This is a very odd book to review. Over and over again, I found myself agreeing with almost every word Said Aburish has written – about the wilful political blindness of the West towards the Arab world, the corrupt nature of Arab regimes, the hypocrisy of American power in the Middle East, the nature of Jewish as well as Islamic ‘fundamentalism’, the impending catastrophe in the region to which all but those who live there appear blind. Nor does Aburish indulge in obfuscation. Here he is, for example, on the West’s best friend in the Gulf:

Saudi Arabia’s internal structure is disintegrating and its Arab and Islamic policies are a failure. Disorder is on the way. The days of cheque-book diplomacy are over. The Saudi people are demanding their rights. Fahd has no option except to deepen his dependence on the West. And the West, still pursuing short-term gains, foolishly guarantees the House of Saud against internal and external threats...

All well and good. Yet I also found this an intensely boring book. There is a flatness to Aburish’s writing that places a heavy burden on the reader, not least because of its doubtful grammar. The statement that ‘Arafat continued to massage the egos of all Arab leaders, but it was an effort at attaining legitimacy with pro-West elements and financial survival’ lacks a final clause. There is a sloppy style about all this which makes me suspect that much of this book was dictated