The State of the Middle East by Dan Smith

Congressman Reyes The Problem of Dan Smith The State of the MIDDLE A EASI AN ATLAS OF CONFLICT AND exas Congressman Silvestre T Reyes, the Democrat nominee for chair of the House Intelligence Committee, was recently exposed by a US journalist as ignorant on some of the most basic issues in Middle East politics. Perhaps he should read the new State of the Middle East Atlas by Dan Smith (co-author, with the late Michael Kidron, of the influential State of the World Atlas). For this book shows why there is still a need for reference books, at a time when we have almost limitless access to the internet. Although small in size and limited in scope, it decisively outscores both Google and Wikipedia on their two weakest points • context and provenance. It is indeed possible to look anything up online. Look up, for instance, Syrian coups on Google, and you will find over a million documents. The first of them - ie, the one most people have linked to, and will see first - is an account of the coup of March 2005. This coup never happened, and was apparently a disinformation campaign by the Jerusalem-based 'Lebanese government in exile'. But, with nothing to indicate the source, and no external assessment, this is what most internet surfers would read. You need to scroll through dozens of these false reports before finding a credible history of Syrian coups. This Atlas, however, presents a handy The State of the Middle East: An Atlas of Conflict and Resolution by Dan Smith, Earthscan Publications 2006. £12.99. Reviewed by Roland Rance timeline of 'Military Coups and their leaders since independence in 1944', in the context of a four-page essay on Syria's political development. The fictitious March 2005 coup is not one of the twelve noted. Or take another random example: Kurdish history. The four-page article in the Atlas, enhanced by a chronology and several useful maps, provides a useful and accurate introduction to the subject. On the other hand, the Wikipedia article 'Kurdish people' looks at first sight to be well-researched and balanced. But a peek at the article history shows that it is being constantly edited and re- edited -seventeen times yesterday (15 December) alone. This cannot give the non-specialist reader much confidence in the information given there, which could well change in the course of reading. On issues where I am well-informed, I found that the Atlas has little factually new to offer, but presents the information in an accurate and accessible form; thus lending credibility to its accounts where I have less knowledge. Unfortunately, the data presented is sometimes unhelpfully vague and non- specific. It is useful, for instance, to learn that Israel and Saudi Arabia spend a similar proportion of their GDP on military expenditure. But to learn what this means in real terms, you will need to turn to an external source, such as the authoritative Sipri database. Water Similarly, a map with broad categories suggests that Israel within its pre-1967 borders is poorer in per capita renewable water availability than are the territories occupied in 1967. But you need to do a lot of external research to discover that in fact Israel's water availability is 23 REVIEW under half that of the West Bank; but that Israel exploits almost all of this water, leaving very little for Palestinian use. Smith does indeed point out that Israel's occupation granted it access to this water; but he does not show its importance for Israel's economy and Dan Smith is a researcher and peace activist, with long experience in NGOs such as the Transnational Institute and the Oslo International Peace Research Institute. This background clearly colours many of his assessments and value judgements. Thus, his attitude towards the war against Iraq is that it was, 'fought without the legitimacy that a UN resolution would have given'; elsewhere, he argues that the US and Britain, 'won the war', but are, 'losing the peace'. In a brief note on Zionism, he writes: 'Only by pretending that Jews did not experience brutal persecution is it possible to deny Zionism's liberatory aspect; only by denying that Palestinians have human rights is it possible to ignore the threatening aspect of the same ideology'. These glib comments add little to our understanding. Although seemingly included as lip-service to an objective and balanced approach, they serve to weaken and compromise this very The Atlas is nevertheless a useful resource, for specialists and non- specialists alike, which brings together in compact form reliable potted histories of the countries, the themes and the conflicts in the Middle East, with helpful timelines and maps and a good bibliography. I would sleep more comfortably if I thought that someone had invested $14 to donate this book to Congressman Reyes, so that he could learn where the Middle East actually is.