BLACK SEPTEMBER: The Story of an Arab Terrorist Organization

Black September is a sort of up-to-date wrap-up of the activities of the Fatah splinter group, whose name commemorates the month in 1970 when King Hussein and his Bedouin army fought and defeated the Palestinian commandos residing in Jordan. The book is disjointed, superficial and misleading. The only real information it provides is supportive evidence for the connection between Fatah and Black September (which is no great surprise)and this it reiterates ad nauseam. Dobson, a British journalist who covers the Middle East, does make a half-hearted attempt at elucidating the kind of mentality which could not only condone but support and encourage acts of terrorism. Then he remarks on one of the many bloody incidents described in the book by saying ""This is the sort of blindly illogical logic that is always used by the terrorists and their supporters, not only in justifying their actions but in glorifying them,"" thus unmistakably marking himself as an outsider looking in, no matter his credentials. And his comment that in the war of October, 1973, the Egyptians, ""afraid to emerge from their screen of rockets, did not press their advantage"" makes one seriously doubt his authority. For the totally uninformed, the book assumes an awful lot and would be very difficult to follow. For the half-way informed, it lacks substance and cohesion. For the well-informed, it's useless.