Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant
Review: as a key note speaker on the Middle East I recommend this book fully
Neil Lazarus
awesomeseminars.com
Rating:
Summary: Truly for Idiots: One-Sided Guide of the Middle East
Review: While quite knowledgeable about the Middle East myself, I thought this book looked quite interesting and worth reading. I particularly enjoyed reading the similar book "Arabs and Israel for Beginners, " by Ron David, which I really found to be informative and entertaining at the same time and made 6 stars on my own list. Unfortunately, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Middle East" was a total disappointment. Though fascinating on the surface, the book suffers major problems having to do with its credibility and its fairness.First, not all the relevant facts are presented. Certain things are covered in great detail while other equally important facts are glossed over, or neglected completely. I understand that not everything can be covered in such an introductory guide, but this book does a terrible job presenting a balanced perspective. The Arab perspective is almost totally absent from this book. For example, it emphasizes Jewish suffering in Europe in the 1920s through 1940s while ignoring or minimizing the dispossession of Palestinians and loss of their land as a result of Jewish immigration. The book also extols Israel's "Law of Return" for allowing Jews anywhere in the world a safe-haven, but neglects to even mention that the same law forbids millions of Palestinians who were actually born on the land from returning to their homes. Likewise, the entire book is written from the point of view of Israel. Second, the title is somehow misleading. The Middle East in my mind evokes many things: the Holy Land, Islam, Arabs, Iranians, etc. If we concern ourselves with ancient history as well, as this book does, then we have a vastly broad topic that includes many things. Reading this book, however, one senses little concern for this broad coverage and focus instead on a single narrow thread connecting all these topics: Jewish history. Thus the book discusses Egypt as a prelude to the story of the Israelites and Moses. Mesopotamia is alluded to only as a prelude to the Babylonian exile. Islam is even presented mostly from the perspective of 7th century Islamic-Judaic relationships. Coming to the modern age, the centrality of Israel and the Zionist movement to this book is never far off. Many pages are spent on the Nazi Holocaust - something which never took place in the Middle East and actually has nothing to do with the Middle East. While it is of course OK to write a book on Jewish history, to call it a primer on the Middle East is misleading to readers. Understanding the conflict requires a balanced perspective, and also requires a better understanding of Islam and the Arabs since they make up the majority of that region. This book fails to deliver that. Perhaps the affiliation of Mitchell Bard with AICE (basically an Israeli PR firm) can explain the unbalanced perspective of this book?
Rating:
Summary: A Biased Opinion
Review: I read the book as an American trying to understand the motivations behind 9-11. I figured that a book on Middle Eastern Conflict would provide me with a broad summary. I soon realized that almost the entire book focused on Jewish history with Israeli/Arab conflict as a sub plot. Bard's account of this history is very one-sided. I am no historian, however, any "complete idiot" can see in this conflict there are no innocent sides as Bard portrays.
Rating: 
Summary: Informative but disappointingly biased
Review: I expected an objective account. This book is clearly pro-Israel. Nevertheless, it gave a good account of the tortuous conflicts in the middle ease. I got the definite feeling, however, that I should go on to read an another account of same history to bring a better balance to the issues.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent primer on Arab-Israeli history.
Review: I've been teaching and lecturing in this subject area for more than 30 years. This is an excellent "primer" on the subject. Easy to read, concise, to the point. Well worth the purchase price.
Rating:
Summary: Deceiving
Review: The book tries to deceive the reader into convincing him it is fair, but at the same time it makes one side to be the side always to blame (Palestinians) while the other is just calm peaceful doves (Israel) who are just victims and did nothing wrong to anyone! From the progress of events since 1948, and the long history before that year, this is clearly not the case, and thus the book is completely biased and odd-handed (as compared to even-handed!).
Rating:
Summary: Some Facts, Too Much Bias
Review: This is an excellent book if you want to get one side of the story of the Middle East conflict. It essentially lays out the rational Israeli side and makes a fairly convincing argument for the Israeli side of the argument. This is essentially the same argument and logic that is used by major US newspapers. However the guide purports to be a non-biased, factual look at the conflict and that is simply not the case. If you do buy this book, try another book from the Palestinian perspective as well to get "the whole story". The author does a good job of explaining one side of the story, but this is precisely the problem in America-- only one side of the story is known. By relying on mostly Zionist sources, the author robs his audience of a complete view of the conflict.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent! The best gift you can give your children !
Review: An excellent primer that is more important than ever. The author makes a point-by-point, untangling the convoluted history and emotions that mark the past and present conflict.
Rating:
Summary: Easy Yet In-Depth Read.
Review: This is an excellent book regarding the roots of the current situation in the middle east. Especially amusing are the "Tut Tut!" margin notes where Bard corrects false statements made by one side or another with facts.
Reading this will definately lead an open-minded, truly searching, uninformed person to a particular side of the argument. However, this is definately not a negative. ... This book sticks with specific facts and numbers instead of making the type of grand generalistic statements so many are making these days. ... Get this book along with others, get the verifiable facts, then get an opinion. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title
Rating:
Summary: Clearly bias overview. Cannot recommend it
Review: When I bought this book, I did it because I was curious if someone has actually managed to reduce the Middle East conflict to something the average person can absorb without taking sides. I was completely disappointed!! This book may present some facts, but when it comes to behind the scenes analysis, it will automatically assume the Israeli side. In covering certain crucial events that have impacted the course of history in the region, the authors will make attempts to present the Israeli justifications with no or little reference to the bias sources. If you are new to learning about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, this source is NOT it!
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