Book excerpt: In his final book, completed just before his death, Edward W. Said offers impassioned pleas for the beleaguered Palestinian cause. “These searing essays refract the reality of terrible years through a mind with extraordinary understanding, compassion, insight, and deep knowledge.” —Noam Chomsky These essays, which originally appeared in Cairo’s Al-Ahram Weekly, London’s Al-Hayat, and the London Review of Books, take us from the Oslo Accords through the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, and present information and perspectives too rarely visible in America. Said is unyielding in his call for truth and justice. He insists on truth about Israel's role as occupier and its treatment of the Palestinians. He pleads for new avenues of communication between progressive elements in Israel and Palestine. And he is equally forceful in his condemnation of Arab failures and the need for real leadership in the Arab world.