Semites and Anti-Semites by Bernard LewisReview by: John C. CampbellForeign Affairs, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Winter, 1986), p. 409Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20043049 .

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RECENT BOOKS 409

SEMITES AND ANTI-SEMITES. By Bernard Lewis. New York: Norton, 1986, 283 pp. $18.95.

A distinguished historian sheds light on the experience of the Jews in the West and in the Islamic world and explores the causes and nature of the phenomenon of anti-Semitism. He does not dwell at length on the

Arab-Israeli conflict over Palestine, although he recognizes that the Arabs'

outrage, humiliation and sense of injustice is the cause, rather than the

result, of the rise of virulent anti-Semitism among them. It is not just political opposition to Zionism and Israel, however, but a campaign of hatred and defamation?evident even in Egypt?of Jews as Jews, as the

personification of evil. This is not the historical and relatively mild Islamic discrimination against Jews, but the poisonous anti-Semitism of the West that culminated in the Nazis and the holocaust. Lewis sees it as still a

campaign from above, from the Arab leadership rather than the society. A calm and reasoned, but not neutral, discussion of a subject that rarely evokes calm and reason.

ARABIA IMPERILED: THE SECURITY IMPLICATIONS OF THE ARAB GULF STATES. By Mazher A. Hameed. London: Croom Helm/ Washington: Middle East Assessments Group, 1986, 188 pp. $14.95 (pa

Per>- . This is, first, a useful handbook giving essential data on the Gulf states

and their military establishments; second, it is an appraisal of their security problems and those of the West in that region. The approach assumes a

greater congruence of interests among the Gulf states and between them and the West than may in fact exist; and it expects too much from those states in the way of military capability and deterrence. All in all, however, the author shows real understanding of both the political and the military aspects, and he is right in stressing the central importance of Saudi Arabia.

PARADOX OF POWER: THE UNITED STATES IN SOUTHWEST ASIA, 1973-1984. By Maya Chadda. Santa Barbara (Calif.): ABC-Clio,

1986, 272 pp. $35.00. "Southwest Asia" includes everything from the eastern fringes of the

Arab world to the western limits of the Indian subcontinent. Roughly, it is

Zbigniew Brzezinski's "arc of crisis." To furnish a chronicle and critique of U.S. policy over so broad a region is a formidable task, but it is done here with laudable detachment and passably well. The author draws to

gether the basic facts on the aims of American policy, how it did or did not

respond to conditions in the region, and where it succeeded or failed. It is on the interpretation, generally well founded but often unheeding of nuance and always unhesitating in its judgments, that questions may be raised. It is doubtful, for example, if Henry Kissinger would recognize the

policies here attributed to him.

IRAQ BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS. By Reeva S. Simon. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986, 233 pp. $30.00.

The main theme of this study is the dominance in Iraqi politics of former Ottoman army officers with German training and a nationalist ideology of the German type. The author makes much, indeed too much, of the German

connection, although she is right in stressing the role of the military. The

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