Killing Mr Lebanon: The Assassination of Rafik Hariri and Its Impact on the Middle East

click here for more details, find new or used items	Nicholas Blanford Our price £18.04 (£18.99) New from £8.52 Used from £8.09 Pages: 256 (Hardcover) ISBN: 1845112024 Pub: I B Tauris & Co Ltd Pub date: 2006-08-25 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 245210

Reader Reviews:

GRIPPING THE ESSENTIALS OF THE LEBANESE DIVIDE (0/0 people found this helpful)

Blanford's book brings the Lebanese political spectrum into sharp focus - the book is a page-turner in which the leading characters emerge in flesh and blood, beyond political cariacature and quick generalisations.

Unlike some of the more dessicated modern histories produced by armchair academics emotionally and spiritually detached from the nations and peoples they write of, Nicholas Blanford's book has a pulse and a beating heart that takes the reader to the vortex of the awful tragedy continuing to unfold in Lebanon. The reader will appreciate the deep loss suffered by all those who were intimates of Rafiq Hariri, including even some of his political adversaries still touched by his energy and dedication.

The author also guides the reader to a vantage point from which to comprehend the influences upon most of yesterday and today's key players on Lebanon's socio-political chessboard. Lebanon can be understood to be functioning as a microcosm of the major sectarian issues at work in the Middle East and their interpenetration with Western affairs.

This new book documenting the latest political events in Lebanon, Syria, Israel and the background to them has appeared at a critical time. The various ideologies being worked out in armed conflict between insurgent groups, militia and international armed forces and the impact of the killing of "Mr Lebanon" is set within a clear historical past, and a world deeply divided in the 21st Century. It is an exceedingly moving and informative read at the same time as it is troubling in identifying the seemingly irreconcilable positions adopted by players from both the Middle East and the West.

The brutal - and ultimately deconstructive - assassination of Rafiq Hariri can be looked at as a turning point in Lebanon's internal and foreign relations. Lebanon has paid a terrible price for the little space of geography that she occupies. Indeed, last summer's indulgent and bloody war between Hezbollah and Israel's armed forces effectively undermined years of Rafiq Hariri's endeavour.

A leading light's vision and passion were extinguished in that inhuman blast in Beirut in what was a foretaste of further such killings by dark forces and the manifestations of the international powerplay centred on Lebanon.


The publication of Nicholas Blanford's book could not have come at a more critical time.

A must read (0/0 people found this helpful)

A well documented book that is easy to read and hard to put down. It accurately describes the events that led to Hariri's assassination both on the local and the international scene in a lively manner with a detailed witnesses account of the days and hours leading to 14 February 2005. It provides valuable insight in the events unfolding in Lebanon today more particularly the recent Israeli Hezbollah war and the governmental crisis.

This book is a must read for anyone wishing to understand the intricacies of Lebanese politics and the Syrian and regional dimension of the events unfolding right now in front of our eyes. In my opinion it plugs a major hole in international reporting on Lebanese stories as it provides an adequate and thorough background that is often lacking in short articles.

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