Fallen and Flawed

The Mirage of Peace [A Book Review + Quiz!]

David Aikman knows the Middle East.

He knows the historical, political, social and religious context of nations like Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

This shouldn’t surprise you…

He’s the former Time magazine bureau chief of Jerusalem where he spent decades reporting on the never-ending conflict in the Arab world, making him perfectly suitable to answer this question:

“Is peace in the Middle East a pipe dream?”

In this intriguing introduction to the Arab world–The Mirage of Peace–Aikman analyzes the players who rule this region, the politics that regulate it and the history that runs through it…offering a reasonable explanation on why this area of the world is an everlasting hotbed of violence.

This Can’t be Missed

Israel’s existence in the Middle East is a major fork in the Arab eye.

But this animosity ranges from unbending determination to wipe Israel off the map [Syria] to occasional, but fragile support [Jordan].

The source for this animosity is complex.

• Arabs denial that Jerusalem is a religious city to the Jews.

• Palestinians dislodged from their homes and land by Israeli invasions.

• Extreme Islamic intolerance for Jews fed by an apocryphal book, Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

However, one thing you don’t get from Aikman’s book–who is a professing Christian–is a pro-Israel argument.

Neither do you get an anti-Palestinian polemic.

Rather you get a critical look at the historical development of the Arab world and the nations that make it up.

Basically, since Aikman systematically walks through each nation’s history, you can bone up on your Middle East knowledge in about two nights of reading.

Nice for a trivia fanatic like me. But there’s more to this book than that.

Why the Image of the Arch of Titus?

Aikman begins and ends The Mirage of Peace with the image of the Roman conquest of Jerusalem…complete with the armies slaughter of Jews, their march through the Arch of Titus and  the looting of the Jewish Temple.

Why the Arch of Titus?

Well, the 70 A. D. sack of Jerusalem marked the beginning of the Jew’s two thousand year exile from their homeland.

So, for the Jews, the Arch is a grim symbol of their tragic history.

Indeed, upon the birth of the nation of Israel in 1948, a delegation of Roman Jews walked through the Arch–in the opposite direction the Romans did 2,000 years ago.

But for Aikman, the Arch of Titus means something more: The events around Jerusalem dominated world affairs then. And guess what? They still do.

Other books by David Aikman: The Delusion of Disbelief and Jesus in Beijing.

BONUS: How much do you know about the Middle East? Take this quiz to find out.

Update: Unfortunately you have to register at Quibllo to see the answers. I didn’t know that before I launched the quiz. If you don’t want to register, here are the answers at Google Docs.

Tags: Israel, Mideast, Palestine, Peace