Description: "A layman's guide to the history--political, religious, and cultural--that led us to the current challenges plaguing the Middle East [covering] the major interests and actors in the region, from Israel to ISIS, and [helping] to spin a narrative of the evolution of violence and conflict in this age-old hotbed of unrest"--ONIX annotation
Review Quotes: "Ori Soltes gives the reader a fair, clear-eyed tour d'horizon of today's Middle East. He roots the region's essentially permanent troubles in its ancient sectarian divisions and its modern inability to form durable, popular, successful states. After 100 years and the disappointments of Nasser, Saddam, and Assad, the Arabs have yet to create such a state. Only the non-Arab peoples--Iran, Turkey, and Israel--have succeeded, but at a pitiably high cost in resources and regional good will. The road forward will be as bumpy as the road behind, and Soltes provides a brisk, readable guide."
--Geoffrey Wawro, author of Quicksand: America's Pursuit of Power in the Middle East