Personal Account of Journalist or Professor in Middle East

Bad Jew

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The Book of the Week is “Bad Jew, A Family’s Quest From the Minsk Ghetto to Netanyahu’s Israel” by Piotr Smolar, translated from the French by Anthony Roberts, published in 2024. This sloppily edited volume with confusing descriptions of the author, his father and grandfather– contained a brief overview of the mentality of Eastern European Jews and Arabs. As is well known, these peoples have had a long, intertwined and inter-tribally violent history in Palestine (currently Israel). American-English language would say, “self-hating Jew” not “bad Jew.”

Born in 1974, the author grew up in Normandy in France. As an adolescent, he asserted his identity by practicing Catholicism with his aunt and uncle in Warsaw, Poland. He never did receive a formal education in Judaism.

The year 1967 saw an anti-Semitic Wladyslaw Gomulka, the Polish government’s first secretary, denounce the author’s Polish grandfather for his Judeo-Communist views. The grandfather wrote op-ed pieces for his newspaper with a pro-Zionist, pro-Israel bent (For a description of the different aspects of Zionism, type “Zionism” in the search bar on the upper right side of this blog; the term “Zionism” like “feminism” and “global warming” was hijacked for emotionally-charged propaganda purposes.). Gomulka also spread propaganda that the Jews were the ones who committed Stalin’s crimes.

In 1968, the Polish government allowed Jews to leave with the clothes on their backs, with the condition that they never return. Many went to Israel. Although he didn’t explicitly say so, the author was trying to convey the idea that, even in the late 1960’s, there was such rife anti-Semitism in the world that Israel was still relevant as a homeland for the “wandering Jew.” Israel has certainly been an exceptional sovereign territory. During its short existence of only three quarters of a century, with American financial aid, it has:

established agricultural collectives in the desert;
developed salinization and irrigation technologies;
built a military-industrial complex; and
founded numerous Big-Tech startups.

Given all the historical hostilities in Israel, one would think that the only people who still live there are ideologically dogmatic Darwin-award candidates. The author spoke with some residents who gave that impression. They are willing to risk their lives to defend what they consider their own respective tribe’s property which their ancestors owned for centuries. On the other side, the Palestinians have the same mentality.

Read the book to learn about several other reasons why the Palestinians (and Arabs) and Jews can’t work out their differences, and more about the author’s and others’ family backgrounds.

Native

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

The Book of the Week is “Native, Dispatches From the Israeli-Palestinian Life” by Sayed Kashua, published in 2016. The author compiled journal entries from 2006 through 2014 on his Arab family’s life and times in various residences in Israel whose political status was in dispute, in connection with Jews and Arabs.

The author and his wife, both of Arab origin, were raised in the central Israeli city of Tira, whose north and south regions are very different. At the book’s writing, the city did not have a library. The author, who was born in the mid-1970’s, entered a library for the first time in his life at fourteen years old, when he was sent to boarding school in Jerusalem.

Kashua spoke Arabic, Hebrew and English. In an unlikely move, he became a columnist for the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. When he traveled internationally for work, he didn’t bring his computer because if he did, security at Ben Gurion airport would automatically assume he was a member of Hezbollah.

The author’s parents instilled in him a dogmatic belief that he must reside in his homeland his whole life, because that’s where his ancestors were from. His thinking was more flexible, as he wrote that he would allow his children to move elsewhere or study abroad if they wanted to.

The author and his wife adopted a Westernized lifestyle with electronic toys and modern cars; they were non-religious. They moved to a Jewish neighborhood in order to send their children to Israeli schools, which they perceived to be superior to those of their own ethnic group.

Kashua was pleasantly surprised by some of the cultural conditions he encountered in the United States– no water stoppages, delivery of food and mail right to his postal address (rather than having to pick up mail or food at a post office box or eatery), and having utility services turned on in a timely manner. He marveled at street signs, paved roads, sidewalks and greenery.

The author– who was made a “Palestinian citizen of Israel” regardless of whether he wanted to become one– did readings of his book on an international tour. He wrote, “Everyone wanted to talk about identity, about nationality, foreignness, about detachment, self-determination… language, the future…” He wrote that yelling at the opposition that they’re traitors wasn’t going to change anything.

Kashua applied for a visa that allowed him to move his family to the United States for a year. One form asked him his ethnic group but listed only “white, black, Hispanic or Asian.” Read the book to learn of many more of his trials, tribulations, and interesting factoids, through vignettes of his life.

And Then All Hell Broke Loose

The Book of the Week is “And Then All Hell Broke Loose, Two Decades in the Middle East” by Richard Engel, published in 2016.

The author began his career in journalism in 1996. He chose to go to Cairo because he wanted to cover conflicts, and of course, the Middle East would always fit the bill. Also, to that end, he learned to speak fluent Arabic, and started making contacts in the region. All of his writings for a weekly newspaper were required to be approved by a government censor. The publication did its printing in Athens, Greece, to avoid really draconian restrictions.

The author was freelancing for ABC News when he arrived in Iraq in early March 2003. His coworkers were scared away by the start of hostilities. He– a Darwin award candidate– stayed on, with his employer-provided satellite phone, hazmat suit and ten thousand dollars in cash (for bribes, transportation, accommodations, etc.). He witnessed and reported on the age-old conflicts between Sunnis and Shias, and the more modern one involving the Americans and other Westerners, purportedly against the leader of Iraq.

In November 2005, the author’s extended stay at one Baghdad hotel was over, as the hotel was significantly damaged by a truck filled with explosives. At the time of the attack, the author was on vacation scuba diving in Thailand. Half a year later, he moved to Beirut. He then covered the Israeli-Hezbollah dispute.

The author showed how the Bush administration’s unnecessary aggression resulted in more violence and made the United States more of a target for terrorist attacks. The author also illustrated how the Obama administration offered support for certain political movements of people striving for freedom, and not for others similarly situated. Those occurred in Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, and Libya. In one egregious case, the administration broke its promise to deliver military aid. Such inconsistency created yet more instability.

In October 2011, the death-wish-plagued author went to Syria, whose government oppression was aided by Turkey. Ordinary Syrians were spreading the word about protesting, through social media. After paying people-smugglers to get across the Turkish border to chase after their story, he and a few others were grateful for the hospitality of strangers. They bummed free rides, accommodations and food.

By summer 2014, ISIS (a Sunni group) had surpassed Al-Qaeda as the region’s dominant jihadist group, penetrating Syria and Iraq. It had taken over Iraq’s military (not hard to do by that time), and physically roughed up its soldiers (who were Shias).

In the second half of the 1990’s, the author felt safe wherever he entered the region. Ten years later, “Journalists became worthless [with widespread use of the Internet on smartphones], at least as megaphones. But we became valuable as commodities to be stolen, bought and sold, traded for prisoners, or ransomed for millions.” In other words, no one needs the author as a journalist anymore because the world can learn what’s going on locally or globally through social media. The Middle East has become a dangerous place because hostage-taking (especially among journalists) has become trendy again. The bad guys can show graphic images of their deeds on YouTube videos.

Read the book to learn of the atrocities, lesser violence and litany of armed conflicts the author read about (in the form of history), witnessed, experienced for himself, and/or covered in his decades-long career up until the book’s writing.

All Strangers Are Kin

The Book of the Week is “All Strangers Are Kin” by Zora O’Neill, published in 2016. This volume recounted the adventures of an American who was passionate about the Arabic language.

As a college student, the author started learning Arabic. By the late 1990’s, in her late thirties, she was attending graduate school in Cairo, after which, she decided to travel around the Middle East and North Africa to try to sharpen her linguistic skills in Arabic. More specifically, she visited Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

O’Neill soon found that clear communication was made difficult because different regional populations had different dialects. Her various language teachers, coming from different nations, religions and cultures, taught different words and spellings for the same concepts and people, places and things. There are forty Arabic words for “camel.” There are borrowed foreign words such as the one for “television.”

Nevertheless, O’Neill was treated to the hospitality of strangers she met on the street. They fed her, and a few even invited her for overnight stays at their homes. Since she was a foreigner, the native peoples were tolerant of her casual clothing.

In Dubai, there were mostly expatriates. While driving by herself, she picked up single male hitchhikers. The local Muslim women wore heavy clothing in the hot desert sun, but they were outside only for a short time; everywhere they went was air-conditioned– the house, SUV, mall or office tower. All the households had a maid, mostly Filipino or Indonesian. At the mall, a shoe store clerk offered to spray a sample of “Facebook” brand perfume on the author.

Read the book to learn of the author’s struggles with writing, reading and speaking the language she loved, the people she met, and the Arabic cultures about which she was curious.

To Jerusalem and Back – BONUS POST

The Bonus Book of the Week is “To Jerusalem and Back, A Personal Account” by Saul Bellow, published in 1976. This slim volume contains a series of essays on the content of discussions Bellow had with individuals of various walks of life during his and his wife’s visit to Israel in late 1975.

In late 1975, Israel’s right to exist was still being contested by the Palestinians. The PLO was the major terrorist group endangering Israelis then. The United States was providing ample support to Israel– financially, militarily and ideologically.

In October 1973, President Richard Nixon sent weaponry to Israel when it was having trouble fending off Egypt, and the Soviets supplied other nations with arms.

As is well known, less than two years later, Nixon resigned in disgrace for his various illegal domestic activities. The author characterized America as a nation of rationalizers. Nixon contended that he had led a virtuous life– “…He worked his way through school, served his country, uncovered Communist plots. It is impossible that he should be impure… Anyway, nothing makes us happier than to talk about ourselves.”

Bellow lamented that experiencing beauty reminded one of the constant psychological burdens suffered by people associated with Israel: “…nothing but aggression and defense, superpowers, diplomacy, terrorism, war.”

The author and his wife had lunch at the home of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. “If it weren’t for the men with machine guns at the door, you would think yourself in a comfortable house in Washington or Philadelphia.”

In May 1976, a Chicago newspaper reported that Israel’s peace proposals were getting scant attention. Too bad, but a more important story was displacing them– an Ohio Congressman confessed to giving his sexy girlfriend a patronage job.

It is cringeworthy how, in America, in recent decades, not just this year or last year, one attention whore, undeserving of the world’s attention– being used as a political pawn for the purpose of retaliation– can dominate the headlines and crowd out the reporting of really important events and issues, like disasters, deaths and proposals to improve the world.

But — contrary to what a few ignorant people in the media have said, these political shenanigans have NOT sunk to the level of Joe McCarthy’s extremely evil political machinations. Neither accused nor accuser committed the crime of the century. Hundreds of lives were NOT ruined. NO ONE died in the daily tabloid garbage spewed by the media.

Anyway, instead of wasting time, read this book to learn many more of the author’s observations, insights and the opinions he heard as a result of his social activities in Jerusalem.

The Media Relations Department

The Book of the Week is “The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You A Happy Birthday” by Neil MacFarquhar, published in 2009. This is a foreign correspondent’s take on various Middle Eastern countries– countries he has covered for the New York Times and the AP in the 1980’s and later. The dictatorial leaders and secret service of Middle Eastern countries together create an oppressive combination.

Born in 1959, the American author discusses his Libyan childhood, and what happened when Qaddafi came to power in a coup. Libya had no parliament, military institutions, political parties, unions, NGOs and very few ministries. “Popular Committees” (similar to neighborhood associations in Asia– common people acting on a very local level) were supposed to govern the country.

The financial aid that the United States provided to Lebanon around 2002 appeared generous but had strings attached and seemed basically designed to recycle the money back to American businesses. For example, Lebanese farmers had prospered growing hashish and opium poppies but when those crops were outlawed, they received cows instead, only because U.S. dairy farmers wanted to sell surplus cows. So American aid engenders just as much resentment as goodwill.

According to MacFarquhar, the United States launched its war against Iraq because Iraq was seen as the strongest military threat to Israel and an alternative oil source to Saudi Arabia. Arabs opined that the war was launched to “…reestablish the Western colonial dominance of their lands.” America’s ostensible goal in invading Iraq was to cause a domino effect in the region. However, the action of the dominoes turned the opposite of the way intended. Common people living in the affected nations were made worse off, and “… they feared the possible bloody consequences of experimenting with pluralism.”

The author writes extensively on Muslim extremists who believe in killing all non-Muslims. Saudi Arabia might well be the nation that debates jihad more than all of the others because many of its citizens subscribe to the Wahhabi ideology. “Three of the four main branches of Sunni Islam reject the idea of an offensive jihad, of Muslims initiating hostilities.”

Bahrain is clearly a recipient of monetary assistance from the U.S., as the latter has a naval base there. The Khalifa government depends on such support, and could not subject a blogger critical of the ruling regime in Bahrain, to prolonged torture or imprisonment. The blogger started a forum where Web users around the world, including Bahrainis could freely express their views.

Read the book to learn additional information on the politics and cultures of the above and other nations, such as Egypt, Jordan and Syria (up until 2009) through Western eyes.

The Ministry of Guidance… – BONUS POST

This blogger skimmed “The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay” by Hooman Majd, published in 2013.

This is the personal account of an Iranian-American journalist who moves to Iran for a year with his wife and infant son in 2011. He describes the Iranian government’s mentality and the country’s culture. “Iranians in general and the revolutionaries in particular hate the British government more than any other.” Iranians feel powerless and fatalistic. They are loath to rebel again against their oppressive government because the revolutions of 1979 and 2009 resulted in much bloodshed, and failed to generate economic prosperity and respect for human rights, regardless of adherence to Islamic law.

Read the book to learn the author’s take on his family’s adventure, the Iranian government’s take on it (he must be a spy), and the hopes and fears shared by the people of his native country.

Waiting for an Ordinary Day

The Book of the Week is “Waiting for an Ordinary Day” by Farnaz Fassihi, published in 2008. This is the personal account of an Iranian-born American journalist employed by the Wall Street Journal who witnessed the American occupation of Iraq starting in 2003.

Sadly, after launching the war on false pretenses, in a bungled attempt to bring democracy to Iraq through forming a new government, the Americans inadvertently generated religious hatred within the country and hatred against themselves for various actions, such as: committing home invasions in Baghdad, war crimes at Abu Ghraib, and their exhibiting bigotry, ignorance and arrogance in the execution of the operation overall.

Among the many Iraqis with whom the author talked, was a military general and shopkeepers in Tikrit–Saddam Hussein’s hometown. They were still loyal to Saddam; they thought the Americans were imperialists, and that there would be intifada, jihad and resistance in Iraq. They were right. Iraq is sought after because it has oil and a prime location near the Persian Gulf. Religious strife has obstructed the United States from achieving its political, military and economic goals in Iraq.

Prior to the ousting of Saddam– a Sunni Muslim– and his Baath political party, Iraq was comprised of about 24 million people, 60% of whom were Shiite Muslims. After the start of the war in spring 2003, more-than-usual violence erupted between Sunnis and Shiites. There was looting of shops, schools, hospitals, gas stations, museums, etc. “Weeks after Baghdad’s fall, the city’s basic urban infrastructure– electricity, clean water, and sanitation services– is dysfunctional, and fuel and phone lines remain unrepaired.”

After Saddam’s death, the tables turned and the Americans allied with the Shiites and Kurds (rather than Sunnis), who became politically powerful. In the election for a one-year interim government, Shiites, who voted because they believed Allah wanted them to vote, were easily influenced and blindly obeyed their local clerics. The clerics, perceived as Allah’s representatives on earth, told the voters for whom to vote. Mercifully, fewer than one hundred people died in election-day violence.

Fassihi spoke with people from all walks of life, including a Sunni sheikh, and chief of the Bu-Issa tribe in Anbar province, 1 of 150 tribes in Iraq. He had eight sisters, nine brothers and three wives. The author also formed acquaintanceships and friendships with people who lost their lives, livelihoods and equanimity amidst the war. Iraqis told her that the atmosphere of fear and repression in American-occupied Iraq was just as oppressive as it was living under Saddam.

Read the book to learn of: Iraqi war stories heard or seen by the author, including kidnappings and torture (with the aim of monetary extortion), car bombings, mortar and suicide attacks, raids, ambushes, sniper shootings by the insurgents (Iraqis fighting against the Americans) and Iranian mercenaries (who were inciting religious violence); what New York City would be like if it were militarily occupied the same way Baghdad was in the fall of 2004; the dispute between the women arguing in favor of secular women’s rights and those arguing for women’s rights via traditional interpretation of sharia law; the author’s and many others’ fears and anguish at the war’s effects on their daily lives; and why Fassihi left Iraq.

House of Stone

The Book of the Week is “House of Stone” by Anthony Shadid, published in 2012. This is a journalist’s personal account of his quest to get closer to his Lebanese roots through renovating a house built by his great-grandfather, and a collection of inherited stories of the diaspora of his ancestors.

As is well known, Lebanon has a history of conflict among its numerous religious denominations despite the fact that most of those groups have monotheism in common. Amid the breakup of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI, Shadid’s extensive family of prior generations fled the violence for South America, West Africa, Australia and the United States. His family was Christian. Even as he was working on the house in 2007, Lebanon was teetering on the brink of war yet again. Martial law was imposed and “Even the opposition’s supporters cringed at the sight of militiamen sipping coffee at Starbucks, their rocket-propelled grenades resting in chairs in a distinctly Lebanese vision of globalization.”

In refurbishing the house in Marjayoun, Lebanon, Shadid told of the contractor’s procrastination and excuses, infighting among his distant relatives who were doing the work, power outages and haggling over prices, among other snags, that caused inevitable delays. These causes of frustrations comprise the nature of Lebanese culture. At the same time, Shadid also described how all the workers boasted of their pride of craftsmanship, their hospitality and sociability. After more than a year, he reveled in the inspirational artistry of his new home when it was almost done, unsurprisingly, over budget and past deadline.

Read the book to receive an intimate feel of the contradictions of the Lebanese mindset– of war, “…emptiness, aridity, hopelessness, the antithesis of creation, imagination” and of beauty, family ties and faith in God.