Since the death of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970 there has been no ideology to capture the imagination of the Arab world except Islamic fundamentalism. Any sense of completely secular Arab states ended with him and what we see today happening in the Middle East is a direct result of Western opposition to Nasser's strategies and ideals. Nasser is a fascinating figure fraught with dilemmas. With the CIA continually trying to undermine him, Nasser threw his lot in with the Soviet Union, even though he was fervently anti-Communist. Nasser wanted to build up a military on par with Israel's, but didn't want either the '56 or '67 wars. This was a man who was a dictator, but also a popular leader with an ideology which appealed to most of the Arab people and bound them together. While he was alive, there was a brief chance of actual Arab unity producing common, honest, and incorruptible governments throughout the region. More than ever, the Arab world is anti-Western and teetering on disaster, and this examination of Nasser's life is tantamount to understanding whether the interests of the West and the Arab world are reconcilable. Nasser is a definitive and engaging portrait of a man who stood at the center of this continuing clash in the Middle East.

Nasser: The Last Arab

Biographies & Memoirs

SAÏD K. ABURISH

Historical

Thomas Dunne Books

In A Brutal Friendship, Said K. Aburish traces the true origins of the region`s present turmoil to the manner in which corrupt Arab rulers have subordinated the welfare of their subjects to their cultivation of cozy relationships with the West. Using direct evidence from his unrivaled range of Arab sources, he describes how the West -- mostly the CIA -- sponsored Islamic fundamentalism in the 1950s and `60s in an effort to contain Nasser and thwart Soviet designs on the region, how American and British leaders have turned a blind eye to repressive governments when they suit their interests (and toppled them when they do not), and how it is these very machinations that set Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on his bloody road to power.

A Brutal Friendship: West and the Arab Elite

History

Asia

Orion mass market paperback

The definitive biography of Egyptian president Gamal Adbel Nasser, one of the most important Arab leaders of the 20th century, Since the death of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970 there has been no ideology to capture the imagination of the Arab world except Islamic fundamentalism.

Nasser : The Last Arab

Gerald Duckworth Co Ltd

Children of Bethany

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

BLOOMSBURY

Cry Palestine, Inside the West Bank

An examination of the House of Saud, the unstable Saudi dynasty, predicts the rise of a militant Islamic regime and an increase in the price of oil that could lead to a world depression, a West-Muslim war, or both.

The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of The House of Saud

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

ARAFAT From Defender to Dictator

Saddam Hussein

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Books by SAÏD K. ABURISH