatile conflicts that entangle one of the most beautiful and remote parts of the world. View More...
For centuries, the world of Islam was in the forefront of human achievement -- the foremost military and economic power in the world, the leader in the arts and sciences of civilization. Christian Europe was seen as an outer darkness of barbarism and unbelief from which there was nothing to learn or to fear. And then everything changed. The West won victory after victory, first on the battlefield and then in the marketplace.In this elegantly written volume, Bernard Lewis, a renowned authority an Islamic affairs, examines the anguished reaction of the Islamic world as it tried to make sense of ... View More...
