Hart, Alan — Arafat: Terrorist or Peacemaker?

London Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd First Edition pp. 480. 8vo. Publisher's black boards, gilt lettering to the spine. Black-and-white maps, photographs, portraits, illustrations, facsimiles, et al. No detectable flaws to the extremities, rust residue (presumably from a paperclip) to the margin of the title page, and ffep. Text-block without blemish with bright, clean, and unmarked pages, and tight, sound binding; very good+ and housed in very good+ very lightly rubbed dustjacket. Overall, very good+. Mohammed Yasser Arafat is a 56-year- old enigma who is a fiend from hell to his enemies and an inspiration from heaven to his friends. Hart, a journalist and currrently an international affairs consultant, has covered the Middle East for many years. After gaining Ara fat's confidence, Hart traveled with and interviewed him and his colleagues extensively. His portrait shows Arafat to be a fast driver of fast cars, a lover of children, a redeemer of a displaced peo ple and culture, and a man who has giv en his entire life to his cause, whose only ``vice'' is honey in his tea, whose charisma is personal. Arafat conveys the Palestinian side of the Middle East maelstrom in sympathetic brushstrokes while providing one of the first compre hensive (albeit subjective) biographies of a major character in contemporary history.