Yasir Arafat stands as one of the most resilient, recognizable, and controversial political figures of modern times. The object of unrelenting suspicion, steady admiration, and endless speculation, Arafat has occupied the center stage of Middle East politics for almost four decades. Yasir Arafat is the most comprehensive political biography of this remarkable man. Forged in a tumultuous era of competing traditionalism, radicalism, Arab nationalism, and Islamist forces, the Palestinian movement was almost entirely Arafat's creation, and he became its leader at an early age. Arafat took it through a dizzying series of crises and defeats, often of his own making, yet also ensured that it survived, grew, and gained influence. Disavowing terrorism repeatedly, he also practiced it constantly. Arafat's elusive behavior ensured that radical regimes saw in him a comrade in arms, while moderates backed him as a potential partner in peace. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

In this sober account, two veteran writers on the Middle East (The Transformation of Palestinian Politics) catalogue Arafat's career from his student days in Cairo through his years as the head of a violent nationalist movement, to his surprising emergence as the internationally respected leader of the Palestinian people. The authors offer strong evidence not only that Arafat has a long history of duplicity, but more interestingly, that he has repeatedly made gross errors of judgment. He got his organization "kicked from Amman to Beirut and then to Tunis" for stirring up trouble in his host countries, sided with Saddam Hussein in the 1991 Gulf War, and has consistently made military miscalculations, as he did in 1970 against Jordan's King Hussein. The writers sometimes stray from their lawyerly tone, most speciously when they attempt to connect both Arafat and Iran to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Suggesting that Iran (the source of arms bought by Arafat) is "allies to a degree with the forces of Usama bin Ladin" without so much as a footnote undermines their credibility somewhat, but does not alter their central point-that Arafat is a bad leader and a worse peace partner. The authorsargue that Arafat retains behind-the-scenes power, but with Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas sworn in, Arafat's perceived importance may be waning. A useful chronology and glossary of names and political movements is provided. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

In characterizing himself as "the most important person in the Middle-East equation," Yasir Arafat has not given all students of his life reason to rejoice. Far otherwise. The authors of these two books probing Arafat's unlikely career see in his status only a tragically diminished likelihood for regional peace. In the shorter and more narrowly focused book, Karsh examines Arafat's dubious role in the Palestinian uprising (the al-Aqsa Intifada) that began in September 2000 and has greatly reduced the hopes for peace raised by the Oslo Accords of the 1990s. Adducing compelling evidence, Karsh depicts Arafat as the mastermind who planned the al-Aqsa Intifada--including the suicide bombings, drive-by shootings, and lynchings--long before he found it convenient to describe the orchestrated violence as a spontaneous national response to Ariel Sharon's pre-approved visit to Temple Mount. The al-Aqsa Intifada thus fits into a cynical larger strategy--which Karsh chillingly limns in Arafat's own words--for using peace negotiations as a temporary gambit in enlarging and solidifying the machinery necessary to destroy the state of Israel. Because most Palestinians want peace, Karsh does not blame them for their leader's perfidy. But he does blame Israeli leaders and the international community, accusing them of almost criminal naivete in affording Arafat repeated openings to work his black magic. Sharp criticism of Israeli and international leaders also frames the much fuller portrait of Arafat offered by the Rubins. Like Karsh, the Rubins portray Arafat as treacherous, tracing his malign influence back much further than the al-Aqsa Intifada, marshalling compelling evidence of Arafat's complicity in numerous earlier atrocities, including the 1972 outrage at the Munich Olympics and the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro. But the Rubins also show how--for all his cunning--Arafat has repeatedly sabotaged his own projects through inexplicable arrogance and tactical foolishness. Yet even when he alienated most Arab leaders by applauding Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Arafat managed--yet again--to survive. The Rubins attribute Arafat's staying power to his tyrannical control of all Palestinian institutions and his adept manipulation of Western credulity. Some will disagree with the authors' conclusions about their subject, but there can be no doubt that this "political biography" makes a strong and compelling case for its position. BryceChristensen. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of the journal Middle East Review of International Affairs, Barry Rubin is the author and editor of numerous books Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Prologue: In the Bunker, 2002	3
1 A Most Unlikely Leader, 1929-1967	11
2 The Che Guevara of the Middle East, 1967-1971	37
3 The Teflon Terrorist, 1971-1975	57
4 Fouling His Own Nest, 1975-1983	77
5 Far Away from Home, 1984-1991	101
6 Hero of the Return, 1991-1995	125
7 There Is a Tide in the Affairs of Men, 1995-1999	161
8 The Moment of Truth, 2000	185
9 Being Yasir Arafat	217
10 No End to the Struggle, 2001-2003	253
Notes	273
Glossary	319
Chronology	323
Selected Bibliography	329
Index	345

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.