I was watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight and his guest was historian Michael Oren who recently wrote a compelling new book – Power, Faith & Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present. The book is meant to provide a comprehensive history of America’s involvement in the Middle East. During the interview Oren quotes a cival war general who had visited the Middle East in the late 1800’s as saying that as long as America kept viewing the region as a something that could be like the United States with a little tweaking there would be confusion and misunderstanding (I’m paraphrasing).

 

Anyhow – I’d like to read it as it mentions a little about early American missionaries and their impact of foreign policy vis a vis the creation of a Jewish nation long before the Zionist movement. Interesting stuff – the past definitely shapes the future.