Product Description

'This is a book in the finest tradition of investigative scholarship. The research is awesome...Seale's great strength is his ability to explain the confusing kaleidoscopic nature of Middle Eastern diplomacy. He understands the game being played and also knows the players...[An] impressive book' - "Los Angeles Times Book Review".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #334883 in Books
• Published on: 1992-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 552 pages

Customer Reviews

An excellent reader on Arab views of foreign policy
This book is interesting in that it takes the view of the Middle East from the Arab side. This in itself makes it an almost indispensable reader for those who want to find out both sides of the story of the struggle in the Middle East.
Basically, it tells the struggle of Hafez Asad and Syria to confron Israel and to stand up for Arab rights. Unfortunately, this has led Syria into fifty years of conflict with Israel.
This book goes through everything, the early years of conflict in the 1950's, the disaster of 1967, the even bigger setback of 1973 and Egypt's peace with Israel, and the final redemption of the Lebanon war (the only time when Arabs were able to resist Israel and push them back over their border).
It also covers Syrian wrong-doings, such as the massacre in Hama (often quoted by the west and Israel), and how these situations were created and sponsored by foreign security services (no prizes for guessing who). Read it and find out... Be prepared to find out that Al-Quaeda are linked to the people that Asad fought in Hama (the Muslim brotherhood)? This book was written in 1992, but if you make the connection this book takes on an even more unsettling relevance.
A worthy book for the open reader, one who doesn't just swallow western platitudes about 'terror'.

Don�t dare comment on the Middle East before reading this !
I would not call myself a fan of political literature, yet I found this book absolutely riveting. Don't be fooled by the title, it's much more than just a biography of the mysterious Syrian leader. The book explains the background to the current problems in the Middle East and does not shy away from exposing the Israeli Middle East agenda and it's Washington allies. The book offers very fair commentary and illustrates how Kissinger and his cronies have created a time-bomb in this part of the World. It dispels the carefully cultivated myth of Israeli "self defence" and is a damming indictment of a grossly biased US policy that can only harm America in the longer term.

It's undoubtedly uncomfortable reading for us in the West and forces us to question our perceptions. For instance, how do we define terrorism and who are the real terrorists in the Middle East ? Why was it deemed critical to knock Saddam Hussein down to size after the Iran - Iraq war? Why is Israel able to consistently flout / side step and break both international conventions and UN resolutions? All these issues and more are answered in this superb commentary book.

"Asad" does of course delve the personality of this modern statesman and offers insight into his shrewdness and the events that shape his policies. He is portrayed as an essentially peaceful man who wants peace but not a peace dictated by exclusively Israeli terms. In short, he is the one Arab leader who understands the need to negotiate from a position of equality with Israel. The Syrian leader does of course have a darker side to his personality, and the book does not shy away from exposing this. Yet we must temper this with the knowledge that other Middle Eastern personalities (including Rabin, Dayan, Begin, Ben-Gurion and Meir are hardly angels). This book is a "must read". Buy it!

fascinating and informative
Although this book purports to be a biography of Asad, it is really a whirlwind tour of 20th-century Syrian history. The book's main focus is on its foreign relations with the Middle East, the Soviet Union, and the United States. With clarity and insight, Seale details such seminal events as the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, the Middle East peace process, and the Gulf Wars. Seale provides the perfect balance of explanation and analysis while never getting bogged down in useless detail. Useful analyses of such key figures as Sadat, Begin, and Sharon are just as relevant today as they were when this book was written. His detailing of Asad's relationship with Kissinger is enough to make the reader cringe for, unfortunately, Kissinger's duplicity and manipulations were not limited to such places as Chile,Kurdistan,etc. This book is invaluable for its enumeration on the political situation in the Middle East. Valuable to the reader struggling to gain an overall understanding of the Middle East, this book also shrewdly portrays Asad's rise to power both in his own country and in the Middle East.