The Fault Line Summary and Analysis

Friedman finds things in Israel are not always as they appear. He mentions the difference one notices at the Lebanon-Israel border. On the Lebanese side, the farm boundaries are irregular. In Israel they are very regular with everything done in straight lines. "For a while after I arrive there, Israel's straight lines fooled me. It took my eyes several months to penetrate the forest of right angles and to discover the jagged and volcanic fault line that lurked just beneath the surface of Israeli society. Whereas Lebanon was built on many different fault lines, separating the seventeen different Christian and Muslim sects that make up the country, Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are built over just one, which separates Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. In Lebanon, the government was constantly being shaken by...