From Beirut to Jerusalem

This was probably the last of Tom Friedman's books that wasn't a tribute to how smart he is and can't be summarized in 5 words or less. The Lebanon portion was really excellent. The Israel piece was a bit more difficult. What i did find very intriguing about this part was that as a Jewish man moving to Israel, he was surprised and disappointed at how Western and secular the country was. As he stated, though, it has turned into a secular state just as Theodor Herzl had imagined.

The first part of the book details Friedman's working in Lebanon from 1979-84 during the War with Israel. The second part details his time in Jerusalem between 1984-1988.

One of the more interesting aspects is that this addition has another section entitled, “From Jerusalem to Washington” which follows the peace process in the early to mid 90's. it is fascinating how much hope there was of a settlement at that time, only to see it slip through the fingers of the participants. What a shame.