Chronicles the life and political career of Yasser Arafat, including his founding of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement and his time as leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
This book didn't read so much as a biography than a history. There were few details of Arafat's personal life. Thus I didn't feel at the end of the book like I knew much more about Arafat the man than when I started. Nevertheless as a history of the Israeli/Palestine conflict, this book is excellent. It is a good mix of historical facts, quotes from the appropriate people, and the author's take on the various incidences and principle players.
Politically balanced yet extremely sympathetic historical biography of one of the 20th century's most infamous and divisive figureheads. The book is very focused on chronology of events in the Middle East and thus also serves as an interesting account of recent history of the region.
The Palestinian cause has been a powerful force that has shaped politics in the Middle-East - and continues to do so. If you want to know more about the complexities of the region and how we got here, read this.
It is more of a political biography than a personal one but you do get a sense of what the real person was like, and why certain decisions were taken, from someone who knew him well (from a journalistic perspective).
As we have generally been spoon-fed one particular viewpoint of middle east activity through the popular media it is very interesting to see the other perspective and some of the key facts (that have not been denied to my knowledge). Suddenly we seem able to make sense of a number of events in that turbulent region and realise that other players in this 'game' are far from squeaky clean.