This book was one that changed my view on the Israeli-Arab conflict of the twentieth and twenty-first century. Friedman examines the roots of this conflict in the context of his early career as a journalist. It lacks many of the annoying characteristics of his recent books: self-aggrandizement and endless predictions. It simply gives an account of the connections and conflicts between two societies that are interrelated and yet abhor the threat that each of them brings to the worldview of the other. Friedman is hardly an objective observer, but his account of the fighting is what convinced me to research the conflict deeper and seperate myself from the solely pro-Israel stance of many American sources of information on the conflict.