Rating: 
Summary: Terrible - Do not Buy this Book!
Review: This book is shallow and misleading. The author simply does not address the real root of why people become suicide bombers, in fact she makes up any excuse except the real one. Suicide bombers become suicice bombers due to humiliation, oppression, descrimination and lack of freedom. It is an act of desperation and the only way that the Palestinians have left to strike back at their Islraeli oppressors.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing..
Review: This book is very misleading and in some points rather ridiculous!!! The author is deals with the matter in a very shallow and trivial manner. Not only does she show total ignorance with the Middle East she also simplifies the whole subject in an irresponsible way. You can not simply explain the whole situation with cultural differences and compare suicide bombers with drug dealers!!
It is not just that the Palestinians like to blow themselves in the air because they find it a nice trendy way to go to heaven!! It is not because everybody is simply distorted and disoriented!! I didn't like the book. I hoped that the author would have put more light on the issue, dug deeper for the truth.. She could have followed the story more thoroughly. I even saw her talking on TV and I didn't like that either. She talked about everybody just pretending coz they could not stand up to their own pressure from their own society!! she couldn't be more wrong actually. I happen to know a lot of people from the Middle East.. Especially Palestinians and Israelis are the hardest critics of their own leadership!! Her interpretation of facts seemed to me rather immature. Her opinions were rather fixed even before she talked to both parties.. I feel genuinely sooo sorry for both sides.. I can feel the pain and sorrow for all the people who lost their love ones in this stupid incomprehensible and unacceptable manner. But there is a magic word here that holds all the truth in it. It is very simple but quite full of meaning. Every American can understand. Every single reasonable and honest man or woman in the free world can realize what it means. It simply explains WHY?!?!... This word is FREEEEDOM. There is simply NO other explanation.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting topic
Review: When a bunch of ladies decide to become suicide bombers, I think it is proper to ask what's going on.
We're not seeing a spontaneous reaction. Most folks don't blow themselves up. Most ladies don't do it. And even if one suddenly decided to do so, most do not have access to the explosives.
This book explains some of the pressures these women were put under, and how they were led into such destructive tasks.
It's touching and heartbreaking.
The author shows us how six-year old girls in first grade are indoctrinated to the extent that they all are eager to be martyrs, so they can cause deaths of Jews and go to Paradise. As we learn, to prospective martyrs, Paradise is a place no Jews ever get to!
Still, there are some outstanding questions I'm sure we all have. First, is this tactic, um, working? Will it achieve something? Second, just what is the overall goal of those who send these ladies out on such missions, if any? Third, just where is the support and funding coming for the entire operation, including the propaganda and training? Fourth, what can be done to stop it?
To some extent, the tactic is "working." Suicide bombings are big news. I think antizionists have long realized that deaths play in their favor, whether they be deaths of Jews or Arabs. Suicide bombing gives one both, what could be better than that? And this book seems to confirm my suspicions in that regard. Meanwhile, whatever the overall goal may be, the result has been to afflict "an entire generation with a consuming desire to die."
As for the support and funding, well, it has come from Arafat and his coterie. Victor shows that they've force-fed hatred to an entire population. And they've obtained fiscal and political support from Arab nations as well as the European Union.
To her credit, Victor shows the analogy between the sacrifice of today's young Arabs and the sacrifices of the, um, Youth in the defence of Berlin in 1945.
But isn't there a goal? Freedom? Land? Maybe so! But even here, Victor allows us to be warned that this may not be achievable. After all, Israel is small. It may appear to some people that either the West Bank and Gaza or all of Israel is just the right size to accommodate a new Arab nation: all one has to do is dispose of all the Jews there. But that's not necessarily the case. What if it is simply too small? What if the Arabs that demand a new nation can't fit into just the West Bank and Gaza, or even into all of Israel? Or what if some space is to be left for the Jews? Victor quotes an Israeli general who recommends that some space in the Sinai may be needed to provide enough room.
Victor does make a few errors. One is her claim about UN resolution 242. She says the French version requires Israel to withdraw from "all territories," while the official and binding one says "the territories." But the truth is that the binding one says "territories," and has no "the." Neither version has an "all." This was a major issue in the debate over the resolution. It is no small error on Victor's part.
Victor describes the five pillars of Islam. She gets the last four right: charity, fasting (by day) during Ramadan, pilgrimage to Mecca, and ritual prayer five times a day. But the first one is "Shahadah." That means affirming the Lord (of Ibrahim) and the Prophet. Victor says it is "martyrdom, the declaration of faith." Again, this is no small error.
The author does make some interesting distinctions among various radical Islamist terrorist groups, telling which ones favor starting by eliminating Israel and which ones prefer to start by creating an Islamic terrorist state in the region.
While Victor does not do a good job in addressing the causes of the Arab fight against the Jews, she does have some ideas for solving it. And while I disagree with them, I think they are worth thinking about. She points out that the moderates on each side won't be able to make peace. For one thing, their stands are too far apart. For another, neither can be trusted, as neither speaks for those who are less moderate. She concludes that peace must be made between the extremists on both sides, thus, the positions of the extremists are the most important! Besides, Victor says, extremists have a tendency to say what they mean, quite openly. That may introduce an element of truth and trust.
I disagreed with quite a bit of what Victor wrote. But I still thought this book was worth reading.
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