So much has been happening in the world... The horrible killing of Qadhafi; an earthquake in Turkey (preceded by an upsurge in PKK-Turkish violence); some great-looking elections in Tunisia; continued strife in Syria; the Hamas-Israel prisoner exchange, etc etc...

But for the past few weeks, I've been almost completely consumed with the nuts and bolts of running Just World Books. Yikes!

On the assumption that I still have some readers here at JWN, I just want to put in a really heartfelt plea that you all do whatever you can to support the book company. I would love to find a better work/life/blog balance. But as of now, I have to spend a massive amount of time worrying about JWB's bottom line and how to turn it around.

Do whatever you can to help, please!

You can buy individual books from our growing list. We now offer a growing number of titles as ebooks, as well as in paperback form... Or you could buy a small stack of books, to give them away as holiday gifts. (If you're buying more than five, contact me to learn the discounts we give on bulk sales.)

In addition, you could urge your local bookstore to stock some of our titles; or press your college or community library to buy some of them... Or, write a good review someplace and generally recommend the books to friends, etc, etc...

Okay, please think really seriously if there's anything you can do to support JWB...

So then... I have been developing a little plan for transitioning back into refinding my blogging voice. Sometimes, it's hard. Very often, the longer I go without blogging here, the harder it is to get back into it... and I see that now, it's been really quite a while. So my plan has been this. First, today, I went to an event at the Brookings Institution on Turkey, where Soli Ozel (one of the contributors to JWB's super latest book, Troubled Triangle: The United States, Turkey, and Israel in the New Middle East) was speaking.

Rather than blog that, I tweeted it... then I compiled a Chirpstory out of the tweets. (Okay, I know some of you don't like it when I tweet. Deal with it. For me, it's a good warm-up exercise for getting back to blogging.)

Step 2 is I'm planning to do a longer blogged think-piece on the Arab Spring at nine months... And then, after that, I have a couple of ideas for other serious blog posts, as well.

But for the present blog post, I want to leave you with the idea that there are things you could do that would really help Just World Books... Which is worth doing because the company does already have some fabulous books... because we have plans for other great ones* in the coming months... and because if JWB's finances get healthier that will help me regain some good balance in my life, including regaining my blogging voice...

Thanks!!!

-------------

* Other great books we have in the coming months include:

-- A book by Issandr El-Amrani of 'The Arabist' that traces the roots of Egypt and Tunsia's democracy movement(s) through six years worth of tracking them closely on the ground, and

-- A reflection by Israeli-American activist Miko Peled on the intriguing personal journey he has made to being an advocate for a one-state solution.

(and much more!)

Tags: Just World News

This is the very short version of the presentation I made at the Algiers Book Fair Colloquium on Sunday:

1. The elite (editors, commentators, and leading journalists) of the U.S. news media is part of-- indeed, an important pillar of-- the country's continuing political elite and plays a singularly important role in defining and framing the political culture of this elite-- including, in defining the limits of "acceptable" political discourse. Believe me, I know about this, based on my long decades of working with and in the MSM.

2. Like the rest of the U.S. political elite, the MSM elite has seen a significant increase over recent decades in the degree of its interpenetration and intermingling with the Israeli political elite.

3. Prior to the Arab Spring, the most common meme in the MSM was that Arabs were somehow "incapable" of democracy. The first glorious weeks of the 'Arab Spring' pro-democracy movement therefore came as a huge surprise to commentators in the MSM.

4. Their first reaction was one of delight. Both the natural human delight of people anywhere seeing their fellow-humans rise up en masse against autocracy and corruption-- but also a kind of 'self-interested' delight based on the ideas that:

(a) the protesters looked and acted 'just like us', and therefore could naturally be expected to be pro-American and bring about the kind of pro-American order that emerged after the 'color revolutions' of a few years ago in Ukraine and Georgia;

(b) an initial perception that, because of the absence of any explicitly Islamist slogans and banners, these movements signaled the rise of new-- and in the MSM view, more 'modern' and 'realistic'-- secular movements in Tunisia and Egypt; and

(c) an initial perception that the protesters were not concerned at all about Israel and Palestine, and that therefore the 'Arab masses' had finally 'gotten over' their previous, inexplicable obsession with Palestine.

5. Soon enough, however, it became clear to even the most obtuse of the commentators in the MSM that none of these analyses was borne out by the facts of what was happening on the ground in Tunisia and Egypt. The protesters in both countries soon proved themselves to be:

(a) extremely harsh in their critiques of the degree to which the U.S. had propped up their previous dictators and were complicit in their misdeeds;

(b) composed in good part of smart, influential, and well-organized Islamist movements who had considerable experience of working well alongside their more secular compatriots; and

(c) strongly concerned about the issue of Palestine.

6. At that point, the MSM elite started to express increasing doubts about the Arab Spring. The argument of many thought leaders in the MSM shifted from "Arabs are incapable of democracy" to the possibly even more racist and Islamophobic argument that "Arabs don't deserve democracy."

7. But luckily, the MSM don't monopolize all media in the country any more. There has also been a considerable fragmentation of the media environment over recent decades That has allowed the rise of terrifyingly rightwing, Islamophobic, and hateful new phenomena like Fox News, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, etc. But it has also allowed the rise of significant organs and personalities within the progressive wing of the new media; and the progressive movement within the U.S. has shown a welcome and necessary new openness to including the Palestine Question among its concerns rather than continuing to exclude it, which it did for so long, previously.

Tags: Just World News

Over recent years, the tireless Israeli peace activist Amos Gvirtz, from Kibbutz Shefayim, has been issuing regular warnings about the misdeeds of various of his countryman. These simply worded bulletins shine a much-needed light on some of the little-known details of what has been going on in occupied Palestine. Here is his latest:

Don't say we did not know #282

On Thursday, 29th September, 2011, Palestinian farmers from the village Shweiki, in the South Hebron Hills, discovered that settlers had uprooted 50 of their olive trees on their land.

The farmers called the army and police. An army tracker traced the vandals' footprints, leading to an outpost called Mitzpe Eshtamoa. On a rock was written: "Halhul price tag."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Friday, 30th September, 2011, in the afternoon, several settlers and a dog entered the Palestinian village Yasuf (near the settlement Tapuah). The dog tried to attack people in the village. Villagers threw stones at the dog and the invaders, and managed to get them out. IDF soldiers then arrived and threw teargas grenades in the village and fired volleys into the air.

Questions & queries: amosg-at-shefayim.org.il

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

אל תגידו לא ידענו

ביום חמישי ה-29.9.2011 גילו חקלאים מהכפר הפלסטיני , שבדרום הר חברון, שווייקי, שמתנחלים עקרו כחמישים עצי זית באדמתם. הם הזעיקו את הצבא והמשטרה. גשש של הצבא מצא את עקבות העוקרים, שהובילו למאחז מצפה אשתמוע. עוד גילו על סלע כתובת "תג מחיר חלחול".

--------------------------------------------------------------------

ביום שישי אחה"צ ה-30.9.2011 נכנסו מספר מתנחלים עם כלב לכפר יאסוף (ליד ההתנחלות תפוח). הכלב ניסה לתקוף אנשים בכפר. אנשי הכפר זרקו עליו ועל הפולשים אבנים וגרשום. חיילי צה"ל שהגיעו, זרקו רימוני גז בכפר וירו באוויר.

שאלות וברורים: amosg-at-shefayim.org.il

Tags: Just World News

Over recent years, the tireless Israeli peace activist Amos Gvirtz, from Kibbutz Shefayim, has been issuing regular warnings about the misdeeds of various of his countryman. These simply worded bulletins shine a much-needed light on some of the little-known details of what has been going on in occupied Palestine. Here is his latest:

Don't say we did not know #282

On Thursday, 29th September, 2011, Palestinian farmers from the village Shweiki, in the South Hebron Hills, discovered that settlers had uprooted 50 of their olive trees on their land.

The farmers called the army and police. An army tracker traced the vandals' footprints, leading to an outpost called Mitzpe Eshtamoa. On a rock was written: "Halhul price tag."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Friday, 30th September, 2011, in the afternoon, several settlers and a dog entered the Palestinian village Yasuf (near the settlement Tapuah). The dog tried to attack people in the village. Villagers threw stones at the dog and the invaders, and managed to get them out. IDF soldiers then arrived and threw teargas grenades in the village and fired volleys into the air.

Questions & queries: amosg-at-shefayim.org.il

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

אל תגידו לא ידענו

ביום חמישי ה-29.9.2011 גילו חקלאים מהכפר הפלסטיני , שבדרום הר חברון, שווייקי, שמתנחלים עקרו כחמישים עצי זית באדמתם. הם הזעיקו את הצבא והמשטרה. גשש של הצבא מצא את עקבות העוקרים, שהובילו למאחז מצפה אשתמוע. עוד גילו על סלע כתובת "תג מחיר חלחול".

--------------------------------------------------------------------

ביום שישי אחה"צ ה-30.9.2011 נכנסו מספר מתנחלים עם כלב לכפר יאסוף (ליד ההתנחלות תפוח). הכלב ניסה לתקוף אנשים בכפר. אנשי הכפר זרקו עליו ועל הפולשים אבנים וגרשום. חיילי צה"ל שהגיעו, זרקו רימוני גז בכפר וירו באוויר.

שאלות וברורים: amosg-at-shefayim.org.il

Tags: Just World News

I'm writing this on a plane, at the end of a four-day visit to Algiers... In Algiers I was participating in a big international Colloquium on the Arab Spring organized in conjunction with the 'Salon Internationale du Livre d'Alger' (SILA-- the Algiers Book Fair.) It was really interesting to return to Algeria. I hadn't been there since 1989; in the interim, the country passed through a truly terrible, lengthy civil war that lasted throughout most of the 1990s and was laced with repeated atrocities, committed by both sides: both the very secular government and the ferocious Islamist opposition. In 1998, at the end of what Algerians today refer to as "the Black Decade", the government finally won.

On Friday morning, participants in the Colloquium were taken on a tour of the city's historic Casbah, the labrynthine, historic area of four- and five-story dwellings that clings to a steep hillside in the center of the capital city. Yes, we walked right by the (under-reconstruction) house in which famed national-liberation activist "Ali La Pointe" was entombed along with two other militants, when the French colonial powers blew up the house during the national liberation war, as memorialized in "The Battle of Algiers". And that night we dined with Madame Zohra Bitat, one of the liberation heroines who figured in the war (and in the movie), who is now Vice-President of the country's Senate...

When we toured the Casbah our guide told us that for several years up until 1998, the country's security forces were unable to go into it, so strongly did the Islamists control it. That's how grave and present the threat was, that the regime felt itself under.

It is notable to me, during the present Arab Spring, that the Arab countries that have experienced grave internal conflict in the past 15 years have not witnessed the kind of mass pro-democracy movements that marked the Arab Spring. We didn't discuss that phenomenon very much during the colloquium. But we did have a very rich discussion of, in particular, developments in Egypt and Tunisia. There were some excellent analysts-- and analyst-participants-- from those countries, from several other Arab countries, from the U.K., U.S., Turkey, etc., who also participated. I believe the organizers are hoping to publish some kind of a 'proceedings' volume from the gathering. (At which point, you can read the presentation I gave on the reactions of the Anglo-Saxon media to the Arab Spring. A shortened version is here.)

I confess, though, that I missed several large portions of the colloquium-- including the opening statements made by the chicly pantsuited and energetic Minister of Culture, Khalida Toumi, and by the famous former Algerian foreign minister, and more recently, prominent U.N. diplomat/team-leader, Lakhdar Librahimi. I only arrived on the second day; and then on Saturday, I spent much of the day at the Book Fair itself-- in my role as the owner of Just World Books!

What an amazing event the book fair was! It was set up in half a dozen truly enormous, air-conditioned marquees that had been erected on the grounds of the city's main sports stadium. There were no fewer than 430 exhibitors-- about one third of them Algerian publishers; probably more than one third coming from other Arab countries, especially Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria; a strong showing from the big French publishers Hachette and Gallimard; and the rest coming from numerous other countries, mainly in Europe.

Saturday was the last day of the Fair; and I had been warned that there would be huge crowds. Indeed there were. As we drove close to the stadium area, traffic ground to a halt; and along a pathway that was parallel to the road, a thick stream of pedestrians were making their way both to and from the fairground. Those leaving it were weighed down with heavy-looking plastic bags containing their purchases. My driver explained that the prices of books at the Fair were noticeably lower than in the regular bookstores, so people would stock up on reading matter for as much of the year ahead as they could. Plus, of course, they could get hold of all these great titles being offered by non-Algerian publishers.

So what does the Algerian reading public look like? There were people of all ages, including a significant proportion of families, who were clearly making a nice outing there. (The fair also had several large tents offering food; and there was a generally festive atmosphere in the whole area-- though it was guarded by a noticeable deployment of security people, and all our bags were searched as we went into the exhibition area itself.) I would say probably more than half of the adult women were wearing some form of headscarf. A small number were wearing face-coverings as well. Among the men, maybe 20-30% sported the big bushy beard, white skullcap, and mid-shin djallaba of the salafi fundamentalist. The deal the government seemed to have made with the country's once-violent Islamists was that they could continue to practice such aspects of their faith as adhering to its dress-code-- provided they do nothing at all in the way of political organizing. The dress-code, of course, makes these men easily recognizable by the security forces. And meanwhile, the regime maintains a fairly evident campaign of pro-secularist propaganda. With some effect, I think. In the secular parts of Algiers society, relations between the sexes are much more liberal than in, say, Egypt, Jordan, or most parts of Palestine. These Algerians routinely exchange repeated, French-style air-kisses when meeting friends, or even barely known acquaintances, of the other gender-- something that you almost never see in public in Cairo, Hebron, or Amman.

What I didn't see much of in Algiers, either at the book fair or elsewhere in the city, were men wearing the short-clipped beards and conservative, western-style business attire of the Muslim Brothers; and our Algerian friends confirmed that there is almost no presence of any Brotherhood-like organization in the country. The country's president, Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika-- a historic, liberation-era figure, but now reportedly in poor health-- and the military forces who are the power behind his throne have apparently made some attempts to foster the emergence of some form of "moderate, democratic, Islamist movement" in the country, along the lines of Turkey's extremely successful ruling AK Party. But those efforts seem to have borne little fruit. One small, moderate-Islamist tendency is represented in the present government, but people say they have little following nationwide. The political gulf between the secularists and the currently unrepresented salafis appears wide. But at the social level, there probably does exist some form of a (possibly non-political) moderate-Islamist current in the country-- as represented in all those families I saw at the book fair and elsewhere where the women were wearing headscarves and the men were wearing just regular, casual, western-style garb. Also, as a side-note, in Algiers as elsewhere in the Arab world, women and teenage girls can often be seen in happily coexisting "mixed" friendship (or even family) groups, in which women or girls with headscarves mix, talk, and joke very easily with those who don't wear them.

So anyway, back at the book fair... First of all, it seemed like a huge undertaking-- and one that the government had evidently invested a lot in, seeing it as a strong demonstration both of its dedication to culture in general, and of the fact that the country is now a safe and cautiously "happening" place to be.

This year's fair was described as the 16th. I don't know whether they held fairs during the 'Black Decade', or what the scale of the fair has been in recent years. But this year, certainly, the government was making a big deal of it. The fair itself was open, running at full blast, for ten full days. Our colloquium ran for five days, down at the National Library, near the sea front. (And the two dozen or so participants were all generously hosted in the fabulous Hotel Djazair, perched on an airy hilltop overlooking the Bay of Algiers. Not cheap.) In addition, up at the fairgrounds themselves, there were two other big, and more strictly literary, programs organized in conjunction with the fair: a whole series of author events, including one with Breyten Breytenbach, which I'm really sorry I missed, and a special conference organized on the theme of African literatures.

I spent quite a long while on Saturday, wandering around the interior of the fair. Many exhibitors were doing great business there. At times, the wide pathways between the large stalls became almost completely jammed with people, though nearly everyone was very good-natured. There were a good number of stalls selling mainly religious books-- mainly from Egypt, but also some from Saudi Arabia. Those were crowded with salafi young men. (The Algerian media had reported that the government had banned a further 400 salafi-oriented titles...) But there were also plenty of stalls selling a wide range of other kinds of literature-- fiction in Arabic and French, beautiful glossy picture books, including many recently published in Algeria, textbooks galore-- for students of all ages, and lots of non-fiction, including on the history of the Arab world and current international affairs. But just about all of these offerings were in French or Arabic.

When the organizers invited me to the colloquium, I told them I would like to participate in the fair as a publisher, too. By that time, it was far too late to arrange formal registration and participation. But the person heading the whole venture of the fair, Mr. Smain Amziane, kindly said I could display my books in the booth/stall of the company he heads, Editions Casbah. As it turned out, it wasn't easy for me even to do that, since our colloquium and hotel were both so distant, and traffic in the roads that snake up and down the city's numerous steep and interlinking hills was so horrendous. But when I was at the fair Saturday, the managers at the Editions Casbah stall finally set up a table for me at one end of their space. I set out my books and a wad of JWB's brochures, and I sat there for a good 90 minutes introducing my company and its books to the interested public... Well, I was one of only a miniscule number of English-language publishers there. I had done no advance publicity for the appearance. And I wasn't even selling books, but only showing them! But I did the best I could-- generally in French, but also sometimes in my distinctly non-Algerian Arabic-- to talk up our books. Laila El-Haddad's Gaza Mom and Rami Zurayk's War Diary attracted the most attention. It was a huge amount of fun. Someone even came up and conducted an interview with me, for a newspaper in the western city of Oran. (I can't even remember whether I conducted that one in French or Arabic. On Sunday, I did a radio interview in Arabic for Radio Algeria International. I was extremely tired at the time, and I think if I ever heard it on the air I would be extremely embarrassed at all my mistakes... Oh dear...)

Anyway, later on Saturday, I had an excellent, short meeting with Mr. Amziane's sister Anissa, who works for him in his publishing house... I very much hope they will buy Arabic and/or French rights to a number of JWB titles. Let's see!

Editions Casbah looks like a very serious and wide-ranging publisher. Later in the evening on Saturday, they had a 'meet the author' event for a brilliant Algerian cartoonist called Dilem, whose scathing political cartoons appear in the daily 'Liberation'. I didn't exactly get to meet him-- there was a huge long line of people trying to get to him! But one of our Algerian friends kindly got him to sign a copy for Bill the spouse and me, and Dilem penned a funny little portrait of himself alongside the signature.

I should perhaps reveal at this point that Bill the spouse is one of the very few Americans who know anything at all about Algerian politics, since he's written a couple of excellent books on the subject, e.g. this one. So much of what (and who) I know in and about the country, I know because of him. Anyway, one of the things he has explained about Algeria's current situation is that though political life is still very highly circumscribed-- especially since the attempt the leadership made from 1989 on to open the system up to multi-party participation led to the eruption of the civil war soon thereafter-- for a number of years now the press has been remarkably open and freewheeling. In Egypt under Mubarak, Tunisia under Ben Ali, or just about any other Arab country today except Lebanon, the ways that Dilem, for example, represents and pokes fun at his country's leaders would never be allowed...

Tags: Just World News

I have found it really hard to find time and energy to blog recently. Lots has been going on with Just World Books. This very evening, we are launching Manan Ahmed's terrific book Where the Wild Frontiers Are: Pakistan and the American Imagination. I'm in New York to do this. It's being hosted by the Asian-American Writers' Workshop-- starts 90 minutes from now!

Timely, huh? Also timely: our next book, Troubled Triangle: The United States, Turkey, and Israel in the New Middle East, edited by the fabulous William B. Quandt.

Wednesday, I'm leaving for the Algiers, where Bill the spouse and I are both taking part in a "Colloque" on the Arab Spring being organized in conjunction with the Algiers Book Fair. I am also hoping to meet some Arabic-language and French-language publishers who might be interested in buying other-language rights to some of our books.

I know there has been a lot happening recently (especially, here in New York) around Abu Mazen's last-ditch effort to save his legacy by taking the "Palestinian statehood" request to the Security Council. There's been a lot of dissension in Palestinian ranks about the value of this effort. And yes, it does seem very possible that the statehood request might just languish for months or years in some subcommittee of the Security Council... The matter would be a lot more straightforward if Abu Mazen and his people were to insist on taking a request for enhanced recognition to the General Assembly, and forcing a vote there...

Whatever happens to this particular initiative at this particular time, it already seems that pressure is mounting in the non-U.S. 95% of the global community that the United States has monopolized all Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy for too long now; and that the U.S. has proven itself uniquely unqualified and/or unable to do anything to bring about a fair and sustainable peace... and therefore, that some other, more authoritative and capable form of international sponsorship is needed in order to deal successfully with this important item on the world's agenda.

I haven't been able to blog much about this recently. Last week I had a flare-up of horrible back pain, which laid me somewhat low. But next week, on October 4, I'm speaking on the Palestinian statehood issue at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. (I think that's an open meeting: Check their website over the next few days, for details. They don't have any up there yet.)

Tags: Just World News

I have found it really hard to find time and energy to blog recently. Lots has been going on with Just World Books. This very evening, we are launching Manan Ahmed's terrific book Where the Wild Frontiers Are: Pakistan and the American Imagination. I'm in New York to do this. It's being hosted by the Asian-American Writers' Workshop-- starts 90 minutes from now!

Timely, huh? Also timely: our next book, Troubled Triangle: The United States, Turkey, and Israel in the New Middle East, edited by the fabulous William B. Quandt.

Wednesday, I'm leaving for the Algiers, where Bill the spouse and I are both taking part in a "Colloque" on the Arab Spring being organized in conjunction with the Algiers Book Fair. I am also hoping to meet some Arabic-language and French-language publishers who might be interested in buying other-language rights to some of our books.

I know there has been a lot happening recently (especially, here in New York) around Abu Mazen's last-ditch effort to save his legacy by taking the "Palestinian statehood" request to the Security Council. There's been a lot of dissension in Palestinian ranks about the value of this effort. And yes, it does seem very possible that the statehood request might just languish for months or years in some subcommittee of the Security Council... The matter would be a lot more straightforward if Abu Mazen and his people were to insist on taking a request for enhanced recognition to the General Assembly, and forcing a vote there...

Whatever happens to this particular initiative at this particular time, it already seems that pressure is mounting in the non-U.S. 95% of the global community that the United States has monopolized all Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy for too long now; and that the U.S. has proven itself uniquely unqualified and/or unable to do anything to bring about a fair and sustainable peace... and therefore, that some other, more authoritative and capable form of international sponsorship is needed in order to deal successfully with this important item on the world's agenda.

I haven't been able to blog much about this recently. Last week I had a flare-up of horrible back pain, which laid me somewhat low. But next week, on October 4, I'm speaking on the Palestinian statehood issue at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. (I think that's an open meeting: Check their website over the next few days, for details. They don't have any up there yet.)

Tags: Just World News

I have found it really hard to find time and energy to blog recently. Lots has been going on with Just World Books. This very evening, we are launching Manan Ahmed's terrific book Where the Wild Frontiers Are: Pakistan and the American Imagination. I'm in New York to do this. It's being hosted by the Asian-American Writers' Workshop-- starts 90 minutes from now!

Timely, huh? Also timely: our next book, Troubled Triangle: The United States, Turkey, and Israel in the New Middle East, edited by the fabulous William B. Quandt.

Wednesday, I'm leaving for the Algiers, where Bill the spouse and I are both taking part in a "Colloque" on the Arab Spring being organized in conjunction with the Algiers Book Fair. I am also hoping to meet some Arabic-language and French-language publishers who might be interested in buying other-language rights to some of our books.

I know there has been a lot happening recently (especially, here in New York) around Abu Mazen's last-ditch effort to save his legacy by taking the "Palestinian statehood" request to the Security Council. There's been a lot of dissension in Palestinian ranks about the value of this effort. And yes, it does seem very possible that the statehood request might just languish for months or years in some subcommittee of the Security Council... The matter would be a lot more straightforward if Abu Mazen and his people were to insist on taking a request for enhanced recognition to the General Assembly, and forcing a vote there...

Whatever happens to this particular initiative at this particular time, it already seems that pressure is mounting in the non-U.S. 95% of the global community that the United States has monopolized all Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy for too long now; and that the U.S. has proven itself uniquely unqualified and/or unable to do anything to bring about a fair and sustainable peace... and therefore, that some other, more authoritative and capable form of international sponsorship is needed in order to deal successfully with this important item on the world's agenda.

I haven't been able to blog much about this recently. Last week I had a flare-up of horrible back pain, which laid me somewhat low. But next week, on October 4, I'm speaking on the Palestinian statehood issue at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. (I think that's an open meeting: Check their website over the next few days, for details. They don't have any up there yet.)

Tags: Just World News

I have found it really hard to find time and energy to blog recently. Lots has been going on with Just World Books. This very evening, we are launching Manan Ahmed's terrific book Where the Wild Frontiers Are: Pakistan and the American Imagination. I'm in New York to do this. It's being hosted by the Asian-American Writers' Workshop-- starts 90 minutes from now!

Timely, huh? Also timely: our next book, Troubled Triangle: The United States, Turkey, and Israel in the New Middle East, edited by the fabulous William B. Quandt.

Wednesday, I'm leaving for the Algiers, where Bill the spouse and I are both taking part in a "Colloque" on the Arab Spring being organized in conjunction with the Algiers Book Fair. I am also hoping to meet some Arabic-language and French-language publishers who might be interested in buying other-language rights to some of our books.

I know there has been a lot happening recently (especially, here in New York) around Abu Mazen's last-ditch effort to save his legacy by taking the "Palestinian statehood" request to the Security Council. There's been a lot of dissension in Palestinian ranks about the value of this effort. And yes, it does seem very possible that the statehood request might just languish for months or years in some subcommittee of the Security Council... The matter would be a lot more straightforward if Abu Mazen and his people were to insist on taking a request for enhanced recognition to the General Assembly, and forcing a vote there...

Whatever happens to this particular initiative at this particular time, it already seems that pressure is mounting in the non-U.S. 95% of the global community that the United States has monopolized all Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy for too long now; and that the U.S. has proven itself uniquely unqualified and/or unable to do anything to bring about a fair and sustainable peace... and therefore, that some other, more authoritative and capable form of international sponsorship is needed in order to deal successfully with this important item on the world's agenda.

I haven't been able to blog much about this recently. Last week I had a flare-up of horrible back pain, which laid me somewhat low. But next week, on October 4, I'm speaking on the Palestinian statehood issue at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. (I think that's an open meeting: Check their website over the next few days, for details. They don't have any up there yet.)

Tags: Just World News

I have found it really hard to find time and energy to blog recently. Lots has been going on with Just World Books. This very evening, we are launching Manan Ahmed's terrific book Where the Wild Frontiers Are: Pakistan and the American Imagination. I'm in New York to do this. It's being hosted by the Asian-American Writers' Workshop-- starts 90 minutes from now!

Timely, huh? Also timely: our next book, Troubled Triangle: The United States, Turkey, and Israel in the New Middle East, edited by the fabulous William B. Quandt.

Wednesday, I'm leaving for the Algiers, where Bill the spouse and I are both taking part in a "Colloque" on the Arab Spring being organized in conjunction with the Algiers Book Fair. I am also hoping to meet some Arabic-language and French-language publishers who might be interested in buying other-language rights to some of our books.

I know there has been a lot happening recently (especially, here in New York) around Abu Mazen's last-ditch effort to save his legacy by taking the "Palestinian statehood" request to the Security Council. There's been a lot of dissension in Palestinian ranks about the value of this effort. And yes, it does seem very possible that the statehood request might just languish for months or years in some subcommittee of the Security Council... The matter would be a lot more straightforward if Abu Mazen and his people were to insist on taking a request for enhanced recognition to the General Assembly, and forcing a vote there...

Whatever happens to this particular initiative at this particular time, it already seems that pressure is mounting in the non-U.S. 95% of the global community that the United States has monopolized all Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy for too long now; and that the U.S. has proven itself uniquely unqualified and/or unable to do anything to bring about a fair and sustainable peace... and therefore, that some other, more authoritative and capable form of international sponsorship is needed in order to deal successfully with this important item on the world's agenda.

I haven't been able to blog much about this recently. Last week I had a flare-up of horrible back pain, which laid me somewhat low. But next week, on October 4, I'm speaking on the Palestinian statehood issue at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. (I think that's an open meeting: Check their website over the next few days, for details. They don't have any up there yet.)

Tags: Just World News

... I want to link, first, to these reflections on 9/11, that I published in Friends Journal in 2007, and to this column, that I wrote for the Christian Science Monitor on 9/11 itself, and which ran in the paper two days later.

Tomorrow, on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I'll be spending a lot of time with my fellow Quakers here in Charlottesville. It feels like the right thing to do. At the Quaker meeting for worship (worship service) that we held very soon after the original 9/11, I said that then was the time that "the rubber really hit the road" for the adherence nearly all Quakers profess to the testimony of nonviolence and to the avoidance not just of all wars but also of the causes of war.

I believe that today, more Americans understand the futility and damaging nature of wars-- all wars-- than did ten years ago. But still, far too many of our countrymen and -women remain susceptible to arguments like those made in favor of the military "action" or military "intervention" in Libya earlier this year. (The advocates of such "interventions" are nowadays careful not to come straight out and call them "wars".)

I mourn for each of the lives cut short on 9/11. But I mourn equally for each one of the lives cut short as a result of all the American and American-led wars since then. I bear a heavy weight of concern for the men still incarcerated under inhuman conditions and with no access to due process and no hope of any timely and fair trial-- in Guantanamo and other elements of the U.S. 'black' prison system worldwide. I mourn for the moral blindness and real spiritual wounds suffered by all those who act with, or condone, violence. And I am staggered to think of the "opportunity costs" the whole world has incurred as a result of all the United States' military spending since, and largely as a result of, what happened on 9/11: All the wonderful, life-supporting projects that that money could and should have been used for instead, which would have made the world a far safer place for everyone-- including Americans.

Since 9/11, my own three children have grown into mature, capable, and wonderful adults. Two of them have married and now have children of their own. We all have a new generation to raise. The need to build a better world for these little ones-- for all the little ones around the world!-- has never felt more urgent. Our generation has a lot to apologize for. But luckily, many of us are still around, with a good few years of energetic and loving activism left in us, to try to make some good amends and get the global situation turned back onto a better track...

Here's what I'm going to be doing next weekend: Friday night, speaking at the Annual Conference of the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation in Washington DC; and Sunday noon, speaking at the second conference this year that marks the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower's 1961 warning about the dangers of the emergence of a "Military Industrial Complex." This one's in Charlottesville.

These both feel like great ways to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the tragedies of 9/11. Come to one or both, if you can.

Tags: Just World News

... I want to link, first, to these reflections on 9/11, that I published in Friends Journal in 2007, and to this column, that I wrote for the Christian Science Monitor on 9/11 itself, and which ran in the paper two days later.

Tomorrow, on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I'll be spending a lot of time with my fellow Quakers here in Charlottesville. It feels like the right thing to do. At the Quaker meeting for worship (worship service) that we held very soon after the original 9/11, I said that then was the time that "the rubber really hit the road" for the adherence nearly all Quakers profess to the testimony of nonviolence and to the avoidance not just of all wars but also of the causes of war.

I believe that today, more Americans understand the futility and damaging nature of wars-- all wars-- than did ten years ago. But still, far too many of our countrymen and -women remain susceptible to arguments like those made in favor of the military "action" or military "intervention" in Libya earlier this year. (The advocates of such "interventions" are nowadays careful not to come straight out and call them "wars".)

I mourn for each of the lives cut short on 9/11. But I mourn equally for each one of the lives cut short as a result of all the American and American-led wars since then. I bear a heavy weight of concern for the men still incarcerated under inhuman conditions and with no access to due process and no hope of any timely and fair trial-- in Guantanamo and other elements of the U.S. 'black' prison system worldwide. I mourn for the moral blindness and real spiritual wounds suffered by all those who act with, or condone, violence. And I am staggered to think of the "opportunity costs" the whole world has incurred as a result of all the United States' military spending since, and largely as a result of, what happened on 9/11: All the wonderful, life-supporting projects that that money could and should have been used for instead, which would have made the world a far safer place for everyone-- including Americans.

Since 9/11, my own three children have grown into mature, capable, and wonderful adults. Two of them have married and now have children of their own. We all have a new generation to raise. The need to build a better world for these little ones-- for all the little ones around the world!-- has never felt more urgent. Our generation has a lot to apologize for. But luckily, many of us are still around, with a good few years of energetic and loving activism left in us, to try to make some good amends and get the global situation turned back onto a better track...

Here's what I'm going to be doing next weekend: Friday night, speaking at the Annual Conference of the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation in Washington DC; and Sunday noon, speaking at the second conference this year that marks the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower's 1961 warning about the dangers of the emergence of a "Military Industrial Complex." This one's in Charlottesville.

These both feel like great ways to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the tragedies of 9/11. Come to one or both, if you can.

Tags: Just World News

... I want to link, first, to these reflections on 9/11, that I published in Friends Journal in 2007, and to this column, that I wrote for the Christian Science Monitor on 9/11 itself, and which ran in the paper two days later.

Tomorrow, on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I'll be spending a lot of time with my fellow Quakers here in Charlottesville. It feels like the right thing to do. At the Quaker meeting for worship (worship service) that we held very soon after the original 9/11, I said that then was the time that "the rubber really hit the road" for the adherence nearly all Quakers profess to the testimony of nonviolence and to the avoidance not just of all wars but also of the causes of war.

I believe that today, more Americans understand the futility and damaging nature of wars-- all wars-- than did ten years ago. But still, far too many of our countrymen and -women remain susceptible to arguments like those made in favor of the military "action" or military "intervention" in Libya earlier this year. (The advocates of such "interventions" are nowadays careful not to come straight out and call them "wars".)

I mourn for each of the lives cut short on 9/11. But I mourn equally for each one of the lives cut short as a result of all the American and American-led wars since then. I bear a heavy weight of concern for the men still incarcerated under inhuman conditions and with no access to due process and no hope of any timely and fair trial-- in Guantanamo and other elements of the U.S. 'black' prison system worldwide. I mourn for the moral blindness and real spiritual wounds suffered by all those who act with, or condone, violence. And I am staggered to think of the "opportunity costs" the whole world has incurred as a result of all the United States' military spending since, and largely as a result of, what happened on 9/11: All the wonderful, life-supporting projects that that money could and should have been used for instead, which would have made the world a far safer place for everyone-- including Americans.

Since 9/11, my own three children have grown into mature, capable, and wonderful adults. Two of them have married and now have children of their own. We all have a new generation to raise. The need to build a better world for these little ones-- for all the little ones around the world!-- has never felt more urgent. Our generation has a lot to apologize for. But luckily, many of us are still around, with a good few years of energetic and loving activism left in us, to try to make some good amends and get the global situation turned back onto a better track...

Here's what I'm going to be doing next weekend: Friday night, speaking at the Annual Conference of the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation in Washington DC; and Sunday noon, speaking at the second conference this year that marks the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower's 1961 warning about the dangers of the emergence of a "Military Industrial Complex." This one's in Charlottesville.

These both feel like great ways to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the tragedies of 9/11. Come to one or both, if you can.

Tags: Just World News

... I want to link, first, to these reflections on 9/11, that I published in Friends Journal in 2007, and to this column, that I wrote for the Christian Science Monitor on 9/11 itself, and which ran in the paper two days later.

Tomorrow, on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I'll be spending a lot of time with my fellow Quakers here in Charlottesville. It feels like the right thing to do. At the Quaker meeting for worship (worship service) that we held very soon after the original 9/11, I said that then was the time that "the rubber really hit the road" for the adherence nearly all Quakers profess to the testimony of nonviolence and to the avoidance not just of all wars but also of the causes of war.

I believe that today, more Americans understand the futility and damaging nature of wars-- all wars-- than did ten years ago. But still, far too many of our countrymen and -women remain susceptible to arguments like those made in favor of the military "action" or military "intervention" in Libya earlier this year. (The advocates of such "interventions" are nowadays careful not to come straight out and call them "wars".)

I mourn for each of the lives cut short on 9/11. But I mourn equally for each one of the lives cut short as a result of all the American and American-led wars since then. I bear a heavy weight of concern for the men still incarcerated under inhuman conditions and with no access to due process and no hope of any timely and fair trial-- in Guantanamo and other elements of the U.S. 'black' prison system worldwide. I mourn for the moral blindness and real spiritual wounds suffered by all those who act with, or condone, violence. And I am staggered to think of the "opportunity costs" the whole world has incurred as a result of all the United States' military spending since, and largely as a result of, what happened on 9/11: All the wonderful, life-supporting projects that that money could and should have been used for instead, which would have made the world a far safer place for everyone-- including Americans.

Since 9/11, my own three children have grown into mature, capable, and wonderful adults. Two of them have married and now have children of their own. We all have a new generation to raise. The need to build a better world for these little ones-- for all the little ones around the world!-- has never felt more urgent. Our generation has a lot to apologize for. But luckily, many of us are still around, with a good few years of energetic and loving activism left in us, to try to make some good amends and get the global situation turned back onto a better track...

Here's what I'm going to be doing next weekend: Friday night, speaking at the Annual Conference of the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation in Washington DC; and Sunday noon, speaking at the second conference this year that marks the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower's 1961 warning about the dangers of the emergence of a "Military Industrial Complex." This one's in Charlottesville.

These both feel like great ways to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the tragedies of 9/11. Come to one or both, if you can.

Tags: Just World News

... I want to link, first, to these reflections on 9/11, that I published in Friends Journal in 2007, and to this column, that I wrote for the Christian Science Monitor on 9/11 itself, and which ran in the paper two days later.

Tomorrow, on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I'll be spending a lot of time with my fellow Quakers here in Charlottesville. It feels like the right thing to do. At the Quaker meeting for worship (worship service) that we held very soon after the original 9/11, I said that then was the time that "the rubber really hit the road" for the adherence nearly all Quakers profess to the testimony of nonviolence and to the avoidance not just of all wars but also of the causes of war.

I believe that today, more Americans understand the futility and damaging nature of wars-- all wars-- than did ten years ago. But still, far too many of our countrymen and -women remain susceptible to arguments like those made in favor of the military "action" or military "intervention" in Libya earlier this year. (The advocates of such "interventions" are nowadays careful not to come straight out and call them "wars".)

I mourn for each of the lives cut short on 9/11. But I mourn equally for each one of the lives cut short as a result of all the American and American-led wars since then. I bear a heavy weight of concern for the men still incarcerated under inhuman conditions and with no access to due process and no hope of any timely and fair trial-- in Guantanamo and other elements of the U.S. 'black' prison system worldwide. I mourn for the moral blindness and real spiritual wounds suffered by all those who act with, or condone, violence. And I am staggered to think of the "opportunity costs" the whole world has incurred as a result of all the United States' military spending since, and largely as a result of, what happened on 9/11: All the wonderful, life-supporting projects that that money could and should have been used for instead, which would have made the world a far safer place for everyone-- including Americans.

Since 9/11, my own three children have grown into mature, capable, and wonderful adults. Two of them have married and now have children of their own. We all have a new generation to raise. The need to build a better world for these little ones-- for all the little ones around the world!-- has never felt more urgent. Our generation has a lot to apologize for. But luckily, many of us are still around, with a good few years of energetic and loving activism left in us, to try to make some good amends and get the global situation turned back onto a better track...

Here's what I'm going to be doing next weekend: Friday night, speaking at the Annual Conference of the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation in Washington DC; and Sunday noon, speaking at the second conference this year that marks the 50th anniversary of Eisenhower's 1961 warning about the dangers of the emergence of a "Military Industrial Complex." This one's in Charlottesville.

These both feel like great ways to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the tragedies of 9/11. Come to one or both, if you can.

Tags: Just World News