MIDDLE EAST
DIRTY LAUNDRY
You don’t really need to find out what’s going on You don’t really want to know just how far it’s gone Just leave well enough alone, keep your dirty laundry “Dirty Laundry” by Don Henley, released 1982 In today’s San Francisco Chronicle, Chip Johnson asks why so many Oaklanders focus on the killing of a…
Read MoreTHE BAD IMPULSE
The murder of sixteen Afghan civilians allegedly by Staff Sergeant Robert Bales has set many Americans to soul searching. The killings were in themselves terrible. They also have caused serious deterioration in the tenuous U.S.-Afghan relationship. But even more is involved concerning something each of us must fear about ourselves. Family and friends portray Bales—now…
Read MoreTRUTH AND FICTION
They—whoever they may be—say that truth is stranger than fiction. As a novelist and a lover of satire, I’ll go along with that. Because based on what recently transpired in Afghanistan and what I’ve recently experienced with my novel Slick! truth indeed can make us wonder, “How did that happen?” As to Afghanistan, we know…
Read MorePURIM AGAIN… AND AGAIN
Yesterday (beginning Wednesday evening) Jews celebrated Purim. We read the Book of Esther, which presents a great threat to the Jews of ancient Persia. So what’s changed? According to the megillah (scroll/story), Haman, King Ahasuerus’s top counselor, responds negatively to the Jewish Mordecai’s refusal to bow to him. “Accordingly, written instructions were dispatched by couriers…
Read MoreARAB SPRING, VOLUME TWO
Last Tuesday, I watched a TV report from Homs, Syria by Marie Colvin, a Long Island native working out of London as foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times. It was both emotional and sobering. Colvin, who sported a patch over her left eye resulting from a hand grenade thrown in Sri Lanka, commented on the…
Read MoreBACKWARD MARCH
They want to retreat centuries to a purer time when men were closer to God. No, not Islamists seeking to return to the time of Muhammad in the seventh century. I’m talking about the haredim, Israel’s ultra-orthodox Jews. First, a bit of Torah. People have long believed in an idyllic past. Witness the Garden of…
Read More“OVER”
After almost nine years, the Iraq War was officially declared over Thursday. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made the announcement at a ceremony at the Baghdad airport. I have my doubts. I remember all the beating of drums coming out of the White House during the run-up to the war—and how foolish it was. Then…
Read MoreMUSLIM STATES/JEWISH STATE
Last week, Egyptians voted for parliamentary representatives in a third of the nation’s provinces. Although secular liberals led the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak, Islamic parties—no surprise—claimed 65 to 70 percent of the vote following runoff elections. The Muslim Brotherhood, which New York Times columnist Tom Friedman describes as less doctrinaire than its Salafist rivals…
Read MoreTHE I-BOMB
My SLICK! launch party went well. I read parts of three scenes. One described the aged Sultan of Moq’tar being confused about present-day events but remaining proud that neither Jews nor Israelis live in the sultanate—except for a long list of both who actually maintain residency, as well as monthly visits by an Israeli cardiologist.…
Read MoreHIJACKED!
I wanted to devote this post solely to SLICK!, my new novel available now as an e-book at Amazon and soon in digital and soft-cover formats at Amazon, iUniverse.com, and bn.com (Barnes and Noble). And why not? SLICK! covers territory that’s as fresh as last Saturday’s New York Times. In SLICK!, the United States seeks…
Read MoreYOU CAN’T MAKE THAT UP
Two weeks ago, my friend Jane asked me how I kept from screaming when I spoke to that wealthy guy with the expensive BMW who complained about high taxes (“The High Cost of Wealth,” 10-14-11). Other readers have wondered how I stayed under control when I met a family stocking up on fattening foods at…
Read MoreNOW GO AND STUDY
When you teach, you learn. I spoke a few words at San Francisco’s Calvary Presbyterian Church two weeks ago. I’d been asked to invite the congregation to a joint study program with my synagogue, Congregation Sherith Israel. I told a story about Rabbi Hillel. Early this week, the lesson came back to me. Some background:…
Read MoreMURDER MYSTERY
A woman was stabbed to death half a mile from my home last Monday. Her adult son apparently killed her and wounded his father. Police were called. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the alleged killer held up a knife in each hand and approached them. One officer fired a non-lethal beanbag. The man kept…
Read MoreFAMILY
Libyan rebels have taken the Tripoli compound of Muammar el-Qaddafi (New York Times spelling). The Libyan poet and writer Khaled Darwish wrote in a Times op-ed piece yesterday, “My son Mohammad waved our new flag of independence in one hand and held a martyr’s picture in the other as he chanted, ‘The blood of martyrs…
Read MoreDOUBLE STANDARDS
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff offered an interesting parenthetical remark on August 4: “(Whenever I write about Israel, I get accused of double standards because I don’t spill as much ink denouncing worse abuses by, say, Syria. I plead guilty. I demand more of Israel partly because my tax dollars supply arms and aid…
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