I intend not to defend my book but to protest its “reviewer,” whose first responsibility—as for any reviewer—was to relate what the book is about, even chapter by chapter. But Philip Khoury betrayed the reviewer's task concerning my book The Conscience of Lebanon, choosing to use it as a foil to propagate his own Arabist and anti–Israeli political views. His was not a book review but a mean-spirited tirade. He writes, “Etienne Sakr was a minor Lebanese militia leader,” though I deal with this point myself; the review is jaundiced by repetitive labeling (“right-wing Lebanese leaders”) and vindictively vilifies my study as not a “systematic work of scholarship.”

I would have failed in my responsibility as a reviewer had I ignored the fault lines in the pedestal that Mordechai Nisan constructed for his hero, Etienne Sakr. Readers may indeed judge for themselves. Whether they wish to buy the book is another matter.