Book 1 down, and early this time!

So I impressed myself by finishing the book ahead of my deadline, (finished it Monday ahead of Thursday's goal), but haven't gotten around to updating this yet. Writing will be the real challenge for this project rather than the reading, clearly...

Rossi's exposition into the Middle East is hardly expository in nature- while her discussions are thorough and she does a remarkable job of covering both a crash course in the politics of every Middle Eastern state (Oman and Jordan were particularly fun reads, and I learned a lot about 'hypothetical development projects' in Dubai that recently made major headlines) and a thematic overview of major tensions in the region. Sadly, a lot of her analysis comes down to the same basic points:
1) America is dominated by a neo-conservative conspiracy that is both blood and jew thirsty- rightly so, Rossi blames a lot of the region's problems on a Western foreign policy hellbent on pursuing stable access to energy resources and/or fulfilling a Zionist Christian belief that populating the Middle East with Jewish citizens will lead to the second coming of the messiah. The point is well articulated early in the text, but gets redundant as she KEEPS REFERRING TO IT IN ALMOST EVERY CHAPTER, and in some cases, reexplains the foundations of her argument in the same terms.
2) Religious divides are problematic, though no one really knows why- Rossi does an excellent job deciphering the various sects of Islam (I learned what makes a Sunni different than a Shia, for example, and it has a lot to do with the line of ascensions for Muslim prophets in the 600s). What she doesn't explain is how these religious tensions manifest into new conflicts and why anyone gives a shit about them in the modern day.
3) Everybody hates Israel- easily half of the book covers Middle Eastern history and politics based on a lens that assumes the only thing the country has to do with its time is worry about when Israel will invade, why Israel is expanding settlements in the West Bank, why Israel is the only nation in the region with a nuclear weapon, etc... While I appreciate the book is written for an American audience, I think we already understand this point.

It's a good read and if you need to brush up on (or learn for the first time) the politics of the region, I say go for it! If you're looking for something more comprehensive, go elsewhere.