On Qunfuz's "The Road From Damascus"

When I learned that Qunfuz (Robin Yassin-Kassab) had published his first novel, I just had to read it. A few clicks on my keyboard and it was making its way from Amazon.UK. The book arrived at my doorstep from across the Atlantic in four days!

Anyone who reads Robin's blog knows what a talented writer he is. I still remember the first post of his that I read. What impressed me most was not so much his writing style but the anecdote and the insights it gave me about the writer. The post was about the time he spent at a meditation retreat somewhere -I believe- outside London. Here was a man, I thought, with a wide intellectual horizon; someone, with a clear orientation on the larger issues of life but yet not someone stuck on a rigid ideological track. I have read most of his posts since. They have served to confirm my initial impression but also provided me with further insights into his thinking on a range of issues including politics, religion and identity. I have not necessarily always agreed with his ideas but his thoughts were never presented in a strident and dogmatic manner; there was always room for an alternate view and for all the shades of grey in between. It also became clear, on reading his posts, that he was an exceptional writer.

The Road From Damascus deals with issues of faith, secularism, identity and politics among Arab immigrants in that overheated melting pot that is modern-day London. Those are all issues that have preoccupied all Arabs individually and collectively for much of the second part of the 20th century and into the present. It is, however, among Arab immigrants living in the West, straddling the fault line of the East-West divide, where these issues are most intensely felt and where there is a sense of urgency in defining an identity lest others define it for them. These feelings were particularly acute during the decade of the 90s leading to 9/11, the time frame covered by this novel.

The novel explodes dense with ideas and thoughts, a reflection, I suspect, of Robin's hyperactive mental ferment. Perhaps there was enough material for more than one novel compressed into this single book. Stylistically, the writing evolves with the story. It starts at a frenetic pace, with short, brusque -often one word- sentences packed with abstract imagery, symbolism and allusions. It takes getting used and it left me, at times, mentally exhausted. Perhaps it is because this book reached deep inside my psyche and pulled me in. I am a generation older than the protagonists yet I, like them, continue to struggle with issues of identity and faith. I am resigned to the fact that this may be a never ending quest, struggle, jihad for the truth -as it probably should be. In the last third of the novel the writing is noticeably more relaxed and the sentences longer despite the fact that the world around the protagonists was getting crazier. This change, purposeful or not, appeared to mirror Sami's mental transformation as he sheds his father's rigid, uncompromising secularism and reconciles with his wife and the reality of the world around him.

Novels, especially ones dealing with intimate subjects like faith and identity tend to be, to a degree, autobiographical. Reading Robin's blog, it is clear that many of the ideas that preoccupy him reappear as preoccupations of the some of the novel's protagonists. In fact as I read the detailed description of Sami's facial features early on in the novel, I flipped to the back of the book searching the jacket flap for a picture of the author; the physical similarities were striking. Moreover, at the risk of being wrong, I suspect that there might be some of Robin in Muntaha's Sufi-infused Islam.

It goes without saying that I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in an in depth and uncompromisingly clear-eyed handling of many of the controversies that roil the Arab and Muslim world. But, just as importantly, it is a story well told and beautifully written. Robin alternates between original, symbolic, fantastical turns of phrases to graphic realism that overloads your sensorium. He brings to life places and persons with an uncanny eye for detail. He knows his Arabs and he knows his Brits of all colors a persuasions and he knows them intimately. The book starts with a dark and pessimistic outlook of the world and ends on a much more hopeful note as the main protagonist finds inner balance in his life despite a world that is anything but in balance around him.

Obama's Young Supporters are Better than Him!

As the presidential election nears, Obama is going through the usual gyrations, twists and turns necessary to please as many voters as possible. In other words, with every passing day, he looks more and more like the off-the-shelf slimy politician that he claimed he is not. So, the candidate who claims to prefer diplomacy over conflict is suddenly ready to go "Nukular" against Iran on Israel's behest. More disturbing, is his response to Muslim-by-association campaign mounted by xenophobic, fear-mongering right wing opponents. Instead of facing the prejudice head on, he is in fact succumbing to it. To those who raise the question of his faith ad nauseaum, he could choose to tell them that the question is irrelevant. Instead, he dutifully repeats, that he is a church going Christian. Moreover, in our instant YouTube world, his campaign obsessively blocks any image or word that "taints" him with anything Muslim. To this end, they removed from camera range, two veiled supporters who were invited to his rally in Detroit and disinvited a Muslim congressman from attending another. And somehow, whereas right wing televisions commentators never forget to mention Obama's middle name, usually pronounced slowly and deliberately for emphasis, you will not see the name Hussein mentioned anywhere on Obama's own website.

It is refreshing then to see young Obama supports, not tied down by the older generation's built-in biases, informally adopting Hussein as their middle name as way of making an important point. It may seem gimmicky, but given the negative gut reaction the name engenders in a -not insignificant- portion of the American electorate, it is a bold and important point to make, one that should have been made by the candidate himself.

A Syrian Hakeem in America

In 1986, life had become intolerable in Beirut. The Lebanese civil war, in one of its innumerable permutations had made life miserable. The future looked bleak and I had reached a crossroads in my professional life. I was a young physician who had long aspired to become a neurologist, the brain and its complexity having captured my imagination early in my university years. But there was no neurology training programs in Lebanon. Besides, even though I had spent years in Lebanon, as a Syrian, I would not be allowed to practice in Lebanon when my training was complete. It did not matter that I had lived longer in Lebanon than in Syria and that I cared for the place despite the fact that I would always be the -Syrian-neighbor that everyone loved to hate. I had little choice but to leave and jumped at the first chance I got for an internship in the United States.

America was a familiar place to me having spent my college years here several years before. Yet despite that, the transition was not easy. The calm, order and predictability of my new life in the U.S. was jarring after living seven years of chaos and civil war. There was a sense of guilt at having "abandoned", in a time of turmoil, a place I cared for. The professional transition was easier. My AUB training prepared me well for the way medicine is practiced in the United States. It also helped that most of the resident trainees at the community hospital I initially worked at were also AUB graduates and that we often, to the dismay of the medical director, conducted patient rounds in Arabic!

There were, needless to say, other challenges along the way that necessitated perseverance and a thick skin. Perhaps the biggest challenge is that of overcoming the label of being a foreign medical graduate. It is like a Scarlet letter sewn to your back that marks you as suspect as far as the quality of your training and your competence and you always have to work twice as hard to prove your worthiness. Over time, as you finish your training and prove your competence, the scarlet letter fades and you are finally accepted as an equal among your peers. Nevertheless, it leaves an indelible mark on your psyche. Even now, long after my being a foreign medical graduate has ceased to matter, I bristle in anger at derogatory comments about foreign doctors. More than once, I heard the director of our training program, in my presence, grumbling that he might have to "settle" for a foreign medical graduate if he unable recruit an American graduate. Program directors would rather settle for a less competent American graduate than have the reputation of their training program sullied by the presence of a foreign medical graduate.

Another challenge for a foreign doctor is anticipating how your patients will respond to you. You are, after all, the doctor who looks different and has a funny name. In fact this turns out not to be much of a challenge. Most ordinary Americans could care less where you came from as long as they thought you competent and you treated them with respect. In many ways they were less biased than professional colleagues. Most of those who are curious enough to ask where I am from, look blankly when I tell them I was Syrian. You get responses like "I remember reading something about Damascus in the Bible" or from a patient who learned from the morning headline of trouble "over there" and kindly inquires "how is your family doing in Palestine?" despite my having told him that I was Syrian on several occasions. Few are not geographically challenged and handful are surprisingly well informed. One elderly man in his nineties would ask me at each visit about Assad the eye doctor. He thought that Bashar was a handsome man (?!!). Overtly hostile patients were few and far between. One such patient who was referred to me, launched into a tirade of insults on hearing my name when he called for an appointment. It took the secretary several calls before she convinced him that I am the right person to see. He looked at me suspiciously on his first visit, but I disarmed him by pretending not to know what transpired prior to the visit and treated him like any other patient.

America prides itself for being a land that rewards competence and hard work. I dare say that for me, and I suspect for most foreign born and trained doctors, this is largely true. Americans in positions of power are, by and large, capable of dissociating their personal biases and preferences from their professional lives. The chair of my department is a born again Christian with a very close-minded view of anyone not like him. Yet, I never felt that this fact ever figured in his assessment of the quality of my work or his willingness to promote me.

In the end, my experience as a hakeem in America had less to with my being Syrian and everything to do with my being a physician. As much as the patients I cared for over the years have provided me the experience that solidifies my medical competence, they have also provided me with even richer life experience. Illness is the great equalizer, it strips you of all that defines you as a healthy, functioning individual. It is in this naked and vulnerable state that a person comes to you for help and few human relationships are as intimate or as intense.

Genuflect and Kiss the Ring

Obama as with Clinton and McCain had to make the obligatory pilgrimmage to the annual AIPAC meeting if they want to have a chance at the presidency. The pandering is enough to make one nauseous. This satirical video from Jon Stewart's show says it all.

Kaffiyeh-gate

Rachel Ray is a television celebrity chef with an irritatingly spunky manner and an annoying voice. Today though, I just feel sorry for her. After she appeared in this Dunkin Donuts commercial wearing what seems to be -Gasp!!!- a kaffiyeh, all hell broke loose and Dunkin Donuts was forced to hastily retract the advertisement.

Why? Because various right-wing commentators accused the hapless Rachel of: wearing Jihadi chic, of promoting hate, of promoting Muslim extremism and terrorism of being insensitive to Israelis...Intifada...Palestinian terrorism... and on and on and on... All because of a scarf? and if you look closely, it is not even a Kaffiyeh.

Arabs and Muslims living in the United States for the past seven years have had to develop a thick skin. We are constantly bombarded with this type of ignorant garbage and it seems to be unrelenting as the years go by. Xenophobic hysteria was to be expected in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 but not a single American has been killed on American soil since then because of Al Qaeda-linked terrorists. In contrast, tens if not hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians have died since in retribution in ill-conceived and unnecessary wars. And yet, seven years on, the constant barrage of fear-mongering drivel continues.

As an Arab and a Muslim it hits you in the face everywhere you turn from newspapers, to the web, the radio and TV. Bookstore tables seem to always feature one or two new alarmist books about terrorism or Islamic extremism by self-proclaimed experts. Authors who cannot read a word of Arabic will expound confidently about fatwas, hadiths or the meaning of Koranic verses. And at a time when the reverend Wright is excoriated about his politically incorrect speech about white people and the reverend Hagee is criticised about his anti-Jewish speech, no one blinks at the overtly xenophobic anti-Arab and anti-Muslim opinions that permeate all forms of media.

Sometimes I feel like I need to create a MEMRI in reverse. Let's call it AMRI (American Media Research Institute). MEMRI's purpose is to translate selections from the Arabic media to "expose" to the West its intolerant, hate-filled and anti-Western content. I propose doing the same by translating into Arabic the hate-filled, ignorant and Islamophobic content of American media. The difference is, whereas MEMRI has to dig deep into more obscure sources to get their juicy content, all AMRI has to do is turn on the TV, grab the closest newspaper or walk into a bookstore to find the incendiary material that it needs.

Off with his Headshots

I don't know much about Michel Suleiman except that he looks like a bland bureaucrat. Not that it is a bad thing, Lebanon could use some blandness right about now. However, with this story, I am seeing him in a whole new light. Imagine that, an Middle Eastern leader who is actually asking that pictures and posters of him be taken down!!! This is truly revolutionary. I hope our regions other kings, presidents for life, emirs and other self-annointed leaders take note; it is no about you but about the people you are supposed to serve.

The Visitor: A Glimpse of Post 9/11 America

The Visitor is ostensibly a movie about the transformative power of a chance meeting between two very different individuals. Yet within this universal tale, the director, Tom McCarthy, also exposes the corrosive effects of the post 9/11 paranoia on certain aspects of American society. In this land of immigrants, empathy and fairness towards (most) immigrants has been replaced by cold antipathy and a place where fear, no matter how illogical, trumps human and civil rights as well as common decency. This hardening of attitudes is most palpably felt by those of the "wrong" faith or ethnicity.

Walter is an Anglo-Saxon, middle-aged college professor of global economics. He is the prototype of an American with a privileged existence. He is also a widower who is bored with the monotony of his life and work. On a trip to New York City for work, he finds Tarek, a young Syrian musician and Zeinab, his Senegalese girlfriend living in his apartment, rented to them illegally by a swindler. They apologize and get set to leave when Walter offers to let them stay until they can find a place of their own. During that time Walter befriends Tarek who teaches him to play the African drum. A failed piano player, Walter is taken by the joyful rhythm of the African drum.

When Tarek is arrested by overzealous transit cops and disappears into the bowels of the Kafkaesque post 9/11 privately run security detention facilities, Walter is introduced to a world from which he, as a privileged white native-born American, he was completely unaware of. Walter hires a lawyer to help Tarek. Within days, Tarek's mother, unable to reach him by phone, arrives at the door of Walter's apartment from Michigan. As they both seek Tarek's release, a romantic bond develops between the two. You will have to see the movie for the rest of the story.

This is a gem of a movie. There is nothing Hollywood about it. It is a human story, beautifully told in a slow, deliberate and realistic way. Closeup shots of the actors reveal every wrinkle on their faces making them all the more expressive. Best of all, the movie is, thankfully, free of Arab Hollywood stereotypes.

The acting is exceptional especially by the beautiful Palestinian actress Hiam Abbas (The Syrian Bride) who played Tarek's mother and Richard Jenkins who played Walter.

Opinions on Syrian-Israeli Peace Talks at Creative Syria

Alex at Creative Syria has managed to get a good mix of Syrian and Israeli opinions on the recent announcement of Syria-Israeli negogitiations. Here is my contribution.

(Photo: Fraom Carter Center website)

A Disagreement Among Brothers...No Longer

Every year, in Spring, my brother, who lives and works in Beirut, comes to the United States for a professional meeting then swings by to spend a few days with us. This year his visit coincided with the latest spasm of violence in Lebanon and so he was stuck here for an extra week.

He was, of course, worried about his family back in Beirut; but the upside was that I and the kids got to spend more time with him. There was however, palpable tension between us whenever we discussed the politics of Lebanon. My brother got quickly wound up and passionate during these discussions especially when I disagreed with him. Once an admirer of Rafik Hariri, he has, over the past few years, come to unconditionally support the opposition; and that is where we defer. My brother's politics are gut level and emotional and are molded mostly by his visceral reactions to a certain segment of Lebanese society.

He hated the way the Beirut Spring demonstrations of 2005 turned into an open ended slur of everything Syrian as, once again, the Lebanese blame someone else for all their shortcomings. But what gets my brother really angry is the deep seated arrogance, hypocrisy and hateful sectarianism manifested by a not insignificant number of Lebanese. Add to the mix a screwed up sense of identity, and you get the psychopathology encapsulated by this statement he overheard recently at a dinner party: "Ya'ni moi, je ne peu pas vivre avec les Shiites". Mind you, this statement, in perfect Franbanais, was uttered by a Sunni from Ras Beirut! Go figure!

Although I share his revulsion of certain -many- aspects of Lebanese society, I fail to understand his complete and uncritical support of the opposition. I listened and learned from him but failed to alter his views. It is easy for me to dispassionately analyze Lebanese politics from a distance. But for him, stuck in the middle of the overheated and poisonous cauldron of Lebanese politics, he feels forced to take sides.

His departure yesterday left me a little sad as we were unable able to bridge our differences. But overnight, our differences have become irrelevant. Before he landed back in Beirut, the Lebanese politicians had finally managed to do the right thing for their people and not only themselves. Moreover, and the timing is hardly a coincidence, Syria and Israel announce that they have been talking peace.

May 21, 2008 is a day to savor. I will, for the moment, purge any last vestige of skepticism and cynicism from my being to enjoy a day when sanity and hope, commodities nearly extinct in our corner of the world, seem to have taken hold... at least for a day.

Best Sign of the Week

I couldn't agree more with this message from members of Lebanon's Association for the Disabled to their leaders as they left Beirut airport for Qatar. This sign cuts through the mountains of manure that each side heaps on the other and gets down to the heart of the matter.

Hizb Should Disband its Militia

I do not typically feel the need to make any disclosures before I speak my mind, but when it comes to discussions about Hizbullah, many otherwise reasonable people have rigid, unchangeable impressions that defy what the facts actually reveal. My older brother and I generally agree on most political issues but we diverge radically when it comes to the issue of Hizbullah. I am a Sunni Muslim who despises sectarianism in any form. Having lived in Lebanon for years, I am also fully aware of the historical disadvantage of the Shia when it comes to the established Lebanese social and economic pecking order. I used to cringe when I heard a Lebanese Sunni or Christian refer to Shia in a derogatory manner. But I also know very well that sectarianism cuts both ways, especially when one particular sect feels it has the upper hand; all you have to do is look at Iraq.

I have little sympathy for most of the March 14 politicians but my anger today is directed squarely at Hizbullah and Nasrallah. Many of us, because Hizbullah managed to deliver a black eye to the Israeli army in the summer of 2006, seem to be willing to overlook their transgressions or question their political motives. But I cannot escape the fact that, no matter how you slice it, the presence of an independent militia, armed to the teeth, that is accountable to no one is an unsustainable and destabilizing situation in a sovereign state. The repeated claims, that the arms are only for protection against Israel, ring hollow, especially in the last twenty four hours with Nasrallah’s bombastic threats of civil war if he does not get his way. What has become abundantly clear is that the arms and the militia are to be used as leverage for Hizbullah's political aspirations. The formula is clear: We will ask softly but if you don't do as we say, we'll bring our men into the streets. Moreover we will sack and burn the media outlets that we don't like because we think they are lying as if Al Manar is a bastion of journalistic integrity and objective reporting.

Hizbullah got deservedly high marks for its resistance to the Israeli occupation whose withdrawal they forced in 2000. Hizbullah could have leveraged the gratitude of most Lebanese at the time to turn itself into a formidable political machine. Why didn’t they incorporate their militia into the Lebanese Army then and become a purely political party? They would have been in an excellent position to advocate for their constituency and they would have transformed the national Lebanese army into a formidable fighting force truly capable of protecting Lebanon's southern borders. Moreover, they could have diverted their seemingly limitless flow of cash away from supporting and arming a militia to improving the well being of their community. All other militias from the civil war were dissolved following the Taef agreement, why should Hizbullah have a free pass after 2000? Some will dispute that last statement but clearly the recent rearming of some of these militias was in response to the perceived threat from Hizbullah . Besides, as the pitiful showing of Mustaqubal's militia demonstrates, none of these armed groups can compare in scale and equipment to the standing army that Hizbullah has. However, given a couple more years of Lebanese turmoil, the situation will be akin to that of 1975 and a full fledged civil war will be a certainty.

Many non-Lebanese support Hizbullah because of its successful confrontations with Israel . They see it more as an abstraction, as a the bastion of "resistance" against the encroachment of Israeli designs and American Neocon aspirations. They seem to overlook the fact that Hizbullah's existence as an autonomous militia erodes the viability of Lebanon as a state. It is as if Lebanon is a disposable sacrificial lamb on the altar of regional and global power struggles. It is telling that those same supporters of Hizbullah would balk at the very thought of having a parallel autonomous militia within their own country that does not feel obligated to follow the laws of the land. The Syrian government is guilty of this type of blatant hypocrisy. If they were true believers in "resistance" politics, why don't they invite Hizbullah to the Golan Heights?

Lebanon needs and deserves peace after more than three decades of strife. It has, more than any other Arab state, established institutions of a working, albeit corrupt, democracy. There is no reason why Hizbullah with its large constituency and tremendous resources cannot work within the political system to its advantage within the need of a militia. The biggest threat to Israel is not a militia in a weak divided state, but a stable, successful Lebanon capable of defending itself and capable of competing with it economically and intellectually.

What Would Nasrallah Tell Sahar?

I watch neither Future TV nor LBC but listening to Sahar's angry and emotional tirade is heartbreaking. Clearly, there is more than one side to the story but Hizbullah and its supporters have much to answer to regarding what happened in the last several days.

Why?

This is the day I had feared for a long time but hoped would never materialize. The images of masked young men all hyped up by the deranged and false ideologies of their leaders, all too eager to sow death and destruction, is like a recurring nightmare from years gone by. Only now, the black and white images have given way to moving images, broadcast in real time and in living color and assault your senses from every TV and computer monitor. The images are depressing, nauseating and fill me with shame and hopelessness.

The images also make me angry. I blame every last Lebanese politician who has willingly played the role of puppet, pimp and whore to one or more foreign master; every last one of them, from Berri to Jumblatt, to Gaegea, to Hariri Jr to Nasrallah, to Aoun. Their primary goal has always been self preservation and the preservation of their power and that of their narrow constituencies. None of them, despite their lofty public pronouncements, ever worked for the interest of Lebanon and the Lebanese people as a whole.

Why did it have to come to this? Why? Have they not learned a damn thing from the civil war? Perhaps if the powers that be had not behaved like the civil war was someone else’s problem and the young generation had been taught about the war in school, they would have realized the civil war’s absurdity and its devastating consequences.

Perhaps then, those masked young men would not be holding on to those Kalashnikovs with such lust, with such eagerness to finger the triggers and draw blood, the blood of their brothers and sisters.

Nakba: In the Words of the Perpetrators

The media blitz to commemorate Israel's 60th anniversary (see previous post) continues without so much as a peep as to what actually happened in 1948. So here is my own miniscule attempt to counter that onslaught. I know that most readers of this blog do not need to be reminded of the tragedy of the Nakba, so this post is for those who stumble onto this blog and who think Israel is infallible. For those folks, please note: these are not the words of some "overheated", "irrational" Arab mind, but the words of the founder of the state of Israel. David Ben Gurion to Zionist official Nahum Goldmann:

"Sure, God promised it to us, but does that matter to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: We have come here and stolen their country." (as recounted in 1948: A history of the first Arab-Israeli war, by Benny Morris)

(Photo: From 1948.org.uk)

Golan Cowboys and Other Israeli Myths

So as the 60th anniversary of the Nakba approaches and Israel readies to celebrate its sixty years of existence, the Turks tell us that Israel is prepared to return the Golan Heights for peace with Syria.

Perhaps no one told Israel's ministry of tourism of the upcoming plans. A couple of weeks ago, the add above appeared as a two-page spread in the New York Time Sunday Magazine. "You'll love Israel from the first Shalom" states, unconvincingly, the advertisement featuring a cowboy atop a horse in a wide open, golden wheat field with green hills on the horizon. Shave his beard and stick a Marlboro in his mouth and this could be Montana... Trouble is, this lush farmland is not Israel, it is in the Golan Heights and the cowboy is nothing more than a settler usurping Syrian land. Does Mr. cowboy-settler look like the type of person who will surrender "his" 1000 acre farm for peace?

But the add doesn't stop there. At the lower right hand side, and without a hint of irony, it states: "Israel, No one belongs here more than you"!!! Really? I guess someone should spread the good news to the reufugees of Nahr el Bared, Ein el Helweh, Shatilla ...

Schism: A Saudi Blogger's Response to Fitna

This is a clever retort to the Dutch MP Geert Wilders' Islamophobic video, Fitna. This six minute video was made by a Saudi Blogger in response to Fitna, it is called Schism.

Of Fresh Vegetables and Foreign Policy

Life in the leafy suburbia of American cities is orderly, clean, and comfortable. It can also be lonely, monotonous and ultimately sterile. Yet city life is not an option in all but a handful of American cities as most down towns are desolate, crime-ridden and unlivable, especially if you have children. My older brother, who visits us yearly, enjoys the quiet and the greenery of our suburban home, a brief respite from the noise and chaos of Beirut. I and Um Kareem, on the other hand, could do with a little more chaos and noise. We feel the need to regularly escape suburbia to maintain our sense of balance. It is not only the physical isolation and the blandness of the suburbs that is stultifying, it is also the fact that, in the mid sized city that we live in, the suburbs have a predictable white bread homogeneity. Even for relatively well-integrated immigrants like us, such an environment makes us feel like outsiders.

So this morning, as on many Saturday mornings before, we temporarily escape the suburbs to a hundred year old Public market in the middle of a decrepit part of the city. When we step into the market, we feel like we have entered a different world. The market is everything that the suburbs is not. It is lively, chaotic, smelly, and packed with people. People of every social strata, of every color and age mingle freely. As you inch your way through the crowd, you hear a dozen different languages. It is as diverse a cross-section of humanity as you will see anywhere. The sellers are an equally varied bunch. There are the local farmers with ruddy complexions and calloused hands selling their produce and retailers hawking soon-to-expire fruits and vegetables at cut rate prices. There is a Vietnamese fish monger with everything from crabs to octopus, and an Amish family, looking like they just walked out of an 18th century painting, selling baked goods. There is an African-American man selling incense and a Mexican stand selling empenadas. But we don't only go for the atmospherics, the local fruits and vegetables, unlike their wax-covered, cellophane-wrapped counterparts in the suburban supermarkets, actually have a smell and a distinctive flavor and yet cost much less. There are also the occasional unexpected finds, like the farmer with a sign next to a familiar light green vegetable that read: "Kousa (Lebanese zucchini)". Now Um Kareem's delicious Kousa bi laban (stuffed Kousa in a yogurt sauce) has become part of our kids' culinary cultural heritage.

Today's prized vegetable catch was a bushel of foul akhdar (fresh fava beans), enough for many meals. After the market, we often head off to a Turkish grocery store in another humble part of town. There is a sizable Turkish community in our city; most emigrated to the United States in the 1960s to work in the garment factories around town. Entering that store with all its familiar sights and smells is like being transported back home; except that everyone in the store is speaking Turkish. We stock up on Nablus olive oil (the best I have ever tasted), Lebanese pickles and Turkish halaweh. For the first time I notice Syrian products all of the same Sham Gardens brand, I am impressed with the slick packaging and make a minuscule contribution to the Syrian economy by buying a couple of items before we head home.

Now, you might think that I am making too much of the significance of a weekly trip to a vegetable market. But the fact that we attach so much meaning to it reflects a true underlying need. To a certain extent, part of the problem is one faced by most first generation immigrants; that is no matter how long you stay in your adopted home, you never quite feel like it is home. The compartmentalized, homogenized and sanitized suburban living only magnifies this sense of alienation. But I think there is also a wider perspective to this. Despite all that has transpired in the last eight years, living in the United Sates makes one feel that the rest of the world and its problems might as well be on a different planet. It is a prevailing attitude that influences how this country interacts with the rest of the world. So simply put, for us, the weekly visit to the Public market serves as a reality check, as a way to reconnect with the rest of the world.

Who knew that fresh vegetables and foreign policy were so interconnected!!!!!!!!

The Ex-Terrorist Palestinian Zionist is a Fraud

The Israeli lobby and its evangelical Christian allies seem to be mounting a concerted effort to parade in front of the media and those in power a handful of Arabs, with highly suspect stories and motives, who have "seen the light" and are now staunch supporters of the Jewish state. Yaman, in a recent post, wrote of such an individual being paraded by the Israeli consul in San Fransisco. Here, the Jerusalem Post, uncovers the lies that make up the fantastic tale that a certain Walid Shoebat is spinning in front of many a gullible American. With Shoebat, the combined Israeli-evangelical lobby can score two points for the price of one fraudulent pretender. Not only is he a "redeemed" Palestinian "terrorist" who wants to give all of Judea and Samaria to Israel but he is also a Christian convert who has renounced his "satanic" Islamic faith. How convenient. Of course, for $13,000 per speaking engagement, some people will be happy to tell you whatever you want to hear.

The Palestinian 'terrorist' turned Zionist
Jerusalem Post, March 30th, 2008
By JORG LUYKEN

When he was 16, says Walid Shoebat, he was recruited by a PLO operative by the name of Mahmoud al-Mughrabito carry out an attack on a branch of Bank Leumi in Bethlehem. At six in the evening he was supposed to detonate a bomb in the doorway of the bank. But when he saw agroup of Arab children playing nearby, he says, his conscience was pricked and he threw the bomb onto the roof of the bank instead, where it exploded causing no fatalities.This is the story that Shoebat, who converted from Islam to Christianity in 1993 and has lived in theUnited States since the late 1970s, has told on tours around the US and Europe since 9/11 opened the West's public consciousness to the dangers of Islamic extremism. Shoebat's Web site says his is an assumed name, used to protect him from reprisal attacks by his former terror chiefs, whom he says have put a $10 millionprice on his head. Shoebat is sometimes paid for his appearances, and healso solicits donations to a Walid Shoebat Foundation to help fund this work and to "fight for the Jewish people."The BBC, Fox News and CNN have all presented Shoebat as a terrorist turned peacemaker, interviewing him as someone uniquely capable of providing insight into the terrorist mindset. Now he and two other former extremists are set to appear along with US Senator Joe Lieberman, Ambassadorto the US Sallai Meridor and other notables at an annual "Christians United For Israel" conference in Washington in July. The three "ex-terrorists" have appeared previously at Harvard and Columbia universities and, most recently, at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, in February, at a conference whose findings, the organizers said, would be circulated at the Pentagon and among members of Congress and other influential figures. Last year, Shoebat spoke to the Battle Cry Christian gathering in San Francisco, which drew a reported 22,000 evangelical teenagers to what the San FranciscoChronicle described as "a mix of pep rally, rock concert and church service."The paper described Shoebat as a self-proclaimed "former Islamic terrorist" who said that Islam was a"satanic cult" and who told the crowd how he eventually accepted Jesus into his heart. However, Shoebat's claim to have bombed Bank Leumi inBethlehem is rejected by members of his family whostill live in the area, and Bank Leumi says it has no record of such an attack ever taking place. His relatives, members of the Shoebat family, are mystified by the notion of "Walid Shoebat" being an assumed name. And the Walid Shoebat Foundation's working process is less than transparent, with Shoebat's claim that it is registered as a charity in the state of Pennsylvania being denied by thePennsylvania State Attorney's Office. Shoebat's claim to have been a terrorist rests on his account of the purported bombing of Bank Leumi. But after checking its files, the bank said it had no record of an attack on its Bethlehem branch anywherein the relevant 1977-79 period. Shoebat told The Jerusalem Post that this could be because the bank building was robustly protected with steel and that the attack may have caused little damage. Asked whether word of the bombing made the news at the time, he said, "I don't know. I didn't read the papers because I was in hiding for the next three days." (In2004, he had told Britain's Sunday Telegraph: "I was terribly relieved when I heard on the news later that evening that no one had been hurt or killed by my bomb.") Shoebat could not immediately recall the year, or eventhe time of year, of the purported bombing whentalking to the Post by phone from the US. After wavering, he finally settled for the summer of 1977.The Sunday Telegraph described Shoebat as a man who" for much of his life... was eager to commit acts ofterrorism for the sake of his soul and the Palestinian cause." In that interview he described how he and his peers were indoctrinated as children "to believe that thefires of hell were an ever-present reality. We were all terrified of burning in hell when we died... Theteachers told us that the only way we could certainly avoid that fate was to die in a martyrdom operation -to die for Islam."But an uncle and a cousin of Shoebat, who still livein Beit Sahur in the Bethlehem area, where Shoebat grew up, said that Shoebat's education was rather mild ideologically, and that religion did not play adominant role. The uncle, interviewed at his home, said he remembered little about his nephew, because Walid left forAmerica at the age of 16, and because his American mother always kept a distance from the rest of thefamily. The uncle and his wife both said firmly that there was no attack on Bank Leumi. When questioned on this discrepancy, Shoebat was adamant that he did carry out such a bombing, and that his relatives deny it to cover up for another cousin who was with him during the attack and still lives in Bethlehem. Shoebat evinced no particular surprise that his family could be tracked down simply by asking Beit Sahur locals where they lived, even though his Internet site claims that his is an assumed name. Shoebat describes his conversion to Christianity as a transformation "from hate to love." He told the Post that he believes "in a Greater Israel that includes Judea and Samaria, and by this I mean a Jewish state."He argued that Israel should retake the Gaza Strip and rehouse Jews there, regarding Gaza as Jewish by right."If a Jew has no right to Gaza, then he has no right to Jaffa or Haifa either," he said. He advocates that the government of Greater Israel introduce a law providing for the exiling of anybody who denies its right to exist, "even if they were born there."He has little sympathy for the PLO or Hamas. "ThePalestinians have not met a single demand from Israel," he said, and added, "Both the PLO and Hamas have not given up the goal of destroying Israel.""The Jews are not aware of the true threat," Shoebat said. "They are still fighting dead Nazis. It is easy to fight dead people. But they don't have the will to fight the living Nazis, the Islamic radicals." He told the Post he had set up his Walid ShoebatFoundation to educate Americans as to why the US should support Israel. Shoebat said the foundation had reached out to over 450 million people. He said it held events where he and others like him - whom he called "ex-terrorists" who have become Zionists -spoke about their views to Jewish, Christian andsecular audiences.A New York Times report last month on the Air Force Academy event, headlined "Speakers at Academy Said toMake False Claims," noted that "Academic professors and others who have heard the three men speak in theUnited States and Canada said some of their storiesborder on the fantastic, like Mr. Saleem's account of how, as a child, he infiltrated Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan Heights. No such incidents have been reported, the academic experts said. They also question how three middle-aged men who claim they were recruited as teenagers or younger could have been steeped in the violent religious ideology that only became prevalent in thelate 1980s."The Times quoted Prof. Douglas Howard, who teaches the history of the modern Middle East at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as saying after he heard Saleem speak last November at the college that he thought the three were connected to several major Christian evangelical organizations."It was just an old time gospel hour: 'Jesus can change your life, he changed mine,'" Howard said. The professor told the Times that his doubts about the authenticity of the three grew after he heard stories like that of the Golan Heights tunnels, "as well assomething on Mr. Saleem's Web site along the lines that he was descended from the grand wazir of Islam.The grand wazir of Islam is a non sensical term." The newspaper said Arab-American civil rights organizations have questioned "why, at a time when theUnited States government has vigorously moved to jail or at least deport anyone with a known terrorist connection, the three men, if they are telling thetruth, are allowed to circulate freely."A spokesman for the FBI, the paper reported, said there were no warrants for their arrest. The Times said the three men were to be paid $13,000 for the Air Force Academy event. Visitors to Shoebat's Internet site are encouraged to make a donation to his foundation to enable him to disseminate his message. However, a notice on the page states that for "security reasons," the money will notbe debited to his foundation, but rather to a companycalled Top Executive Media. The name Top ExecutiveMedia is used by a greetings card firm fromPennsylvania called Top Executive Greetings, a companywith an annual turnover of $500,000. When one makes adonation through the Shoebat Internet site, the Webaddress changes to top executivegreetings.com/shoebat. This seems to be the only active page for the company; its homepage is blank. Asked by the Post whether the Walid Shoebat Foundation is a registered charity, Shoebat replied that it is registered in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania State Attorney's office said it had no record of a charity registered under this name. Questioned further, Shoebat said it was registeredunder a different name, but that he was not aware ofthe details, which are handled by his manager."I remain separate to the running of the charity sothat I am not constrained by church rules," he explained, adding that the organization's connection to certain churches meant it would be difficult forhim to speak to secular audiences if he became too involved in running it. Dr. Joel Fishman, of the Allegany County Law Library in Pennsylvania, expressed doubts about this donation process. If the money were being given to a registered charity, the charity would have to make annual reports to the state and federal government on how it wasbeing spent, he noted.Shoebat insisted donations were not being misused,however. "I survive by being an author," he said. "Ionly get paid for being an author. All the money thatis donated gets put back into events." If the Bank Leumi bombing claim is unfounded, it is unclear why Shoebat would have wanted to manufacture a terrorist past. True or not, however, it has plainlybrought him some prominence and provided him with a means to speak in favor of Israel and be paid for doing so.

Dreams and Shadows: Robin Wright on the Future of the M.E.

Dreams and Shadows by Robin Wright was reviewed in the New York Times today. Wright is a journalist with long experience in the Middle East. Here she describes the forces of change that will determine the future of the Middle East. While the West focuses obsessively about Islamic extremism, she argues that that there are now other, more important and dynamic forces at work. She is generally optimistic describing the rise of a budding culture of change with reformers from Morocco to the Gulf slowly making their mark on civil society across the region. The reviewer of the book is skeptical noting that the influence of these reformers has been minimal as autocratic, dynastic rulers continue to thwart all attempts at change. Take Hosni Mubarak for example, according to Wright, only two other leaders have held power longer than him in Egypt's 6,000 year history. Yet, Wright argues, there are regimes that have responded, at least partially, and sometimes genuinely to the calls for change.

I hope Wright's optimism is warranted. I share her optimism some of the the time. But these days, more often than not, I share the feeling expressed by the Egyptian protester described by Wright during a demonstration in 2006 and whose poster reads: “Arab Majesties, Excellencies and Highnesses, We Spit on You”.

"Uncle, I don't want to die"

This was the heart-wrenching scream of a Palestinian toddler suffering from severe burns inflicted by indiscriminate Israeli fire. Gaza is aflame again and a total of 61 Palestinians were killed yesterday by the Israeli army, almost half were civilians. In fact it seems to be just the beginning as an Israeli deputy defense minister threatened Gaza with holocaust (!!!) should the rockets continue to fall on Sderot and Ashkelon.

I deeply sympathize with the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza and seethe with anger at the sheer brutality of Israel's behavior. But mostly, I despair at the futility of it all. The Israeli obligingly pulverize everything in Gaza using the rockets as their excuse. Their strategy is simple: make life in Gaza a living hell until it implodes and self-destructs. But I cannot understand Hamas' strategy. What is the purpose of rockets randomly lobbed at Sderot or elsewhere? How does that help the Palestinian cause or the Palestinian people?

I am sure some readers will be indignant at these questions. Do I not understand the right to resist, to self defense, to live in honor and dignity? Sure I do, I understand and appreciate these concepts on an emotional level, but logic and rational thinking dictates that the first order of business should be self preservation. Gaza is completely surrounded by one of the world's biggest war machines and one that has no qualms about raining death and destruction by F-16 and Blackhawk helicopters. The cold hard reality is that Israel can sustain low grade hostilities (and blockades, etc) in Gaza without risking the ire of the international community but cannot go on all out offensive without a cover. But when the first pictures of the distressed people of Ashkelon whose peace and tranquility was inconvenienced by rockets hit the front pages of the international media, Israel will have all the cover it needs to pulverize what remains of Gaza. So why hand the Israelis the cover that they need?

Perhaps Hamas has some clever endgame in mind. If they do, it will come at a very high price for the Palestinian people; too high a price. There must be a better way.