I was excited about this book but in the end it disappointed me.  It purports itself to be a jurnalistic account of the Lebanese Civil war and the Israeli situation in Jerusalem. Unfortunatly the book consists of half and half reporting and cute little stories.  We learn about the bombing of the jurnalists own house and we learn about the newsrooms of Beirut.  While we should celebrate the authors guts in covering these viscious times it seems to me the reading was light and weak.  More a travel jurnal then what I expected.  The book, like everything on Lebanon, is biased, it takes the side of the palistinians brushing over their savagry in ruining a nice country while critisizing the christians for daring to defend themselves.  It critisizes the Israelis  for 'indiscriminate' shelling and says nothing fo the palistinians indiscriminate shalling that also ruines lives.  The chapters on Israel are insteresting as an American Jews critique of the Jewish state, but most of the observations are repugnant.  This idea that israel is some vast memorial to the holocaust, some remnant, is a revulting notion and it seems one elucidated by the author, he does not seem to understand the greatness of israel as the only country where free speech and free religion exist in the middle east, as well as democracy.
I was excited about this book but in the end it disappointed me. It purports itself to be a jurnalistic account of the Lebanese Civil war and the Israeli situation in Jerusalem. Unfortunatly the book consists of half and half reporting and cute little stories. We learn about the bombing of the jurnalists own house and we learn about the newsrooms of Beirut. While we should celebrate the authors guts in covering these viscious times it seems to me the reading was light and weak. More a travel jurnal then what I expected. The book, like everything on Lebanon, is biased, it takes the side of the palistinians brushing over their savagry in ruining a nice country while critisizing the christians for daring to defend themselves. It critisizes the Israelis  for 'indiscriminate' shelling and says nothing fo the palistinians indiscriminate shalling that also ruines lives. The chapters on Israel are insteresting as an American Jews critique of the Jewish state, but most of the observations are repugnant. This idea that israel is some vast memorial to the holocaust, some remnant, is a revulting notion and it seems one elucidated by the author, he does not seem to understand the greatness of israel as the only country where free speech and free religion exist in the middle east, as well as democracy.