I remember first reading this book many many years ago.
After reading it I ended up taking several courses in Political Science and Middle East history at university, and have read all of the classic academic works from Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein to Edward Said, Israel Shahak, Charles Smith and Ilan Pappe.
I now know my Middle East history back and forth, and have spent years researching and reading on this topic.

This book is an absolutely excellent introduction onto the subject. Easy to read and fast. I'd recommend it for ALL interested people with little knowledge of the Arab-Israeli conflict and Israeli history. It is the perfect stepping stone onto larger more academic works.

The only fault in this book is that the writing is slightly emotionally loaded, which isn't 'proper' for an academic or scholarly work. But that does not take away from the facts that this book is replete with, and it achieves its objective to be a beginner's run-through of the history of the area from ancient times to present, and that is why I give it 5 stars. ( )