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Arafat: The Biography
Over thirty years ago Yasser Arafat swept onto the world stage as leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, a machine in one hand and an olive branch in the other. In that time he became many things to many terrorist, Nobel Peace Prize-winner, and to the Bush Whitehouse, a Pariah once more. Now, following his death in Paris, we review hundreds of frank and revealing interviews with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials, including Arafat himself, to separate the man from the myth and look towards the future for this troubled land.
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 25, 2020
An excellent political biography, though little detail is afforded to Arafat's personal life here.
December 30, 2023
Buen libro para entender la historia de Palestina VS Israel.
September 19, 2015
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.
July 20, 2015
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.
July 1, 2017
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.
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.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews