Annalise

Although the book gives accounts of both Jewish and Arab terrorism in the Middle East one comes away with the feeling that there has been more Jewish terrorism than Palestinian and that for the most that Palestinian terrorism is excusable. One example of the author's subtle bias is found in his description of an incident of Palestinian terrorism where he says something like this: the hijackers let a pregnant woman off the bus: a humanitarian gesture which deprived them of the element of surpise. This is just one example of the way in which the author - though he claims to be impartial- subtly supports the Palestinian perspective on the conflict. I almost never quit half way through a book but after listening to 2/3 of part 2 I realized that it was going to be just more of the same and I quit. He clearly supports communication between Arabs and Jews to break down stereotypes which is good and laudible and he gives a lot of illustrations of how this can be accomplished. But overall the book is long on detailed anecdotes of bad behaviour by the Jews and short on helpful historical analysis.