The Saber and Scroll
its wounded ally by showering Israel with billions of dollars worth of new , state-of-the art weaponry . Even after the Yom Kippur War wound down and peace was achieved with Israel in October 1983 , the rearmament of Israel would not be forgotten by America ’ s enemies in the Middle East .
Up until this point in Sloyan ’ s brief book ( less than 200 pages , minus notes and bibliography ), the tone is straightforward and relates events in a mostly objective light . It begins to lose its tight historical focus when it introduces memoir-like vignettes from the author , however , who was a reporter for Newsday during the time of the events beginning with the assassination of Anwar el-Sadat in 1981 . What reads like a third-person history suddenly moves into a jarring first-person account , as Sloyan remembers walking in Sadat ’ s funeral procession along with former presidents Richard Nixon , Gerald Ford , and Jimmy Carter . “ As we arrived at the viewing stand where Sadat was gunned down , I pointed out bullet holes to Nixon . He alerted Carter and Ford . We all gawked ,” Sloyan writes . These random reminiscences lead the reader to wonder whether the book was incorrectly categorized as history rather than memoir .
There are a lot of people who come off very badly in Sloyan ’ s book ( President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State Alexander Haig topping the list ), but one nation specifically comes across decidedly ugly and Machiavellian in his telling : Israel . Between Israel ’ s “ obsessed ” prime minster , Menachim Begin , and his “ duplicitous ” minister of defense , Ariel Sharon , Sloyan paints a dark portrait :
“ Their ambition was to use American military hardware and Israeli troops to change the map of the Mideast . They sucked the unwitting Reagan into a confrontation with ferocious and relentless opponents who conducted diplomacy with knives and bombs . It ended in defeat and blood-spattered humiliation for both Israel and the United States .” ( p . 1 )
According to Sloyan , America and Israel “ embarked together ” on a war to oust Syria and the Palestinian Liberation Organization ( PLO ) from Lebanon in order to remake the Levant into a more pliant political entity , devoid of perceived Soviet influence ( which was Reagan ’ s obsession ). Sloyan is at his reportorial best when he lays out the unfolding events of Israel ’ s chaotic and blood-drenched invasion in June 1982 , as well as the horrors of the 56-day Israeli siege of West Beirut , which ultimately drove Reagan to send in the U . S . Marines to a lead a multinational force to maintain some semblance of order . His chapter on the complicated relationship of Bashir Gemayel ’ s Maronite Christian Phalangists and Israel are as riveting as they are repulsive . One will not forget Sloyan ’ s chapter on the Sabra and Shatila massacres , one of the most heinous events in a most heinous war .
While Sloyan has some good moments in this slim volume , he often loses his focus and jumps from one hot-button topic to the next . Just
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