From Beirut to Jerusalem
By Thomas L. Friedman

When I moved to ABC News in 1987 and began to cover the Middle East regularly, I needed to become better informed about that part of the world. Not only is Friedman a gifted writer, but he weaves in his own personal observations and tells the Israeli and Palestinian story with a sense of humor, irony, and humanity. He stresses that there will always be good days and bad days in the Middle East because of the complexity of the politics and religious differences, but his hope is that the good days will vastly outnumber the bad. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case over the past several months.