God Cried is a 1983 book by Tony Clifton and Catherine Leroy about the Israeli siege and bombing of Beirut during the 1982 Lebanon War.
God Cried was a collaboration between Tony Clifton, an Australian journalist, and Catherine Leroy, a French photographer. The two had lived in Beirut since 1985. Clifton wrote the book, while Leroy contributed photographs. [1] While on a promotional tour for the book, Clifton said that he chose to collaborate with Leroy out of hopes that her photography would provide irrefutable support for his narrative. [2]
Quartet Books published God Cried in 1983. [3]
The book was focused on the Israeli siege and bombing of Beirut during the 1982 Lebanon War, but documented the city from the outbreak in 1975 of a Civil War. In the book's opening pages, Clifton wrote that the book was biased against Israel's government, saying that "God Cried is not objective and could never have been." [1] Clifton compared actions of the Israel armed forces to those of Nazis in the Second World War. [2] [4]
Writing in The Middle East Journal , Loren Jenkins described God Cried as "powerful, moving, and important", praising the human face it put on suffering on the Middle East. However, Jenkins felt that Clifton's repeated criticism of Israel's government meant that it would "be too casually dismissed by those who continue to believe that Israel can do no evil in the Middle East." [1] Erich Isaac and Rael Jean, reviewing the book for Quadrant , critiqued the writing and photography as presenting the 1982 conflict as being waged between a clear group of "good guys" (PLO fighters) and "bad guys" (Israelis), and not conveying possible justifications for the Israeli invasion. Isaac and Jean wrote that the book was valuable for how it demonstrated what they considered a broader bias of journalists against Israel. [2]
A 1983 review of the book by Roald Dahl, published in the Literary Review, contained broad attacks against Israel and Jewish people who did not critique the nation. In the review Dahl writes that the United States is "so utterly dominated by the great Jewish financial institutions" and asks, "must Israel, like Germany, be brought to her knees before she learns how to behave in this world?" [4] Events surrounding the reception of this review were dramatized in the 2025 play Giant. [5]