Customer Reviews

From Israel to Damascus : The Painful Road of Blood, Betrayal and Deception

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The book is written in poor English.
When you access it to grasp the head of its principles, you will soon be disappointed to discover you have only the feet.

Living the episodes described in this book was more electrifying.
The author has waved before our dazzled eyes `events couched in blood' and you can never appreciate their importance or understand the meanings of their contents unless you have actually lived the profound effect of such eventualities to the limit, up to the extremes of human endurance.

Internecine fighting in the Lebanon has indeed been sad, futile, and mutually destructive.
Much of it (not all) was based on the dogmatic judgement of what the strategy of `fight'- between bothers - was all about ...... determined to march against the `enemy' without hesitation..... but!!! Which enemy???

The interests of Lebanon was occasionally forgotten, abandoned, discarded and the irony of the matter is that everyone thought , by fierceness and ferocity, they were virtually preserving Lebanon's interests

Finally a book by "insider" that shows how we, the Lebanese Christians, always prided ourselves to be "so good" end-up being "so stupid". Being "puppets" either to the Israelis or to the Syrians. If we don't do what they tell us, we LET them kill us. They use the classical "divide and conquer" and we don't even realize it. Cobra deserve the credit for coming forward to make us realize what happened, but truly he deserve NO RESPECT for naming the Ladies who go raped, or for naming people based on "hear say". yet he is SO INNOCENT, killed, raped, stole and got paid for it!!!! Top it off, he never seeks remorse for his actions and yet blames everybody for his misery. truly typical lebanese. All Lebanese MUST read the book not only the christians, to realize that we, as Lebanese, were so stupid to let others manipulate us that way. come-on we laugh at the syrians for being so d----- yet we are the one. we had everything and threw it away. We distroyed the idea, independence, that we worked so hard to achieve, prefer to be under french rule than israeli or syrian. and the best part is that we are not doing any thing about it just complaining and blaming others. we let them divide us, kill us, control our daily lives. when the chickens invite the wolf to their hen, they can't complain of foul play that he is eating them.

This Book reveals hidden secrets never known until now, but the most important, reveals that the DICTATOR HAFEZ ASSAD OF SYRIA IS THE MOST DANGEROUS TERRORIST IN THE WORLD, he was behind the killing and burning of the civilians in the Capital Beirut and lots of other towns and villages of Lebanon, and uses the Terrorism against Lebanon and the Free World to eliminate his opponents, then he stays away in the shade watching how the Free World is so confused about protecting the people. This is the book where the author discribes hidden sides of people involved in terrorist acts, if they refuse to do the job, They kill them and get somebody else to do it, but if they do it, they become damn killers, killing innocent people for the final profit of Dactator Hafez Assad of Syria! The book shows what the Dictator Assad did to Lebanon after long Years of war, so people gave up everything for "Assad's Peace", and it seems that Israel is on the way to give up everything as well in exchange of "Assad's Peace" when dealing with the Dictator Syria! Good Book, I wish more people reveal more secrets about The Syrian Goverment involvement in Terrorism. Presidents of the Free World should think before shaking the hand of Peace with the Syrian Dictator, cause Assad holds in his other hand the Danger of the International Terrorism.

An Excellent piece of work ! Congratulation to Mr Robert Hatem, "COBRA". The truth does hurt, but never the less it's there in black and white. Telling our generation and the future generation what exactly has happened in Lebanon during the Civil War, from back stabbing, blood shedding and politics which is till preventing freedom of speech, depriving people of their rights and imposing poverty on the masses. Yep! They are Getting away with murder !!!

Bravo, COBRA you are truly an inspiration to everyone, and I hope other Lebanese writers will follow in your footsteps.

Once again an enormous Congratulation to Pride International Publications for your courage in publishing this magnificent book,more grease to you elbows.

It was so painfull to know the truth ,,but that what was going on. what was more painfull is how this man felt about Lebanon,,,though I always believed in a new Lebanon with no sectarian or relegious differences..but all what Cobra was striving for is the contrary. Hopefully he changed his attitude. As for blaming it all at H.K....well I do not think this is right for where was Cobra's mind? I think all the parties are to blame and I strongly believe that if Cobra was given his portion of the "prize" he would never spoke out!!! Cobra I respct your bravery to speak out but I hate your fanatic character...you might be a victim but there is a greater one...Lebanon. I wish I can Forgive all those who murdered my country in the name of ANY relegion, political aspects, Causes or any other thing...I can NOT ..Sorry. Hope we can have the book in Lebanon, for it has a lot to teach..one can learn not to be mislead nor take the destructive approach.

Cobra has given us a world of a reality check, we Lebanese Christians have always been proud of our heritage, but this is the first time that someone within the ranks has described us as dirty and manipulative. I think Cobra should repalce the traitor HK , and rule under Cheikh Bachir's doctrine and many like Cobra should bring the truth to the minds of our corrupted and artificial rulers who are just Syria's puppets. Thank you Cobra and God Bless you.

Cobra exposed one of the many warlords of Lebanon. We would have hoped that the Lebanese justice system who is opening the files to take action on the contants of the book not to ban it. I hope that some day under a free Lebanon we will see all the mafioso of the war brought to Justice. Many thanks to the Minister of Information who made this book known by banning it.

This book reveals the extent of the appalling behavior of a leader who, instead of serving his country and his people, never hesitated to endanger them in order to serve his own selfish interest. Although many of us Lebanese had suspected this all along, it is good to have it reported so clearly and unambiguously by R. Hatem in his book. It takes a lot of courage to say the truth. I commend the author for the courage he demonstrates.

Reading this book is a must to all those concerned with Lebanon's fate. Most readers who followed the events that led to Lebanon's pathetic current state of affairs will feel horrified and disgusted. They will know, deep in their hearts, that most of what is told in this book is true. Let the truth be known! And let's hope to see all those who abused their country and people held accountable, and brought to justice someday.

It is undoubtedly true that many of our miseries are attributable to the Israeli-Arab conflict, and to Syria's ambition on Lebanon. It is also sadly true that it is our "leaders" carelessness, recklessness, and selfishness that played in their hands and made all this possible. Although the book focuses on H.K.'s significant case, he is only one example among many who deserve to be prosecuted for their crimes and deeds.

Let's pray for Lebanon to be served better in the future, by leaders more scrupulous and genuinely trying to better serve their country and their people. Let's hope for free elections someday. This book would have served its purpose when the country's situation improves, along with the quality and accountability of its officials.

This was the first book ever that I couldn't stop reading until I finished it . I ,unlike other so called readers, was intrested in what was written NOT HOW ! A person that spent most of his life in the trenches is lucky to know how to read , let alone write.If you are going to judge a book by the grammar, buy a 2nd grade grammar book! Any person who finds the facts in this book to be hard to believe, wrong, or insulting, is Guilty of all the crimes UNVIELED IN THIS BOOK.

The problem with this book is its author. Robert Hatem, who goes by his nom de guerre Cobra, was once member of one of the many warring Lebanese tribal mafias who - along with his former boss and warlord Elie Hobeika - committed the worst of acts during the Lebanese civil war. When Cobra fell out with his boss, he wrote this book which looks more like a book of confession and repentance.
Now since Cobra is no writer, and since whoever took down his memoirs wrote them in bad unpunctuated English with wrong dates and spelling, the book should not be treated as a reference in its domain.
True that the author has been a witness to most of the events that he cites, yet an undermining tone in this book makes it sound like cheap propaganda in which Cobra tries often to provoke his Christian compatriots by claiming that the reason for his breakup with his master was because Hobeika had abandoned the "Christian cause" in Lebanon.
Now why did Cobra breakup with Hobeika more than a decade after Hobeika's betrayal in 1985 is a case in point and undermines the credibility of the author. Perhaps, the breakup was nothing more than one of the many mafia style breakups that took place among the Lebanese warlords and their gangs. Hobeika himself was killed in 2002.
Cobra's book was banned in Lebanon. It contains a host of names and details of corruption and fraud from behind the Lebanese political mafia scenes. Whether Cobra's claims can be verified or not is hard to determine. However, his account should be taken as one point of view on these issues.