Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Book reviews

I know that you are paying me (NOT) big bucks to maintain this site, o readers, enemies, and jerks but my jet lag and grumpy mood has prevented me from writing about books I have been reading. In breif. Al-Hakam An-Nu`aymi's book on the movement of Wadi` Haddad is a failure. It does not add to what we already know and it is based on already published materials. I prefer the account of Adnan Badr: which is a personal/witness account. Somebody in Beirut mysteriously sent me a booklet by Habib Ash-Shartuni: it was undergroundly published and has no place of publication or publisher. Of course, I carefully read and studied every word. If you know about Lebanese history, you would know who Ash-Shartuni is. I find it very curious that he refers to Solange Gemayyel as Solange Tutunji. I did not understand why. Thirdly, I am writing a review of Yitzhak Reiter's National Minority, Regional Majorty: Palestinian Arabs versus Jews in Israel (Syracuse University Press) for Choice. Th author has an original approach to the subject that has been studied before: he places the plight of Arabs in Israel in the regional context of the Arab-Israel conflict. Why does he do that? In order to rationalize and justify Israeli decades of persecution, discrimination, and brutal oppression. Back to the jet lag.