a report about the bombing one day but the next day something new happens and the prior days bombing is forgotten, but it is not forgotten to those who lost a loved one in the tragic bombing. In order to understand the complexity of the problem as a whole, we must first understand what role each character plays. Friedman makes sure we understand where each character is coming from and what his or her ideology is toward the situation in the Middle East. Friedmans biographical assessments of different leaders such as Yasir Arafat and Ariel Sharon give us a better perceptive of the main underlying reasons for the struggle. Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, had a very distinctive appeal about him. While he was neither physically attractive nor dashing in anyway, he had an appeal to the Palestinians that was not typical with everyday statesmen. Arafat can credit his political success to his great accomplishment and that is guiding the Palestinians out of the deserts of obscurity into the land of prime time. Arafat was a statesman for the people, he knows what the people are going through and he uses that down-to-earth quality to relate to the Palestinian people and gain their trust and support. On the other hand there is Ariel Sharon, a man that didnt play with the enemy. The former Israeli general didnt play any games at all. The European Jews had a merciless endurance to get what they felt they rightfully deserved. Sharon had the ruthlessness that the European Zionists felt necessary to get what they deeply felt they were entitled to.We have talked about the conflict in the Middle East but we havent discussed what the conflict is exactly. Religion seems to be the primary source of tension. Before reading Beirut to Jerusalem my only source of information to the situation in the Middle East was the media and even though Friedman is a journalist, the book gave me a better comprehension of the condition ...
