Tragedy of the Middle East by Barry Rubin

From the Publisher

The Middle East has changed clearly, substantially, and dramatically during the last decade. Yet scholarly and public understanding lags far behind recent events. Barry Rubin's historical and political summation of the region shows how events and ideas have both shaped and altered its character. Three interlinked themes are crucial to the book. First, a reinterpretation of the era of recent upheaval the Middle East has just passed through, which the author calls the Era of Radical Expectations. During that period, many Arabs believed that some leader, country, or radical movement would unite the region, solving all its problems. Second, an evaluation of how the historical experience of the period between the 1940s and the 1990s undermined the old system, making change necessary. Third, an analysis of the region today that explains future developments, in what the author terms the Era of Reluctant Pragmatism, as the Middle Eastern societies determine their relationships to the West. Barry Rubin is Director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herziliya, Israel, and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs. He is the author of 16 books on the Middle East and has edited another 17 that include the widely reviewed and acclaimed The Transformation of Palestinian Politics (Harvard, 1999) and The Israel-Arab Reader (Penguin/Putnam, 2002)

Publishers Weekly

For a brief period in the 1990s, peace in the Middle East seemed possible. Now that that's over, Rubin seeks to explain what went wrong. In his sixteenth book on the region, he argues that Arab leaders balked at peace because it presented too great a threat to their own power. Blaming external enemies Israel and the United States has long enabled Arab regimes to channel frustration away from their own failures, Rubin writes, and governments across the region reverted to this strategy when peace seemed likely to break out. This is not the first time that Rubin, who is the editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs, has carefully summed up very recent events. His widely acclaimed 1999 book, The Transformation of Palestinian Politics: From Revolution to State-Building, analyzed the inner workings of the Palestinian Authority. But while the tone of that book was cautiously hopeful, in his new work he sees no realistic path to a brighter future. This is a dense but well-argued read, and timely, too, as Westerners seek an explanation for why most if not all of the September 11th hijackers hail from U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt. (Sept. 1) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Foreign Affairs

Rubin argues that Middle Eastern rulers hang onto control with police-state tactics and mollify the masses with anti-Western and anti-Israeli rhetoric. Economic development gets short shrift. Palestinians have never really accepted the existence of Israel. Even the Islamists, while opposed to the existing regimes (Iran aside), fit into the resulting political gridlock since regimes can concede some Islamist goals while diverting Islamist rage to the satanic outsider. Rubin's penultimate chapter shifts focus to argue that America's Middle East policy has been strikingly benign, implying that Middle Eastern rulers or their populaces must be cynical or perverse not to appreciate this. Rubin is a seasoned specialist. His empirical case is not trivial and his listing of radical statements by sundry Arab and Iranian leaders is telling. Nonetheless, other accounts might plausibly distinguish more among the states lumped together here, explain the deep-seated antipathy to the outsider (the United Kingdom yesterday, the United States today), and put more emphasis on the role of Israel in the developments he depicts. The Tragedy of the Middle East, written in these times, is likely to be read as a brief for massive regime change throughout the Arab world and Iran.

Booknews

What keeps the Arab world weak, backward, and alienated from the west, claims Rubin (Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel) are repressive regimes that continually thwart any reform attempts with cries about the evils of Israel and the US. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents