Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

One finds it hard to review this book, as it really is two stories wrapped in one. The first is a rather simple romantic, King and I story about an American girl swept up into royalty like Grace Kelly. Sweetly, we hear how Noor, formerly known as Lisa Halaby, is courted and eventually married by the dashing young king Hussein, more than a decade here senior. While this part of the book has considerable appeal, the second book, buried within the first, is far spottier. Noor presents a one sided view of the Middle East that is at shockingly shallow, ignoring facts and making up new ones in pursuit of her goal of painting the more than 200 million Arabs as victims of fewer than 6 million Israelis. The contortions she engages in to prove this thesis might be laughable, where it not for the fact that this book is being so widely marketed and read to readers for whom this will be there only exposure to the Middle East and the Arab Israeli conflict. A few facts, ignored by Noor stand out as remarkable. * No one doubts her husband; King Hussein was a great man who eventually came to be a man of peace. However, in her effort to paint him as a moderate, she ignores the fact that he launched an aggressive attack on Israel in 1967, when he had not been attacked nor threatened or his willingness to let terrorists based in his territory murder dozens of innocent civilians in terrorist bombings. * Blaming Israel for the plight of the Palestinians, without considering that her Husband and his uncle the former king ruled the West Bank from 1948-67 without showing any interest in giving the Palestinians a state of their own. Her husband's killing of thousands of Palestinians in the so-called "Black September Massacre," is likewise ignored. * Ignoring the well-documented overtures Israel made in the 60's to return most of the West Bank to Jordan in exchange for Peace. Overtures ignored by her late husband who was too weak politically to make peace with Israel. * Blaming Israel for the 22 Sheiks, Kings, and Despots who rule the 22 Arab countries including her husbands, rather than laying some of the blame on the Arab populations who so recently lionized a butcher like the Saddam Hussein. * Glossing over her Husband's strong support for Saddam Hussein in the '91 Gulf War. The greatest obstacle to modernization in the Middle East is the ability of the Arab media and culture to construct new fictitious realities when the reality on the ground does not suit them. Thus Israel is blamed for wide spread Arab poverty rather than corrupt regimes and suicide bombers who murder children can be easily labeled heroes. Noor would do a far greater service speaking the truth to Arabs, including those who live under her son, the current King's, "enlightened" despotism, instead of presenting rehashed propaganda to American audiences. Sadly, her loss of perspective is a loss to those who she claims to champion. The Middle East is awash in poverty and tyranny; being at the top of the marble tower for so many years clearly distorts her view of the squalid street.