Arab

The question of Palestine won't go away. Who owns this tiny land - sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? Arabs and Israelis dispute about their rights and boundaries. Each expects the other to yield. Both are fighting for control.

What started this mayhem? Historians point to a day in November of 1917 during the horrors of WWI when Britain entered into an agreement with Zionist Jews promising to help them establish a national home in Palestine. The agreement, known as the Balfour Declaration, was intended to win the financial and military support of Jews around the world - one of several theories on how to bring the war to an end and safeguard the far-flung British Empire.

In this book historian Jonathan Schneer leads the reader through the mysterious tangle of contradictory, simultaneous agreements that a desperate British Empire made with France, the Arabs, the Ottoman Turks, the Americans, and the Jews in order somehow to stop the bloodshed.

It's no wonder that chaos in the Middle East is a result. As Schneer says, in slaying the dragon, they sowed the dragon's teeth.

As an Arab American of Lebanese descent and Christian roots, and as founder and president of the Arab American Institute, James Zogby provides an in-depth, personal analysis of America's relationship with the Arab world.

He addresses several myths people believe about Arabs, illustrates the problems that arise when history is ignored, and provides practical suggestions for improving our relationship with Arabs - the most basic of which is, listen to what Arabs are saying.

The book provides an excellent example of listening by publishing a recent poll of thousands of Arabs in eight countries by Zogby International, bringing their thoughts and voices to our attention.