Arab-Israeli Issues

School Library Journal

Gr 7-10 Harper's account of the events leading up to the Suez crisis of 1956 includes discussion of the British and French colonial interests throughout the Middle East, the establishment of the state of Israel in the '40s, and the rise of Middle East nationalist sympathies among the Arabs. The Suez crisis is described as having been the result of a complex mix of multi-national interests focused on an economically and ethnocentrically strategic locale. Interesting, well-captioned photographs on nearly every page and well-designed maps add even more clarity to an already unbiased and interesting account. As a further exploration of the aftermath of the Suez crisis, Harper's unbiased analysis continues in The Arab-Israeli Issue. His analysis of the 1967 war and its chronic aftermath further crystallizes the conventional wisdom that both the wars and the attempted peace negotiations have largely resulted in a deadlock and unresolved conflict in which the prospect for further wars is an ominous one. Provocative well-captioned photographs and analytic maps add to the already clear text. Hewitt deals with an issue containing many of the same apparently unresolved dilemmas. His comprehensive account of the history of the problems in Northern Ireland is laden with the detail of factions, sympathies, and conflicts that make up the history and likely future of this chronic trouble spot. Well-captioned and interesting photographs on nearly every page lighten and yet add to a fact-filled text, unbiased in its approach to what is often a highly emotionally-charged question. Catherine vanSonnenberg, LaJolla Country Day School, Calif.