Reddit reviews Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon (Nation Books)

I've spent some time in Lebanon and I'm writing my honours thesis on the Lebanese Civil War, so I can probably help you quite a bit!

Robert Fisk - Pity the Nation: Robert Fisk was the one of the first foreign journalists to go into the camp during the massacre, so his first hand account of it in this book is pretty important.

Lucile Volk - Martyrs and Memorials: This is a great little book representative of the more modern historiographic type regarding Lebanon, I'm sure there's something about Sabra & Shatila in there.

Fawazz Trablousi - A History of Modern Lebanon This is the text you should read to give yourself some quick context on the conflict as well as understand the economic and social aspects behind the broader conflict.

For articles and such I would recommend checking out JSTOR, does your university have access to it? I wrote a (terrible) paper years ago on whether Sharon was legally culpable for the massacre so I'll see if I can dig it out for you and see what sources I used.

The Lebanese civil war was shockingly complicated and the 1982 invasion was only a facet of it. If you have any questions or want some clarification, feel free to PM me and I'll help as best I can.

Cheers!

I learned a lot from his book Pity the Nation about the history of Israel-Palestinian relations and the Lebanon War, guy has some brilliant insight.

Also great is his 3-part series Beirut to Bosnia which was banned from being re-aired on Discovery after tons of pressure from advertisers and pro-Israel groups.

Fisk is beyond legit IMO.

http://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Beirut_to_Bosnia

edit- thanks for the lecture! going to listen to it immediately

No problem, not meaning to sound like his agent or anything but i really recommend his book Pity the Nation which is about the Lebanon war which he covered extensively, powerful stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Pity-Nation-Abduction-Lebanon-Books/dp/1560254424

I also recognise that they are indeed propaganda networks at play in this crisis but i was genuinely surprised that you believed fisk ( whom i agree and disagree with about certain things) was on some pro-war western intervention side when he is actually well known for being for being quite hostile with such enterprises.

It is even more interesting when you get into it.

If you ever have the urge to learn about this time in Lebanon, which we haven't brought up, the American military attack, The Israeli invasion, the Syrian invasion, The Palestinians, and the Civil War that were happening all during the 1980's I recommend this book: Pity the Nation.

Which takes it's name from the Lebanese Poem:

>Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.

Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave

and eats a bread it does not harvest.

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero,

and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream,

yet submits in its awakening.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice

save when it walks in a funeral,

boasts not except among its ruins,

and will rebel not save when its neck is laid

between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox,

whose philosopher is a juggler,

and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting,

and farewells him with hooting,

only to welcome another with trumpeting again.

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years

and whose strongmen are yet in the cradle.

Pity the nation divided into fragments,

each fragment deeming itself a nation.”

>but there is an alliance with hezbollah and ba’athists within lebanon



The Syrian Ba'ath and the Iraqi Ba'ath are totally different.

If you want a place to begin read, you can start with this: https://www.amazon.com/Muqtada-al-Sadr-Shia-Revival-Struggle/dp/1416551476

And this: https://www.amazon.com/Pity-Nation-Abduction-Lebanon-Books/dp/1560254424

https://www.amazon.com/Pity-Nation-Abduction-Lebanon-Books/dp/1560254424/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1497027621&sr=8-2&keywords=robert+fisk

Norman Finkelstein himself usually recommends these three books pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab conflict:

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Benny Morris, Righteous Victims

Zeev Maoz, Defending the Holy Land

Robert Fisk, Pity the Nation

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As an aside, I'd also highly recommend Finkelstein's own Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.


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Interesting backstory. I will probably postpone reading this for now, it would bring back a lot of violent memories from my childhood probably :) Thanks for the suggestion though.

Pity the Nation by Robert Fisk. Fisk covered the Lebanon war (one of the first reporters on scene at the Sabra & Shatila massacre), the invasion of Iraq, nd he covers the Syrian war today. He writes for the Independent and lives in Beirut.