Butt was born and raised in the Middle East, was a correspondent for the BBC in Beirut and Jerusalem, and continues to write and broadcast from Nicosia. The 1995 first edition ended on a positive note, he says, as the end of Israeli occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state looked likely, if long overdue. Here he continues the story through one of the most brutal wars ever fought in the Middle East, the killing of many more thousands of Gazans, and no prospects for peace and freedom on any horizon. Maybe someday there will be a third edition, he says, that will end more like the first. After setting out the modern context and the physical background, he begins his history with a province of pharaonic Egypt in the 1200's BC, and proceeds through the series of empires and occupations to Britain, Egypt again, and Israel. Distributed in the US by International Publishers Marketing. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less