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October 1, 2008

Last Saturday, we had the honor of sponsoring a talk by Father Patrick Desbois for his book THE HOLOCAUST BY BULLETS. The audience was small—perhaps some of our customers were among the 400 who heard him earlier in the week at the Holocaust Museum. His talk and the question-and- answer period was stirring and I think others will be interested in Father Desbois’s  book.

Father Desbois is a 50-year-old French priest who was appointed as a liaison to France’s Jewish community a decade ago. When he was on a tour with a group visiting the town of Rava-Ruska, where his grandfather had been interned in a prison camp during the Second World War, he asked the mayor where the Jews were buried. The mayor said he didn’t know. Father Desbois by then knew that 10,000 Jews had been killed there, so it was impossible that the Mayor did not know. When he later returned to the town he found villages waiting to tell their stories.  

It is clear that because Father Desbois is a priest and because he is non-judgmental, Ukrainians are willing to talk to him about what they observed and sometimes even about acts of their own. Over four years, Father Desbois has videotaped more than 700 interviews with witnesses and bystanders and has identified more than 700 common graves of Jews, most of them previously unknown. He also has gathered material evidence of the execution of Jews from 1941 to 1944, the “Holocaust of bullets” as it is called.

In a NY Times article by Elaine Sciolino last year Father Debois said, “People talk as if these things happened yesterday, as if 60 years didn’t exist….Some ask, ‘Why are you coming so late? We have been waiting for you.’” In his introduction, Paul Shapiro of the Holocaust Museum noted the pained faces of the eyewitnesses. He further pointed out, as Father Debois discussed, the Holocaust by bullets has a special relevance to present genocides in a way that Auschwitz and the Nazi death camps do not.

Much of Father Desbois’s research is now on view at the Memorial of the Shoah in Paris, which you can find on the Internet and even view and listen to videotapes.

Father Desbois pointed out that as long as Ukraine was part of the USSR, information about the killing of Jews was a forbidden topic. The Soviets did more than control the present; they controlled the past. As they looked at it, there were no ethnic groups so nobody was singled out because they were Jewish.

Father Desbois is working feverishly to regain the past, not only in Ukraine, but in Belorusse and even now in Russia. But the witnesses are now in their 70s and 80s. We are nearing the end of the time when people can talk about the Holocaust from their own experience.

 

 

September 24, 2008

Listening to the authors last Saturday - and reviewing their books - I was reminded once again about the failures of American foreign policy. Abysmal failures. And not just the last seven and half years either (though, Heaven knows, we have not distinguished ourselves during that period.) Brzezinski told me when he spoke last year for us, it's less about what the Bush Administration has done, than that eight years have gone by when the world needed American leadership.

But you do ask yourself, after hearing Tariq Ali and Tom Gjelten speak, is there a reason to believe that the United States will have a positive influence in world affairs? It seems that, more often than not, our intervention is clumsy, at best, and often on behest of undemocratic interests.

In his new book, The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path to American Power, the erudite and engaging Tariq Ali, a Pakistani-born journalist, argues that the U.S. has propped up military dictatorships in Pakistan from its beginning as a nation. With THE Bhutto assassination (see Ron Suskind's, new book, The Way of the World, for the shocking story of how the United States used her and failed to protect her), and now the election of her corrupt husband, Asif Zardari, to take her place, Ali comments, "Over the last fifty years the US has worked mainly with the Pakistan Army. This has been its preferred instrument. Nothing has changed. How long before the military is back at the helm?"

Tariq Ali, a working journalist, is an amazingly prolific book writer. We have a number of Ali's previous books on hand, including Speaking of Empire and Resistance from 2005, Pirates of the Caribbean, a discussion of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, published two years ago, Clash of Fundamentalism from 2002. Although decidedly on the Left, Ali is an incisive and provocative critic.

Tom Gjelten, the NPR correspondent, presented his new book, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba, that same day. Tom has written a history of modern Cuba around one of its liberal and influential families. It appears that United States has had a perfect record of wrong policies toward Cuba.

During 1870s, Cuba was engaged in a 10-year war to end slavery and liberate themselves from oppressive Spanish rule. The Cubans never received any assistance from the United States. Twenty years later the Cubans watched as the United States pushed Cuban military leaders aside to "free" Cuba from Spain. Although "the Cubans had done far more of fighting and dying, the war is called the Spanish-American War." During both wars, Emilio Bacardi, son of the founder was an important player and indeed went to jail twice for long periods. He was also the President of the Bacardi enterprise.

Fast forward sixty years to Fidel's victorious entrance into Santiago from the mountains where he had fought the Batista government. Daniel Bacardi and other family members were part of the throng which greeted him. Indeed the family had contributed to Fidel's Army. After Castro's decision to embrace Socialism, however, the company was nationalized and all political opposition was stifled. The Bacardis went into exile with so many others - a tenth of the Cuban population! Tom Gjelten has written a great story about Cuba itself and Cuba in the mind of the United States.

September 18, 2008

Thomas Friedman And Politics And Prose

Next week Thomas Friedman will speak about his new book, HOT, FLAT, AND CROWDED,  at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. Ours is one of just two bookstores where Mr. Friedman will be appearing.

Our relationship with Tom Friedman goes back to the spring of 1989 He had just returned from Israel, where he was the New York Times correspondent. We met at a luncheon to introduce young Mr. Friedman to booksellers. His forthcoming book From Beirut to Jerusalem was about the relationship between Israel and its neighbors. Barbara said, “He is a great communicator.” We invited him to be our last speaker in the small store across the street. And of course, he wowed the crowd, which pushed into the small space.

The next year we celebrated the anniversary of our move by inviting Mr. Friedman to speak for the paperback publication of From Beirut to Jerusalem. The store was crowded, but no Tom Friedman. Carla called his house (at that time, the Friedmans lived nearby) and Tom said, “I forgot the date and I was about to go to the opera. I will come right now and be late for the opera.”

We had a warm friendship by now and for the publication of each new book, Tom would call and say, “You know my new book is coming out; can we make a date?” And we would say, “of course.” He was late to speak in September 2002 for Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After 9/11. He said, “I’m sorry that I am late; I was speaking with Condolezza Rice.” We thought, “Uh, oh.” He has always stood on the side of democratic forces and against tyranny, but he would say now that he bought into the Administration’s position on Iraq too much.

His new book Hot, Flat, and Crowded is a much needed argument that links climate change and world affairs. It’s not just an issue for environmentalists; it’s an issue for democracies that want to survive in a dangerous world. The United States’ dependence on oil results in a foreign policy that bends to what Friedman calls “petro-dictatorships.” Moreover, he shows that climate change is affecting the stability of the world, as Asian and African countries are experiencing extreme weather events.

August 13, 2008

It’s getting to be all Indian, all the time for me. I just love fiction by writers whose origin and subject is South Asia.

I loved SACRED GAMES, by Vikram Chandra, a portrait of Mumbai (Bombay) as a complicated modern city where the forces of good are confronting evil (think Chicago early in the 20th century). Before that I couldn’t get enough of Vikram Seth’s A SUITABLE BOY. Perhaps he was the first to write a 19th-century English novel about India, about a family in Calcutta.

Maybe that’s what it is. As the Americans fool around with post modernism, the Westernized Indians are writing juicy novels with plot and characters and class issues, reminiscent and (no doubt) influenced by George Eliot and Anthony Trollope.

So, recently, I read:

-- a wonderful book by Amitav Ghosh which is (thrill!) the first of a trilogy. You know Ghosh; he is the author of The Glass Palace and The Hungry Tide. His new book, SEA OF POPPIES, about Indians who were forced into slavery in the late19th century, is full of memorable characters and plenty of action (October publication).

-- a long first novel, TOSS OF A LEMON, by Padma Viswanathan, a  young woman, about class and ritual and family ties and binds in south India. A woman defies her family after she is widowed, still in her teens, and raises her two children and manages her holdings with the help of a loyal servant (September publication).

-- Finally, I just read a novel by Abraham Verghese, author of one of my favorite books, My Own Country, about the outbreak of AIDS in its earliest days, in a part of rural Tennessee. I regret to say that his absorbing novel, CUTTING OF STONE, that takes place mostly in Ethiopia where Verghese was raised, will not be available until February, but I will remind you.

August 13, 2008

It’s getting to be all Indian, all the time for me. I just love fiction by writers whose origin and subject is South Asia.

I loved SACRED GAMES, by Vikram Chandra, a portrait of Mumbai (Bombay) as a complicated modern city where the forces of good are confronting evil (think Chicago early in the 20th century). Before that I couldn’t get enough of Vikram Seth’s A SUITABLE BOY. Perhaps he was the first to write a 19th-century English novel about India, about a family in Calcutta.

Maybe that’s what it is. As the Americans fool around with post modernism, the Westernized Indians are writing juicy novels with plot and characters and class issues, reminiscent and (no doubt) influenced by George Eliot and Anthony Trollope.

So, recently, I read:

-- a wonderful book by Amitav Ghosh which is (thrill!) the first of a trilogy. You know Ghosh; he is the author of The Glass Palace and The Hungry Tide. His new book, SEA OF POPPIES, about Indians who were forced into slavery in the late19th century, is full of memorable characters and plenty of action (October publication).

-- a long first novel, TOSS OF A LEMON, by Padma Viswanathan, a  young woman, about class and ritual and family ties and binds in south India. A woman defies her family after she is widowed, still in her teens, and raises her two children and manages her holdings with the help of a loyal servant (September publication).

-- Finally, I just read a novel by Abraham Verghese, author of one of my favorite books, My Own Country, about the outbreak of AIDS in its earliest days, in a part of rural Tennessee. I regret to say that his absorbing novel, CUTTING OF STONE, that takes place mostly in Ethiopia where Verghese was raised, will not be available until February, but I will remind you.

August 7, 2008

Last Thursday night we hosted Marwan Muasher for his new book, THE ARAB CENTER, published by Yale University Press. Mr. Muasher is a Jordanian diplomat and politician who held a number of senior positions in foreign affairs in the Jordanian government. He opened the first embassy in Israel, served as Ambassador to Washington, and as Foreign Minister. He has lived in, as well as written on, the Arab Center.

He opened by saying that he needed to write the book because most of the histories of the Middle East are written by outsiders and almost never by Arabs. When asked in the question period whether the book would appear in Arabic, he said the translation is being prepared now and already several countries have expressed a desire for it.

In his talk, he made two key points:

1) The Arab moderates must support reform in their own countries as well as the peace process. The Middle East must have a chance for good government, strengthening the judiciary, reliance on the rule of law, promoting women’s rights, and recognition of opposition parties. Arab moderates use the fear of radical Islam to block opposition and reform. What they fail to understand is the rise of Hamas and Hezbollah is a result of the frustration with the intransigence of ruling parties.  

2) If Israel wants to be accepted in the region, it has to work for a two-state solution with Arab moderates. Mr. Muasher says he no longer believes in a gradual process for peace; going slow offers a chance for opponents to derail the process. He says that all of the negotiations have produced a solid basis for a credible solution including: collective security guarantees, no further claims by either side, and an agreed solution to refugee problems.  What is needed now is the political will led by the U.S. when the new Administration comes in.

Time is running out for Israel, with 4½ million Jews, and 3½ million on the West Bank. If the world doesn’t push for a two-state solution, a one-state solution will result and that effectively eliminates the state of Israel.

This is an important book, and we will be looking for other opportunities to present Mr. Muasher in the fall.

 

 

July 23, 2008

We are greatly saddened by the news about the financial problems that Olsson’s Books and Records is facing. It is not good for the people of Washington to have fewer choices in where to shop for books. It’s sad for the devoted employees of Olsson’s. It’s bad for the people who represent the publishers and call on bookstores to take orders—there are fewer of us left and the sales representatives have to cover larger territories if they retain their jobs at all. And it’s bad for books. There are fewer places to highlight original or quirky or out-of-the mainstream; there are simply fewer voices commenting on books.

We again think about the past and future of Politics and Prose. We entered a bookselling scene where there were many other bookstores, even though it was said that Crown Books had wiped out a lot of bookstores. (Remember, if you paid full price, you didn’t buy it at Crown.) There were several Olsson’s stores; there was Kramer Books on H Street, as well as K&A. There was Franz Bader and Travel Books in Bethesda. Our friends at Chapters had opened their store on I Street a year before. There was Reiters on K Street and the wonderful Reprint in L’Enfant Plaza. There was Common Concerns south of Dupont Circle and Calliope in Cleveland Park. It makes me sad to think about the bookstore ghosts of the past.

People often ask us how it is that we survived while other bookstores failed.  I always say, “It’s luck and hard work.” Luck was opening in 1984 when publishers became open to the idea of touring authors. Luck was finding a place north on Connecticut Avenue that was cheap enough to start from scratch. It wasn’t luck that we came to Chevy Chase; that was a neighborhood that I always thought needed and could support a bookstore. Luck was finding a space right across the street from our first store and then being able to expand, thanks to a mostly cooperative landlord. Luck is being in a neighborhood with parking easily available. Thank you, neighbors, for putting up with us a couple of nights a week.

Hard work is working in the store 40 hours a week and more hours at home, reading and writing. Working to identify staff that will enjoy working at P&P.  Working to pay staff a little better than ordinary retail so that our employees will be able to stay longer.

As we enter our 25th year of business this fall, we will continue to reflect on the past, but also on the future.

June 25, 2008

Summer is the time that I most associate with reading. Books, particularly novels, are best read in large swaths when you can feel the momentum of the book and lose yourself in the time and place. Often I hear the author’s voice in my ear.

Sometimes when I recall a book, the place where I read it is forever fused with the book in my mind.  Sometimes the place was perfect for the book; other times it is a chance to catch up on older books or get ahead on upcoming ones.

But then the books themselves become part of memories of a time of enjoyment and almost impossible to part with.

Here are some of the books that I associate with a place and a time:

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN when I was a college student working in Boston, living in wonderful Cambridge, Mass.

THREE WHO MADE A REVOLUTION, by Bertram Wolfe, untangled the people and events of the Russian Revolution the summer I crossed the country with my friend Ellie Szanton and lived with her brother and sister-in-law near Palo Alto.

CANCER WARD, the brilliant farce by Solzhenitsyn that resulted in his expulsion from the USSR. We were on vacation with my extended family in upstate New York, the summer after our son Aaron was born.

TELL ME A RIDDLE, by Tillie Olsen, I read in our beach apartment between Gloucester and Rockport, Massachusetts, crying so loudly that I bothered the family when they watched the ballgame.

DANIEL DERONDA, by George Eliot, because it was the only George Eliot that I hadn’t read, when David and I were touring Ecuador.

LIFE AND FATE, by Vasily Grossman, vacationing in Bermuda, of all places. I had to sit in a chair to read it because the hardback copy was so heavy.

A SUITABLE BOY, by Vikram Seth,  on the plane to San Francisco,  and then I sneaked away from every meeting to find out whether Lata would ever find a suitable boy.

BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM, by James McPherson—200 pages a day for most of a week—while I was staying at my Aunt Emily’s house on a mountain in Vermont. A seminal work like McPherson’s needs long periods of time for reading to remember the multiple themes and characters and to understand his view.

EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED, by Jonathan Safran Foer, at  Carol and John Siegel’s beautiful vacation house in Wellfleet, laughing and looking up from the manuscript to the ponds in the distance.

SATURDAY,  by Ian McEwen, in a rented apartment in London, actually seeing and knowing the places he was describing.

ASSASSINS’ GATE, by George Packer, who describes the longstanding enmity between Sunni and Shiite and how those conflicts were not understood by the U.S. And where am I?  In Bosnia, visiting with friends from U.S. AID who are trying to put back together a place suffering from similar misunderstandings.

************

I can see myself at 12 lying on the chaise on the porch reading a library book, maybe by Pearl Buck. My lifelong friend Betsy Levin and I read one after another of her books that summer, THE GOOD EARTH to PEONY to DRAGON SEED and many whose titles I have forgotten. The next year it was Somerset Maugham and the year after, Sinclair Lewis.

I can see myself finishing Assassins’ Gate in the garden of a hotel in Mostar.

May 14, 2008

Book Talk: What Better Present!

Hope all of the mothers had a lovely day on Sunday and that some of you received a P&P present. We are ready for graduation now and all of the other spring events. The cards are displayed and we will be happy to help you select presents. I am thinking about this because I have a very large number of important occasions – birthdays and graduations in the next month.

Incredibly and luckily, my mother Edith Furstenberg will celebrate her ninety-eighth birthday next week. Philippe my nephew graduates from Law School. This month and next my nieces Hannah and Nora graduate – Hannah from college and Nora from high school. In June, my brother Mark has a 70th birthday and the day before our daughter Eve has her birthday. Maybe the ideas that I have will help others select their presents.

In truth, my mother doesn’t read a lot any more, but she loves to listen to books. She’s a big supporter of Obama and hasn’t read his books. She said at the end of last year that she is very happy that she would live long enough to see Bush leave office. I will give her the CDs of Dreams from My Father, which he himself narrates (before he got busy). I think that Obama’s intelligent and perceptive books were factors that propelled him into consideration as a candidate.

My brother loves fiction, but has read almost everything more than a month old so I will give him Netherland by Joseph O’Neill, the book reviewed in the upcoming NYTimes book review. It’s unusual, a long reverie on belonging, as Hans, Dutch by birth and married to an English woman finds himself lost in New York City when his wife and small son returned to England following 9/11. Hans falls in with a mysterious Indian from Trinidad because of their shared love of cricket. Netherland is terse and beautifully written. I am pretty sure that Mark has read The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, both of which I loved, but I will do some sleuthing.

Unlike Mark, Eve, our daughter, reads primarily nonfiction. She also listens to CDs on her commute to her job.  I am going to give her the CD made in the store of Michael Eric Dyson’s talk about his new book April 4, 1968. The CDs of the entire book will make a nice present. I will give her a copy of Daoud Hari’s The Translator about how he risked his life to return to Sudan to work for the Allied forces trying to rescue Darfur genocide victims.  

I am giving Chris Meyer Asch’s The Senator and the Sharecropper to Hannah who is graduating from college. Chris, who grew up in Washington and read at the store on Monday night, shares her interests and aspirations about public service and his book about the Civil Rights movement in Sunflower Country, Mississippi is perfect. A book that Hannah will enjoy reading for contrast is Free Food for Millionaires, Min Jin Lee’s hefty novel (now in paperback) focuses on the bright young people in New York whose focus is money, how to make and spend it. Lee’s take on the difficulties of young graduates finding their way is particularly interesting because of her first generation Korean-American background.

Nora, the high school graduate, is a big reader. She will like Hummingbird’s Daughter by Mexican American Louis Urrea because she has spent time in Latin America.  I will also give here When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin, about the decline of his family in Zimbabwe as the country plunges into chaos. That is a marvelous memoir. I also think she would enjoy one of Amitav Ghosh’s books, maybe The Hungry Tide which presaged the tsunami in Indonesia although a lot of people like The Glass Palace – about the Indians who worked in Malaya on the rubber plantations.

May 8, 2008

I know that the election is interfering with my reading. The drama of the primary is consuming my energy and time.

I watch television about 1000% more than I normally do. It’s not enough to see Mark Shields and David Brooks and Washington Week in Review once a week. I have to watch Chris Matthews, and Keith Olbermann and John King’s magic map. I regret to say that I often even listen to the endless discussion.

Oh, and it’s not just television that is consuming my reading time. I read blogs praising and condemning and emails with up-to-date commentary. And I even view the videos on My Space and send them to all of my friends. 

The drama is palpable – I don’t think it’s just the campaign or pundits spit. Here in one corner is the vibrant and attractive first woman candidate. Here in the other, the elegant and cool first serious African American candidate. Both are obviously intelligent and focused.  Recently, the epic quality of the clash is spoofed in a satire based on Star Wars. While obviously touting Obama, the video is very clever.

In the background is the failing and flailing Presidency of George Bush. A British friend asked how the United States could elect George Bush in one election and (possibly) Barack Obama in the next. I said that maybe it is the abject failure of Bush that makes Obama possible.  America can start a new chapter.

Meanwhile, the reading that I get done in preparation for introducing the authors at the store just gets me more concerned about the need for a change in direction. There are books about America’s changing place in the world and others about how we go about improving life for our citizens.  Many of these are aimed at contributing to agenda setting for the new administration. 

Hopefully, we can all get back to reading once the primary is over, or will it all start again with the young knight who is jousting with the battle scarred veteran?

April 16, 2008

Hello from a very cool and often rainy April week in London.

I am here with a group of American booksellers attending the annual London Bookfair. The fun of being here is thinking about books and selling them with my colleagues. There are some wonderful hard-working store owners here with me.

The convention spotlights Arab writers this year and, thanks to Mark LaFramboise, I brought The Yacoubian Building, by Alaa Al Aswany, who is a featured writer tomorrow at the Fair. (Mark’s Evening Fiction bookgroup is reading the book next month.) It's a first rate novel—beautifully written and witty. It is also a depressing look at contemporary Egyptian culture.

I walked through the convention center floor today, and there actually was very little for an American bookstore representative to do. We can't order from British publishers and some of the forthcoming books will not be published in the U.S. for six months or a year.

But London is amazing. There are scores of languages being spoken on the bus and in the tube. There are concerts and art exhibitions, only a little of which we can take advantage of. It's a very stimulating environment and we are all grateful for the chance to be here.

See you at the store next week,

Carla

April 9, 2008

Letter from a Friend

Lisa Newman went to the microphone after Daoud Hari spoke last week about his extraordinary book, THE TRANSLATOR. Daoud saw his home destroyed and many members of his family killed in Darfur. Nevertheless, he returned from a safe haven in Chad to become a translator for news organizations because he felt that he had to let the world know what was happening in Darfur. Everyone who attended Daoud’s reading was moved, and particularly so when Lisa spoke about the book. In a recent letter, Lisa wrote:

Carla,

Thank you for coming up to me to mention that you appreciated my comments at the Daoud Hari reading last night. It was a wonderful event, and it made me proud to be a member of the Washington community. It was so important to welcome a genuine hero to a warm and creative environment, and at the same time help him (and a great bookstore) sustain the good work that can be done in the world.

As I was leaving, a couple told me they bought the book based on what I said alone. Well, that felt good, but the book stands on its own. I hope it wins a prize, and gets the recognition it deserves worldwide. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye last night, but since I study at the cafe at least twice a week, I'll catch you another time.

Best,

Lisa Newman

London

I am off to London for a week, as part of a delegation of American booksellers attending the London Bookfair. Some nice events have been arranged for us, like a tour of the Globe Theatre and of the Tate Museum. I will, of course, report back.

4/2/08

One of the reasons that Barbara and I like to introduce the authors as much as we do, is that it gives us the opportunity to have a more detailed look at a wide range of books. We do not (cannot) read them all, cover to cover, but the ones that we have not read, we look through, read chapters of, and get a sense of whether we can recommend the book.

This past week and the one before, three important books were presented at the store: Parag Khanna’s SECOND WORLD, Jeffrey Sach’s book COMMON WEALTH, and Aaron Miller’s THE MUCH TOO PROMISED LAND. And I also want to talk about a lovely new book by Jonathan Rosen called, THE LIFE OF THE SKIES.

The Second World is a book that will change the way you think about the future of our own country and of the world that is emerging. It’s a book that the young Thomas Friedman could have written. Khanna went around the world, surveying at least 100 countries. Second World refers to many nations where there is a mixture of rich and poor, of urban complexity and rural isolation.

No longer is the United States the lone superpower. Rather, Khanna sees that already we are sharing markets with the European Union and China. He sees Europe as a model that we could do more to emulate in our own hemisphere. Prosperity and peace are spread across Europe, even as it integrates more nations into the union. China is apolitical in its demands on resources and markets, and supports many authoritarian regimes (as does the United States). But it is also a source of stability, because its needs are intertwined with the rest of the world.  

I read Second World while I was in Chiapas, in Mexico, and really appreciated the analysis as a way of explaining Mexico’s tangled politics as well as its intriguing mixture of sophistication and extreme poverty.

(order an audio cd of this talk here.)

Two weeks ago, Jeffrey Sachs gave a world class talk on Common Wealth to a packed audience of young and old (for an audio CD click here). No, we cannot depend on the invisible hand of the market to solve the gaps between rich and poor countries. No, we cannot depend on the good sense of the world’s corporations to restore the earth and the seas after they are plundered. We must develop new governmental mechanisms to prevent a global disaster that is looming, given the exponential increases in the world’s population, the economic rise of Asia, competition for the world’s remaining resources, and the degradation of the earth’s environment.

Aaron David Miller is frank about the failure of the United States to help Israel and Palestine negotiate peace in The Much Too Promised Land. As a participant in talks for over twenty years when he worked at the State Department, he presents each set of discussions, showing what went right and what went wrong. This is one of the best books that I have ever read about the nitty gritty of negotiations. It is also a thorough assessment of the credibility of the nations and their capability to deliver what they promise.

Because Milller’s book is so personal, it is much more entertaining than a simple history of Middle East negotiations would be. Aaron talks about his own background; he talks about the players at the table; and he is very open about the Americans who have been successful and those who have not. He says that only the United States has the credibility to bring an end to the struggle. Precisely because the U.S. has a special relationship with Israel, it can lean on Israel to make the changes that are necessary to win concessions from Palestine.

(order an audio cd of this talk here.)

Finally, I want to tell you about a book that is not about changing the world – at least not directly: The Life of the Skies, by Jonathan Rosen. Some of you may know Jonathan Rosen from his essays in The Talmud and the Internet, or from Joy Comes in the Morning, his first novel. Life of the Skies is about his passion for birding, and is an extended reflection on the interaction between humans and other species. We learn about Audubon and Thoreau when their worlds were much more intertwined with nature, and we learn what is happening to nature as man squeezes it out. We see some birds in Central Park and Louisiana and Israel, and we learn about what it is that drives Jonathan to spend his time pursuing birds. We are also reintroduced to Edward O. Wilson, the great biologist, and to Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin’s brilliant contemporary, and we meet some new remarkable men like Henry Baker Tristram.

(order an audio cd of this talk here.)

3/26/08

Staring at the Sun

I went to a funeral last Friday for Josephine Woll, our friend and customer. The brilliant and lively Dr. Woll was a Russian expert who had fought breast cancer for three years. She was only 57 years old.

I couldn’t help thinking about Josie when Dr. Irvin Yalom spoke to a full house on Sunday about his new book, STARING AT THE SUN.  Dr. Yalom recommends two principles for living life in a way that diminishes anxiety about death: rippling and connectivity. Rippling is like the stones you drop in the water and watch as the ripples spread out. Everybody who spoke at Josie Woll’s funeral talked about how much of herself, her ideas, and her good sense she imbued others with. And they talked about the joy she gave to her many friends and relatives. 

Nobody wants to die; nobody wants their friends and beloved family to die, especially not prematurely. But it is a comfort to all of us to know that our lives matter. And that our death can be managed with grace.

In that vein, Eleanor Clift has written about her husband’s last weeks before he died of cancer. Tom Brazaitis was a masterful journalist and a warm and funny man who died two years ago. Tom’s service at the National Press Club had many of the same elements that Josie Woll’s did—testimony to the warmth and caring that he imbued in his journalistic and personal life. Eleanor turned her grief into a lovely memoir, TWO  WEEKS OF LIFE, which describes Tom’s last days in hospice care, juxtaposed against the unpleasant political circus over Terry Schiavo that was occurring in the same two weeks. Eleanor will be at P&P on Saturday, April 5 ,at 1 p.m.

posted March 12, 2008

Every year Politics and Prose sponsors a trip to Mexico. We started these annual trips for two reasons: 1) Americans are too Europe-centric, I thought, and we have an opportunity to increase their association with and loyalty to Latin America. A friend of mine said that he didn’t believe that Mexico could compare to Europe as a place to visit.  He now admits he was wrong. He loves the art, architecture and crafts of Mexico.  2) It is not easy to navigate Mexico without knowing Spanish. Driving alone is somewhat iffy because the police are not always protectors and they sometimes shake down drivers. Driving in Mexico City is a horror because of the traffic. Public transport is excellent but some of the sites we want to visit are difficult to get to, especially without sufficient language skills.

Why not other parts of Latin America? Mexico is easy to travel to and extremely diverse. The graceful architecture is a combination of Spanish and Moorish. Each town has a central square surrounded by shops and restaurants, perfect for sitting in or along. The architectural splendors of the indigenous peoples are stunning. Huge pyramids that served as ceremonial centers are gradually being uncovered. No one is certain why and even how the Mayans or earlier Olmecs disappeared although there are theories related to climate and food supply.

Our 2008 trip was primarily to the southernmost state of Chiapas. Chiapas, where the majority of the citizens are descendents of the Mayans, had been bypassed by the periods of reform that came periodically to Mexico.  The people eked out subsidence on rocky land – the best land was all farmed by a few big haciendas. There were few schools and many people were illiterate.  The Zapitista uprising sought to correct the inequities. Many of us read a thoughtful (though very academic) book called Understanding the Chiapas Rebellion by Nicholas Higgins that put the Zapitista movement in perspective.

It does appear that the attention brought to Chiapas by Commander Marcos and his associates has made an impact. The region appears less isolated and public improvements are evident.  Roads are improved and the dire poverty that had been described by other travelers is less apparent.  This is not to say that there is not far more to do. Pressure will have to continue to be applied on the state and the national government to promote more even development.

In San Cristobal de Casas, the lovely old capital, we met with Sergio Castro an agronomist who treats burn victims among the poor. Through his ministry and raising money to build schools, he has earned the confidence of the local population.

(To watch a movie about this remarkable man click here)

We spent two days visiting one of Chiapas’ great attractions, the Mayan city of Palenque, which is already substantial, even though only a small fraction has been excavated. We were in the jungle and saw rare birds and howler monkeys. We took a ride on the Sumidoro River which has mile high canyons on both sides. We saw egrets and crocodiles. In Tutzla Guiterrez we visited a zoo with native animals and birds.

In Mexico City we saw Rivera murals, including extraordinary ones in the waterworks which we had not viewed before. We visited the new Museo de Artes Populare.  At last, the brilliant craftsmen of Mexico are receiving recognition for their arts. Many of the craftspeople that we had visited in other years are represented in the museum: including, the devil makers in Ocumicho in Michoacán; the whimsical Irma Blanco of Oaxaca; the Castillo family’s inventive trees of life in Izuckar de Matamoros, Puebla; and Gorky Gonzales of Guanaquato and his blend of new and old in ceramics.

Each year we learn more about the beautiful country on our southern border with its unique blend of Spanish and indigenous people and culture.  This year I was reading the immensely provocative The Second World by Parag Khanna (who will be presenting his book at P&P next week).  The second world is characterized by uneven development, some first world characteristics and some third world.  Here is some of what Khanna says about Mexico.  After NAFA went into effect the Zapatistas began an insurgency (including assassinating two government leaders) revealing that Mexico is more third-world than first. He says that "it will require more than laissez-faire NAFTA-nomics to make one country out of Mexico. It will take the United States to offer what the EU is required to offer Turkey: membership, citizenship, members of parliament, open migration, massive subsidies, and language rights within a parliament border. “

Those of us who love Mexico (and those who do not want illegal immigrants in the U.S.) have a special obligation to ensure that some or all of these actions are taken by the next Administration.

Photos by Janet Hoveland

Posted March 5, 2008

Letter from Mexico

This is our sixth annual P&P trip to Mexico, and this one has been in the far south, near Guatemala.

We have only two more days of our bright sunshine and the stimulating visits to museums, zoos, and, particularly, archeological sites. Once again, we have fallen under the sway of the early peoples who built great monuments. We have seen the flora and fauna of southern Mexico and visited with individuals who are trying to improve the position of the indigenous peoples. It does seem as though there has been some improvement in the economy here in Chiapas, undoubtedly thanks, in part, to the uprising led by the Zapatistas.

I will be back in the store on Thursday and I will be eager to tell you more about our trip.

Posted February 20, 2008

This weekend I am off to Mexico for the annual twelve-day Politics and Prose trip to our neighbor to the south. Our Investigative Tourists* are both old and new friends, twenty-two in all. Half have come on a trip previously and half are first timers.

Every year for the last six we have led a late-February trip to sunny, dry Mexico. We have explored Oaxaca, the Colonial cities north of Mexico City, and the Gulf state of Vera Cruz and its marvelous Pyramid of the Niches. We almost always start in Mexico City, which we all love. The grand and sprawling city has extraordinary museums, markets, restaurants—more than we ever have time to explore, especially because we always want to return to the Museum of Anthropology and the Dolores Olmedo Museum.

This year we will explore Chiapas and Tabasco in the south of Mexico. Abutting Guatemala, Chiapas is the poorest state in Mexico and almost completely Mayan. It is the center of weaving as well. There are a number of NGOs who are working with the villages in Chiapas—Grameen, Habitat for Humanity—and we hope to meet with some of them. We will be escorted to some of the villages and see the weaving cooperatives.

High on the list of sites in this part of Mexico is the great Mayan “ruin” Palenque. I put ruin in quotation marks because many of Mexico’s archeological treasures are in surprisingly good condition. Some had been buried under mud and jungle growth for centuries, awaiting excavation in the twentieth century.  Palenque was built in the early years of the first millennium and serious excavation did not start till the 1920s.

Of course, I will want to report more when I return—certainly about the zoo in Tuxtla Gutierrez and the Olmec heads in Villahermosa and much else.

* So named on our first P&P trip to Central Europe in 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Posted February 5, 2008

Carla Comments: Continuing Discussion on the Future of Israel

I am very pleased that my letters on my trip to Israel have provoked such a fine discussion. Readers will get a good cross-section of the thinking in the American Jewish community if they follow the comments.

At one extreme is the occasional letter from a customer saying he will not return to the store because I am anti-Israel. In this case, I told the man that if criticizing the government of Israel makes me anti-Israel, then I am also anti-American, because I am a strong critic of the U.S. government. I love Israel, which is why it pains me when its policies are an impediment to a lasting peace or even to long-term security.

But our friend Michael Feuer takes issue with Merrill
Leffler and the authors of Lords of the Land:

Leffler's letter cites Amos Elon's assertion that there are "500,000 Israelis in 226 authorized and 'unauthorized' settlements..." That number is contested—current estimates are closer to 400,000, the vast majority of whom are not in those small, largely religious outposts that cause the most trouble with Palestinian neighbors. 

Leffler suggests that Israel's parliamentary system is responsible for policies that "have consistently stymied liberal reforms..."  There are many flaws in the coalition system in Israel, but it is worth noting that by most indicators of economic, social, and medical well-being the condition of Palestinian Arabs improved tremendously since the so-called occupation.

I cite Efraim Karsh, a distinguished historian at Kings College (London):  "Perhaps most significantly, mortality rates in the West Bank and Gaza fell by more than two-thirds between 1970 and 1990, while life expectancy rose from 48 years in 1967 to 72 in 2000. Israeli medical programs reduced the infant-mortality rate of 60 per 1,000 live births in 1968 to 15 per 1,000 in 2000.” These improvements are perhaps not sufficient to compensate for lack of political sovereignty; but it is simply wrong, and a bit mean-spirited, to perpetuate the myth of Israeli (Jewish) indifference to Arab suffering when so much data are readily available that demonstrate the counterfactual. 

The deeper issue is one that constrains and has always constrained the prospects for real peace. It is true that the overwhelming majority of Israelis still favor land concessions for peace—as they have since the first moments after the Six-Day War and, indeed, as they have in response to every one of the multiple partition plans that have been proposed in the 20th century—but there is also growing evidence that the issue is not the 1967 borders. The problem, it seems, if you read carefully the words of distinguished Palestinian leaders like Hanan Ashrawi, is the "catastrophe," the "naqba" of 1948, which suggests rather eerily that all of these debates about the 1967 borders may miss the point entirely. Persistent, intransigent opposition to Israel's very existence, regardless of its borders, is the root cause of the seemingly endless conflict.

Does this mean Israel should just hold on to all the settlements and forget about the dream of land concessions for peace?  Certainly not. It just means that Mr. Leffler's somewhat casual review of the situation is inadequate as a basis for understanding Israeli (and Arab) policy options and their likely consequences.

From Carla Cohen:
Thank you, Michael. But I do not agree.
I find LORDS OF THE LAND (published in Israel in 2005 and here by Nation Books in 2007), an excellent and well-organized history of the Settlement movement. The authors are Idith Zertal, an Israeli historian, and Akiva Eldar, a political columnist with Ha’aretz, the liberal Israeli daily newspaper. They open by reminding readers that “for approximately two-thirds of its history, Israel has been an occupying state.” Lords of the Land “charts a two-pronged development. On one hand, there is the settlement movement, which from its very inception was imbued with a sense of sacred national-religious mission. On the other hand, we have seen the gradual collapse of the state’s institutions, whether by choice or out of weakness in the face of the messianic zeal that burst into the public sphere after June 1967.” Americans have to understand what the authors call “the malignancy of occupation.”

Their information and conclusions are not welcome, but I certainly saw nothing in my brief stay in Israel that contradicted their findings.

Posted January 29, 2008

Carla Comments: More on Israel and Its Future

I received a number of comments about my letters from Israel. One of the most thoughtful was from our friend Merrill Leffler, a local publisher, which I want to quote part of:

Dear Carla,

I read your two-part Letter from Israel, after reading Amos Elon’s review-essay in the current New York Review of Books, “Olmert and Israel: The Change,” which includes the Haaretz map you refer to—apparently, there are some 500,000 Israelis in 226 authorized and “unauthorized” settlements—250,000 in the West Bank alone. Wherever the number comes from, Elon writes that 150,000 would have to be moved if there is to be a chance of peace with the Palestinians. By whom? The settler communities grew 5-1/2 percent from Jan-June in 2007, according to Lords of the Land: The War Over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories (translated from the Hebrew of Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar). Drawing on this book, Elon writes that 40 percent of the settlements have been “built on private Palestinian land.”

Why these statistics? Nearly 70 percent favor land for peace and security but, as you write, because of the parliamentary system, minority parties are needed for coalitions and thus exercise such an incredible influence on Israeli policy that they have consistently stymied liberal reforms, both domestic ones and with the Palestinians. Meanwhile, the Palestinians under Arafat—and Hamas since— turned to violence and suicide bombings, which have in turn elicited, and continue to elicit, massive Israeli retaliation, which in turn leads to more Palestinian violence which in turn…. A feedback loop with only an occasional timeout for negotiations which have gone nowhere.

You point to social action programs by many conscionable Israelis who are working to break down the walls (an ironic metaphor now) between Jews and Arabs. It is making the difference, no doubt, in the lives of participating Israeli and Arab youth and those who are working (you write) “to expose the pernicious effect that the settlement movement has had in Israel.” These are all crucial efforts but can they be enough to make a difference, given the history of occupation, without a massive commitment by Israel, let alone the U.S., which has backed, if only by silence, much of the illegal territorial grabs that Israeli governments have supported since 1967?

And what would it really take to dismantle those settlements? And would a civil war ensue? And American Jews have—it’s only in recent years that American Jews have had the courage of progressive Israelis (e.g., Ha’aretz) to oppose those Israeli policies they disagree with and not feel that in doing so they were betraying Israel and all, by extension, the Jewish people(s). It still takes courage to speak out and not be labeled a dupe of the anti-Israeli forces or a self-hating Jew, etc.

Like many of these Jews, I have been conflicted between a heartfelt support of Israel with its incredible achievements in all realms (let alone what it's meant to the Jewish people) and then the reality, at least as I see it, of what’s happening on the ground, Israeli policy and the attitudes of those right-wing Israelis—not your friends—the hardliners of all kinds and the miserable impact they have had and continue to have on foreign policy. (I write this and am not unmindful that there is a real enemy. However, it’s Israel that has 600 checkpoints, not Arabs, that humiliate ordinary Palestinians and who are subjected to harassment every day. It’s Israel that has sanctioned the appropriation of private lands and has done the same awful things to Arabs that Arab extremists have done to Israelis— at least if you are an ordinary Palestinian, a working man who is trying to get by.) Of course Israel has to take precautions against terrorists and suicide bombers and so the ante keeps getting raised—and now that Hamas has shown walls don’t need patient negotiation to be brought down but that they can be blown up, those precautions and preemptive actions will be stepped up.

When I was in Israel 20 years ago, while I loved being in Israel and felt such a comfortableness as a Jew there, there was a discomfort I felt after we had met and spoke with Gush Emunim settlers and then visited an Arab-Israeli village and spoke with leaders there. The first were intractable and spoke of Arabs in the same way that virulent anti-Semites speak of Jews, while the second were marginalized and obviously treated by the government as second-class citizens. Despite this, there are Arab-Israelis in the Knesset.

Neither Israel nor the Palestinians have been blessed with far-seeing leaders, at least ones who have been in decision-making powers with regard to the settlements after the 1967 war. And this is not in retrospect—even Ben Gurion, who was no longer prime minister, “advocated a quick withdrawal.” (Elon).

So Carla, thanks for the provocation of your letters.

Posted January 22, 2008

A Letter From Israel part two

David and I were in Israel when President Bush visited Israel and Palestine. The President’s trip to the Middle East brought into focus the difficulties ahead for the United States in trying to bring peace to this troubled region. The Israelis we spoke to were not very optimistic about what the President could achieve, although they were happy that the U.S. was finally focusing again on peace in the region. And the press reports since then show that the Arabs are even more skeptical.

Israeli politics seem gridlocked. Public opinion data (very sophisticated in Israel) consistently show that 2/3 of Israeli Jews favor land for peace with security. At the same time, the political system is incapable of responding to that. As one friend pointed out, the parliamentary system designed to represent multiple positions has proportionate seating with a minimal threshold. The effect is that small political groups hold veto power over ideologically divisive issues, including issues important to the majority of Israelis and American Jews, such as peace and religious pluralism. Governing coalitions are built with representatives of several parties—religious, secular, nationality-based groups. In the case of Olmert’s current coalition, threats from right- wing settler groups to leave the coalition can, and may, prevent solutions to the issues in the West Bank.

The President was greeted with many ads in The Jerusalem Post, an English-language paper. Many came from right-wing American Jews who have come to live in Israel. Their tenor was, “We cannot return any of Judea and Samaria” (the West Bank territory that Israel took over after the 1967 Six Day War). “God wants us to have the land. The Palestinians have to resettle elsewhere.”

What is encouraging is that there are many examples of people working to expose the pernicious effect that the settlement movement has had in Israel. We heard many stories about the dehumanization of the Palestinians in the territories. Fences around the settlements necessitate long, sometime arduous, journeys for Palestinians because of security zones that are created for the settlers. Soldiers at the crossings are the least well-paid and trained of Israeli soldiers and sometimes treat the Palestinians with disdain. Groups of Israeli women actually monitor these border crossings to improve fair treatment at the borders.  

And there are many Israelis trying to make the country work as a pluralistic and democratic nation. We visited a group in the Galilee where Israeli Arabs and Jews are working with citizen groups to draw up a land use plan for that part of the Galilee. They have to overcome strident opposition from those Israelis who don’t believe in pluralism.

The right wing gets confirmation of its position by the absence of leadership among the Palestinians and the other Arab nations in the region. It appears that every time there is a chance for a breakthrough to peace, there is another shelling by Hamas or a suicide bomb. All of this creates what one friend called the “fatigue factor” among peace- minded Israelis, and indeed, the peace movement has been weakened. .

Our conclusion is that the only way the problems in the Middle East can be solved is with the U.S. leaning heavily on Israel, the Palestinians, and their Arab neighbors. This view is shared by many of the Israelis we spoke with. American policy has to support dismantling the settlements and negotiating border settlements that are closer to the 1967 borders. At the same time, the U.S. has to assist in a security force that will enforce borders, prevent terrorism, and stop creating new facts on the ground by settlement expansion. That means the U.S. has to stay engaged, support civil society organizations, and oppose Arab governments that clamp down on democracy—governments that do not distinguish between anti-democratic forces and democratic criticism of their rule.

Posted January 8, 2008

A Letter From Israel

David and I have been in Israel for almost one week, attending what has turned out to be an intense seminar in Middle East politics. We actually made this trip to visit with friends (and see my niece who is here for one year). Our friends represent those Israelis who hope for a nation that lives in peace with its neighbors. They in turn have invited other friends who represent a greater variety of viewpoints. So we have had many conversations about the present and future.

Many people do not seem aware of the physical beauty that this little country possesses. First is the old city in Jerusalem with its exquisite Arab architecture and small winding streets. It gives one a sense of what a medieval city was like. We are staying in a suburb of Tel Aviv, only two blocks from the Mediterranean. A couple of nights ago we watched the sun set on the sea while we drank cappuccinos. Tomorrow, we drive north toward the Galilee, through rolling hills dotted with houses. There is desert, mountains, and much fertile flat land.

Of course, what gives Israel its special character is the accomplishment and intensity of its multi-ethnic population. Many of the people we have spoken to continue to be involved in organizations promoting a better nation, one more equitable for Palestinians and Jews, poor and rich. Many of them acknowledge the difficulty in making change here and some are very discouraged.

I have had a privileged look at Israel and its relationship with the Palestinians, with other Arab nations, and with the U.S. because I just finished Aaron David Miller's forthcoming book, THE MUCH TOO PROMISED LAND. Aaron Miller, who is a Chevy Chase resident, worked on this issue for 20 years at the State Department. His personal, detailed history of the negotiations between Israel and its neighbors is an intriguing historical record.

Aaron's book assesses what it takes to bring the countries together. United States involvement is critical. We need to be present to lean on the parties who need leaning on and to ensure that the agreement can be implemented. We need to be tough, but also caring. We need to respect the domestic situation of the leaders back home. Now more than ever, the U.S. needs to find a way to make peace in "this neighborhood."

I have lots more to say, but I will save it for when the book is published in the last week of March and Aaron makes his presentation at P&P.

With the history that Aaron recounts, it is easy to say "you should have come to an agreement a long time ago." But it is also easier to see why it hasn't happened.

Many of the Israelis will give their classic shrug when you ask them how they see the country 20 years into the future. And they will put the blame on "them" as though Israel has not made mistakes. But many of the Israelis that we have met are eager to move forward to ensure that their nation can live in peace with its neighbors.

It's really a funny coincidence that the President is going to be here at the same time we are here. We can tell you more about that next week. Most Israelis believe in "land for peace," 2/3 according to the most recent polls. Today, in preparation for Bush's visit, Haaretz (the NY Times of Israel) printed a map with all of the outposts on the West bank. The incursions are immensely provocative—some far into Palestinian territories, and there are some 4,000 settlers there. But what the map does not show is that huge suburbs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have been built across the Green Line, containing many more thousands of people.

What Miller says, what the Israelis that are involved in social action say, is the settlements have to be dismantled. The U.S. will have to help with resettlement costs and to ensure that there is a security system in place. This is the agreement that everybody knows has to be put in place, and why it has taken so long to get there, is something of a mystery.

Comments? Email: carla@politics-prose.com

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