Ally by michael b oren5/27/2023 The pathos of the historical characters is wonderful as well: Nassar of Egypt is a classic flawed and corrupted ruler, and I liked the idea of Anwar Sadat as Achilles brooding in his tent Dianne, Rabin, LBJ, Eban and the others play out like characters in a Shakespearian drama in places. Oren reminds me a bit of Shelby Foote ("A Narrative History of the Civil War") in how his writing turns the history into drama in places. The author manages to dramaticize many of the decisions quite well - the Liberty incident as narrated in the book is a real nail-biter, as is the initial Israeli first-strike on the Egyptians. Finally the end of the book provides a “wrap up,” describing how the major players ended up and what the war did to change the political landscape of the area. The third portion deals with the military and political maneuvering that went on during the actual armed conflict. The second portion deals at length with the events and diplomacy that led up to the war. The first deals with an abbreviated history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and provides a summary of the 19 wars, the rise of the dictatorships in the neighboring countries (especially Nassar in Egypt). The book is split into four distinct sections. The book managed to indoctrinate me into what the author calls the Middle East “Context” and I am finding that I am looking at the current events in the area with new eyes. Coming into this book, I had only a rudimentary knowledge of the Six Day War, and I probably often got it confused with the Yom Kippur war or the 1958 Sinai incident.
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