This prescient and timely book documents Noam Chomsky's visit to Lebanon, in May 2006, to lecture on U.S. imperialism and the imminent crises facing the Middle East— two months before Israel orchestrated major military campaigns against Lebanon and Palestine. During his visit, he met with political leaders— including those of Hizbullah— toured refugee camps, and inspected a former Israeli prison and torture compound.

Inside Lebanon describes Chomsky's journey and situates it within the tragically altered context of Lebanon and Palestine before and after the war of 2006. Chomsky's essays provide a framework for understanding the role of U.S. politics, power, and policies in these conflicts by examining how the United States wages war and imposes world domination while presenting itself as the righteous protector of democracy. Ironically, U.S. efforts at imperial control generate conflict and crises within the region while undermining democracy.

Inside Lebanon includes essays and photographs by Carol Chomsky, Irene L. Gendizier, Assaf Kfoury, Jennifer Loewenstein, Hanady Salman, Rasha Salti, and Fawwaz Traboulsi and provides an analysis of the social-political conditions of people in Lebanon, Gaza, and refugee camps. It situates Israeli's attacks and the position of Hizbullah and Hamas in this conflict while at the same time providing a record of events during the war, linking the conflicts on the ground to the global order.

This volume began life as a record of the first trip of Noam Chomsky to Lebanon, where he visited for eight days with his wife Carol in May of 2006. As originally planned, the volume includes the political lectures delivered in Lebanon by the noted critic of US foreign policy (he also delivered a lecture on linguistics, his original field of expertise, which is not included); an interview granted to the popular Kalam al-Nass ("Talk of the People") political talk show on the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation; a third-party account of the trip in general; and more detailed accounts of the party's meeting with the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and visits to Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon that were the site of massacres carried out by the Israeli-backed Phalangist militias in the late 1970s. The volume was expanded in reaction to the Israeli assault on Lebanon that occurred the month after the visit and now also includes an essay by Chomsky discussing the conflict, accounts of living in Beirut while under Israeli attack, and description of parallel violence in the occupied Gaza strip. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Jennifer Loewenstein is a freelance journalist and a research associate at Oxford University's Refugee Studies Centre. She has lived and worked in Gaza City, Jerusalem, and Beirut and has written and lectured extensively on topics related to the Middle East.