R. B. Boulton

Fascinating insights into Middle East diplomacy

Revisado: 01-04-22

It was extremely fascinating to hear the inside scoop, the machinations involved in high stakes diplomacy, written by an insider with meticulous knowledge and detail. As an added bonus, the reader has probably the best reading style and voice that I've ever heard. With this combination of story and performance it was always difficult to pause as necessary for other activities.

Insights into all of the major players involved were intriguing with perhaps the most interesting being Anwar Sadat, the outstanding hero of the whole story, and Syria's President Assad.

The Israeli players during this Kissinger period come across as very able people, strongly committed to sheer survival of a still-weak nation in the 1970s, often rigid and then showing surprising flexibility at times.
Kissinger's commitment to Israel is apparent even as he used the circumstances to make the US the dominant player in the region, taking over from the USSR. In other words, he had more than one agenda in play at the same time and, on his terms, he was successful in each of them

Kissinger comes across as a master of manipulation and, at times, a victim of his own attempts to over-control the process. But, love or dislike him, it's difficult to deny that he was a major contributor to Middle East stability - which was his intent.

However, his disinterest in the Palestinians comes over very strongly and one wonders how much has been lost for them and, in the process, a more peaceful Israel. Looking at it now, that's a festering sore for which no healing seems possible and one wonders throughout the story whether it might have been different.

This is a book well worth listening to.

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