Sands of Sorrow: Israel's Journey from Independence

I first saw Mr. Viorst on PBS an an expert on Middle East affairs and was impressed by his keen insights. Considering that he is a Jewish writer living in the United States, he has established a highly independent and well-founded perspective on the state of Israel and its relationships with both the Arab world and the United States. After reading all of Henry Kissinger's writings on the Arab-Israel struggle, I found this book a wonderful counterpoint to the cold war outlook on Mideast politics taken by so many American administrations. I would compare it to David Shipler's perspective in his book on Arab and Jew; Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land. Perhaps with the end of the cold war, Mr. Viorst's perspective on the Arab-Israeli struggle will begin to find more resonance in the capitols of the western world. I would highly recommend this book to any serious student of Mid-East politics and history. In a time when we are fighting a battle against Osama bin Laden, Mr. Viorst illuminates the reasons why American policy in the Middle East may have, purposefully or inadvertently, helped to inflame so many Arabs while bringing no lasting peace to the region.He also does an excellent job, through the political history of Israel since its inception, sorting out the movements, Ashkenazi and Sephardi, Zionist and Revisionist, etc. that have pushed and pulled Israel in conflicting directions over the past 50 years. For that alone, this book should be compulsory reading for any student of Israeli political history. While it was written in the late 1980's, it still shines a light on the events which have since transpired.