his acknowledgment of various people who assisted and offered information, tough many of the people he so recognizes are editors and journalists who have helped him in his career more than in developing the material for this book. He does point to a number of people he says helped him conceptualize the book and to understand better the events in Beirut and Jerusalem. He also acknowledges that in the writing of this book he has drawn on his own previously published material, notably his columns in the New York Times concerning the issues in the Middle East. He also notes that the people he has interviewed are identified in the book but that certain people are identified only by their first names because they requested this for their own safety, which in itself says a great deal about the volatility and peril of this part of the world.
The international political economy of the Middle East is complex and derives both from historical factors and economic and political actions of recent
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