A Death in Jerusalem: The Assassination by Jewish Extremists of the First Arab/Israeli Peacemaker

We learn nothing from history, so most of us were surprised last winter when a radical Israeli terrorist from Brooklyn massacred 29 Muslims praying peacefully in a Hebron mosque. Peabody award-winner and former National Public Radio and ABC News correspondent Kati Marton connects the Hebron slaughter to the misguided fanaticism behind the 1948 assassination of U.N. negotiator Count Folke Bernadotte in the Holy Land in A Death in Jerusalem: The Assassination by Jewish Extremists of the First Arab/Israeli Peacemaker. Marton writes with wisdom and lucidity, moving easily between political-historical analysis and human events. The slain negotiator's little boy cries to his mother, ''I can understand Count Bernadotte being shot, but not Daddy.'' The obvious lesson: Zealots who won't compromise ultimately leave themselves no choice but to kill. Even more obvious, Marton shows, is that the Middle East is still having trouble learning that lesson. Just like the rest of the world. A