BOOK RECOMMENDATION

I just finished reading David Fromkin's "A Peace to End All Peace," which deals with the history of the Middle East from 1914 to 1922. It covers th fall of the Ottoman Empire and outlines the duplicity, greed, prejudice and rapacity that lead to the creation of the modern Middle East. Fascinating stuff.

I was amused to find this 1921 quote from Winston Churchill about the Palestinian Arab's refusal to negotiate with him about Zionism: "[I]t is not fair to come to a discussion thinking that one side has to give nothing and the other side has to give large and important concessions, and without any security that these concessions will be a means of peace." The more things change, the more they stay the same.