On 2 May 1953 two 18-year-old cousins were enthroned as kings, in Baghdad and Amman respectively. Faisal II of Iraq, the intelligent ruler of a wealthy country, seemed destined for a great future. Hussein of Jordan, king of a penniless backwater, described by his housemaster as ‘not a success at Harrow’, seemed bound to fail. It was the former, however, who was murdered with his family in 1958. The latter survived countless assassination attempts and died a revered world statesman in 1999. The secret, as Avi Shlaim shows in this complex, readable, important biography, was luck, character, the charm of ‘exceptionally gracious manners’ — and a good army.
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Hilluk Eben Mitzur
January 23rd, 2008 11:18amAvi Shlaim is well-known for being of the far left, and an anti-Zionist. Thus the concluding citation of his words deploring the establishment of Israel. No doubt his writings on Arab leaders are far more sympathetic and satisfactory than his writings on Israeli and Jewish topics, which have to be admitted to be traitorous, although he lives comfortably and without fear of retaliation in the very country he despises, Israel, demonstrating despite himself Israel's liberal and democratic culture. The glowing endorsement of Schlaim's views by Mansel, the reviewer, is problematic to say the least. The problem in the Middle East is not Israel and never was: it is that Muslims and Arabs cannot bring themselves to accept ANY non-Muslim, non-Arab state in their midst, especially not a liberal democracy, and especially not one established by Jews. That is the problem. And if the West capitulates to this, and abandons Israel as Schlaim and Mansel wish, this will be a major set-back for liberal democratic values and Western culture generally. This is something the Arab world well understands. In effect, Schlaim and Mansel are endorsing religious fanaticism and totalitarian Islam against liberal Western values.
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Bart
January 11th, 2008 12:18pmThe simple fact that Avi Slime, an Oxford professor who couldn't get a job in his native land as a school bus driver, claims that the Balfour Declaration was 'one of the worst mistakes in British foreign policy' should be enough to demonstrate his anti-Zionist biases. His writings over the years have simply fed into the standard-issue anti-Jewish bias of the British chattering classes and, taken together, have less intellectual merit that a pile of dog droppings. An endorsement of the pipsqueak King's 'moral character' by, of all people, Bill Clinton, should also be an indicator of the judgment of Avi Slime and his fawning reviewer.
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