By Martin Sieff
WHILE THE ARAB WORLD SLEPT: THE IMPACT OF THE BUSH YEARS ON THE MIDDLE EAST
By Claude Salhani
Xlibris, $29.95, 200 pages
REVIEWED BY MARTIN SIEFF
Slick, sweeping, arrogant and ignorant prescriptions on what to "do"
about the Middle East, and how successive U.S. administrations should
"guide" or "reshape" it are a dime a dozen. Serious, knowledgeable
first-hand accounts of the region are few indeed. So there is especial
reason to welcome Claude Salhani's new analysis-cum-personal memoir.
A personal note is necessary here. I am a good friend of Mr.
Salhani's and was his close colleague for a decade as we ran different
sections of United Press International. It became my conviction
quickly, which I still believe, that almost no one knows the Middle
East as well as Mr. Salhani: He was raised in Lebanon — French,
Christian, Lebanese and Arab at the same time. He has covered the
region for major Western news agencies for more than 35 years and he
has had the gift of being at the right places at precisely the moments
that truly mattered.
Mr. Salhani experienced the Lebanese Civil War — which still ranks with
the Iran-Iraq war as the greatest bloodletting the region has seen in
modern times — with extraordinary courage. He was on hand when 241 U.S.
Marines were killed in their sleep by a Hezbollah suicide truck bomber
in 1983, and he tried to rescue them, by digging out the rubble with
his bare hands. He covered the 1991 Gulf War and played a crucial role
in saving the life of a defecting Iraqi officer — an altruistic move
that resulted in a priceless haul of intelligence, as U.S. officers
later discovered. He covered the 1978-79 Islamic Revolution in Iran and
the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war from both sides.
This book is enriched by those experiences, not just in its analysis
but by the wonderful — and often hair-raising — stories Mr. Salhani
tells about his experiences.
On April 9, 1973, in a still generally peaceful Beirut, he even bumped
into a commando squad of Israeli soldiers, almost certainly led by
current-Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who were on their way to
assassinate three prominent Palestinian officials: Youssef Najjar (Abu
Youssef), Kamal Adwan and Kamal Nasser — in revenge for the 1972 Munich
massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes.
The leader of the group called over to Mr. Salhani, "Go back,
go back. It is dangerous here." Mr. Salhani, typically rejected the
advice and got what proved to be one of the first of a lifetime of
remarkable scoops. But those comments could serve as an epigram of wise
advice to the current Obama administration, as well as to many of its
predecessors, who came to grief in the Middle East through thinking
they could successfully impose on it, sweeping, simplistic solutions,
whether of the right or left, without regard for the history,
preferences, prejudices and experiences of its many peoples.
Mr. Salhani is in fact that rara avis — "rare bird" — a man of genuine
good will. He moves easily in Muslim, Christian and Jewish circles
alike. One of the most personally revealing stories in his book
recounts how when he was a young boy, his two closest friends, a Jewish
girl and a Muslim boy, made sure he (reluctantly) went to church
regularly to say his prayers.
Mr. Salhani also transcends the simplistic liberal-conservative,
Democrat-Republican, soft idealist vs. hard realist stereotypes that
effectively monopolize public discourse on the Middle East in
Washington. His general instincts and recommendations are cautious and
conservative and he is certainly no pacifist. His loathing for Saddam
Hussein is palpable. But he generally in the end gravitates to
cautious, nonviolent initiatives through which the United States should
engage the region and seek to reduce its manifest tensions.
Mr. Salhani excels in highlighting almost unknown or
uncomfortable facts, without regard to whether he gores the oxen of
Israelis or Arabs, right or left. One can disagree with his conclusions
and analyses, but they are always worth taking seriously. This book is
an education even to those of us who know, or think we know, the Middle
East well. To the general reader, it will be a revelation. And no more
humane or engaging guide could be imagined.
• Martin Sieff is chief global analyst for The Globalist
and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Middle East." His
next book "Shifting Superpowers: The New and Emerging Relationship
Between the United States, China and India," will be published in
January 2010.