Noam Chomsky manages to write things whould have gotten Dan Rather shot in such a coherent manner that it's hard to find logical fallacies. And in fact, logical fallacies are exactly what he hounds out in this book. He readly admits at least a half-dozen times that some of his statement-of-fact premises are mosrtly found only in hefty think tank reports, government dossiers or "marginalized dissident literature." Yet the path from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the impendong militarzation of space by the U.S. is an engrossing read. Like any good roller coaster, I kept wondering if I would fall off, finding a weak link in the chain of argument that forced me to retreat and reevaluate. Like any roller coaster, I manged to stay inside the car at all times. The looking glass may be tough for an American reader to face, but as my dad would say "it builds charater" Noam certaintly has that.

This book is stunnig. The two authors are prominent political scientists with impeccable credentials, hailing from Harvard University and the Univerity of Chicago. They have boldly gone where many of their academic colleagues would fear to tread. Although their conclusions about Israel and its negative influence on American foreign policy will awaken much anxiety, resentment and fury in certain quaters, Walt and Mearshimer don't seem to care. Why not? They are scientists. They appeal to logic, facts and common sense; and let the conclusions fall where they may. The writing is calm, dispassionate, thorough. The basic argument is that the extraordinarily high degree of economic, military and diplomatic support given to Israel by the United States cannot be explained or justified by the notion that Israel functions as a strategic asset to the U.S.,or that Israel as the "only democracy" amidst a sea of authoritarian neighbors is deserving of special favor of its "shared interests and values". In facts, the authours claim, Israel is more a liability than an asset. During the Cold War, the strategic-value argument had perhaps some plausibility but no longer. What has replaced the Soviet menace, as the enemy which the U.S. supposedly needs Israel's help to combat, is Islamic terrorism. But the U.S. favor shown to Israel at the expencse of the Palestinians only makes us more not less vulnerable to terrorism. Furthermore Israel;s cruelty towards the Palestinians and its essential natire as a Jewish but not a truly democratic state in which all citizens of whatever ethnicity of religin would be given equal ights and respect, belie the "shared values" argument. 
In the end, perhaps what is most significant and remarkable about this book is that is has seen the light of day. it got published. Could it be that there is still hope for reasonable, open debate about the right courses of action in the Middle East? The authors have been and will continue to be villified as anti-Semiric or worse. They are owed a debt of gratitude for having the courage to stand up and to refuse to be silenced.

In the New Yorker, his writings are such must-reads that the magazine charges advertisers significantly more money for ads that run within his articles. now the very and most famous of his New Yorker pieces are collected in a brilliant and provocative anthology. Gladwell’s essays contain everything you could want in non-fiction insight, humor, interesting subject matter. But there’s more, because what Gladwell tries to do is offer a glimpse of some larger point, say about the conclusions we draw from date, or about the ways we communicate with each other and the assumptions we make on a daily basis. it’s part human-interest story, part social commentary, and part philosophy of science.