Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Oxford Paperbacks (1991), Edition: New edition, 681 pages
Description
Pity the Nation will rank among the classic accounts of war in our time, both as a historical document and as an eyewitness testament to human savagery. Written by one of Britain's foremost journalists, this remarkable book combines political analysis and war reporting in an unprecedented way. This is an epic account of the Lebanon conflict by an author who has personally witnessed the carnage of Beirut for over a decade.
Media reviews
Even before the publication of Robert Fisk's Pity the Nation, first in England, now in the US, there were several good books on the war in Lebanon. Among those in print and available in the US are Thomas Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem, Jonathan C. Randal's Going All the Way, George W. Ball's
All of the authors agree on the following:
Israel's invasion of Lebanon was de to demoralize the Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza by eradicating the PLO;
Israel wanted to establish a Pax Israelica by cantonizing the Levant (as it hoped eventually to do to the entire Arab world) and developing a Greater Israel through the installation of a client government in Beirut;
the Maronite Phalangists participated in this betrayal until the 11th hour; and
during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon the Arab states revealed their impotence by doing nothing, while the death toll in Lebanon climbed past 23,000 (predominantly Lebanese) at the cost of more than 600 Israeli lives, almost 500 Americans, 100 French and assorted others in the multinational and UNIFIL forces. Fisk then goes on to note that the ransom kidnappings (he was a close friend and colleague of Terry Anderson) began after the pointless bombardment of Lebanon by the USS New Jersey (its shells were the size of Volkswagens)—another legacy of the war in Lebanon and further evidence of our diplomatic ineptitude in the whole area.
Fisk, born in Ireland and a correspondent first for the Times and now for the Independent, is still based in Beirut—one of the last Western journalists to remain there. Having twice avoided abduction and being determined to cover the agony of Lebanon personally, he has compiled enough first-hand evidence to convince even the most partisan skeptic of his veracity and impartiality. There is enough dirt to spatter everyone.
The PLO detachments are condemned for their treatment of the Shi'i in the south of Lebanon and for their internecine rivalries in Tripoli. The Maronite Phalangists are condemned for their collusion with their country's invaders and their suicidal sectarian chauvinism. The Syrians are blamed for their manipulation of their proxies in Lebanon and the resultant damage to genuine Lebanese nationalism.
It is the Israelis, however, who receive the deepest criticism. Fisk charges them with total adventurism in Lebanon. The villain of the piece is Israel's then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, with ancillary help from former Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan. It was Sharon (with the tacit encouragement of Alexander Haig) who bamboozled the invasion plan through the Knesset. It was Sharon who, according to Israeli soldiers interviewed by Fisk, colluded with the Phalangists in the massacres in Sabra and Shatila.
It was Sharon who ordered the two-week around-the-clock bombardment, from the air, land and sea, of Beirut, after he had already cut off electricity and water from the capital. It was Sharon who permitted the use of phosphorus and cluster bombs on civilian targets in so-called "surgical strikes." In one of the book's most indelible images, a Lebanese mother is unable to bury her children for two days because the phosphorus-covered bodies would not stop burning. Even when she put them in their graves, the bodies again burst into flame.
This book is not for the timid. It castigates the naivete of political amateurs like Us President Ronald Reagan and his national security adviser, Colonel Robert McFarlane, that cost the lives of hundreds of Marines. Reagan administration culpability in this matter has become part of the political amnesia of our time. The book exposes the Hegelian arrogance of Bashir Gemayel before his assassination, then reveals the political weakness of his brother (and successor as president of Lebanon), Amin, and the chauvinism of General Michel Aoun.
Fisk strips Israel of what he calls its moral immunity" in the West by reporting what its government and its soldiers actually did in Lebanon, and the record is not a pretty one. Fisk's sympathies are with the Lebanese people and with those who understood them and were also victimized, i.e., the kidnapped, the tortured, the betrayed, the separated, the homeless.
Fisk's book should be required reading for any American who sees the Middle East as a part of America's future, not in an economic or military sense but in a human one. The book vindicates a writer for the Financial Times who said that Fisk as "a war correspondent is ... unrivaled. "
His credibility as a witness is matched only by his insight into the Lebanese psyche. This is evidenced by this passage from Kahlil Gibran's The Garden of the Prophet, published in 1934, which Fisk found contemporary enough to provide the title of his book. "Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings again. Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation."
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Error and Betrayal in Lebanon, Ze'ev Schiff's and Ehud Ya'ari's Israel's Lebanon War and Michael Jansen's The Battle of Beirut. Fisk's definitive book ' written later and containing more information than any of those cited, further confirms and elaborates their basic themes and conclusions.All of the authors agree on the following:
Israel's invasion of Lebanon was de to demoralize the Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza by eradicating the PLO;
Israel wanted to establish a Pax Israelica by cantonizing the Levant (as it hoped eventually to do to the entire Arab world) and developing a Greater Israel through the installation of a client government in Beirut;
the Maronite Phalangists participated in this betrayal until the 11th hour; and
during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon the Arab states revealed their impotence by doing nothing, while the death toll in Lebanon climbed past 23,000 (predominantly Lebanese) at the cost of more than 600 Israeli lives, almost 500 Americans, 100 French and assorted others in the multinational and UNIFIL forces. Fisk then goes on to note that the ransom kidnappings (he was a close friend and colleague of Terry Anderson) began after the pointless bombardment of Lebanon by the USS New Jersey (its shells were the size of Volkswagens)—another legacy of the war in Lebanon and further evidence of our diplomatic ineptitude in the whole area.
Fisk, born in Ireland and a correspondent first for the Times and now for the Independent, is still based in Beirut—one of the last Western journalists to remain there. Having twice avoided abduction and being determined to cover the agony of Lebanon personally, he has compiled enough first-hand evidence to convince even the most partisan skeptic of his veracity and impartiality. There is enough dirt to spatter everyone.
The PLO detachments are condemned for their treatment of the Shi'i in the south of Lebanon and for their internecine rivalries in Tripoli. The Maronite Phalangists are condemned for their collusion with their country's invaders and their suicidal sectarian chauvinism. The Syrians are blamed for their manipulation of their proxies in Lebanon and the resultant damage to genuine Lebanese nationalism.
It is the Israelis, however, who receive the deepest criticism. Fisk charges them with total adventurism in Lebanon. The villain of the piece is Israel's then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, with ancillary help from former Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan. It was Sharon (with the tacit encouragement of Alexander Haig) who bamboozled the invasion plan through the Knesset. It was Sharon who, according to Israeli soldiers interviewed by Fisk, colluded with the Phalangists in the massacres in Sabra and Shatila.
It was Sharon who ordered the two-week around-the-clock bombardment, from the air, land and sea, of Beirut, after he had already cut off electricity and water from the capital. It was Sharon who permitted the use of phosphorus and cluster bombs on civilian targets in so-called "surgical strikes." In one of the book's most indelible images, a Lebanese mother is unable to bury her children for two days because the phosphorus-covered bodies would not stop burning. Even when she put them in their graves, the bodies again burst into flame.
This book is not for the timid. It castigates the naivete of political amateurs like Us President Ronald Reagan and his national security adviser, Colonel Robert McFarlane, that cost the lives of hundreds of Marines. Reagan administration culpability in this matter has become part of the political amnesia of our time. The book exposes the Hegelian arrogance of Bashir Gemayel before his assassination, then reveals the political weakness of his brother (and successor as president of Lebanon), Amin, and the chauvinism of General Michel Aoun.
Fisk strips Israel of what he calls its moral immunity" in the West by reporting what its government and its soldiers actually did in Lebanon, and the record is not a pretty one. Fisk's sympathies are with the Lebanese people and with those who understood them and were also victimized, i.e., the kidnapped, the tortured, the betrayed, the separated, the homeless.
Fisk's book should be required reading for any American who sees the Middle East as a part of America's future, not in an economic or military sense but in a human one. The book vindicates a writer for the Financial Times who said that Fisk as "a war correspondent is ... unrivaled. "
His credibility as a witness is matched only by his insight into the Lebanese psyche. This is evidenced by this passage from Kahlil Gibran's The Garden of the Prophet, published in 1934, which Fisk found contemporary enough to provide the title of his book. "Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings again. Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation."
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User reviews
LibraryThing member aamirq
Great book .... but should he have been that cynical about the presence of Palestinian leaders in Lebanon?
LibraryThing member cyclops1771
Heart breaking story told from within by author and reporter Robert Fisk. Fisk knows the Middle East and is sympathetic to the people who live there, and tells the story from the ground as governments and ideologies war amongst themselves. It truly tells the tale of the effect wars have on those
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caught between the various factions. A must read for anyone in the Western world whose governments sell and promote arms to the region. This book changed my view on geopolitics. Show Less
LibraryThing member le.vert.galant
This is a difficult book to read, filled with senseless unending violence. It is a piece of extended journalism rather than a history, as such one is caught up in the day-to-day events (atrocities) and has to construct the larger flow of events from asides and introductory paragraphs. This seems to
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be due to Fisk's desire to capture the story of everyday people living through a civil war, to tell the world about the suffering of the Lebanese while the Israelis, Syrians, Palestinians, Druze, and Phalange play their deadly games. Show Less
LibraryThing member thegeneral
One could not be but sympathetic to the Lebanese people given their tragic history. Having lived in Beirut for almost 20 years Fisk gives a detailed account of his views. All factions have had a terrible effect on this country's history in addition to the inteference of imperial powers.
LibraryThing member jklugman
Fisk's memoir is a sensitive and empathic account of the civil wars and invasions afflict Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s. He is firmly on the side of civilians, and is withering towards the sectarian militarists (Maronite, Shia, Sunni, and Druze) and invaders (PLO, Syrians, Israeli, and US),
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although he is sympathetic towards the Irish and Italian UN peacekeeping forces. The book is probably too long, and while reading the first couple of chapters I was not sure if Fisk was deliberately making his prose mawkish because he was trying to join the pantheon of other great chroniclers of war (eg Hermingway or Orwell), or if he was trying to process his own trauma, having witnessed so much violence and human suffering. Having read the whole book, I think it may be the latter. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1990
Physical description
681 p.; 7.56 inches
ISBN
0192852353 / 9780192852359