Linz Texas

I received this soft-covered picture book in the mail a few weeks ago thanks to the authors finding a photo of mine on Flickr which they wanted to use in the book. I agreed and they were kind enough to send me the book. The 200-page book with many photos (and captions) of the Austrian city of Linz was produced to celebrate the city's nomination as European Capital of Culture for 2009.

Linz tells its story by comparing itself in various aspects to a wide range of other cities around the world including Hyderabad, Davos and Seattle. In reading the book, not only was I intrigued to visit Linz (so the promotion exercise works) but also I noted a number of other places to put on my "To Visit" list including Manchester and Port Camargue.

The inspiration for the book's title comes presumably from Wim Wenders' 1984 film Paris, Texas which drew the world's attention to the fact that there was a city called Paris in Texas. (In fact, if I remember correctly there are about 20 Paris's in the USA). Even though Wenders' movie neither featured the real city of Paris, Texas nor was filmed there, the movie put the city on the map. That's presumably the hope of the folks in Linz, a major industrial center which most tourists wouldn't think of visiting.

A History of Modern Palestine

This is a history of the geographical area known as Palestine in the last 150 years. It is written by Ilan Pappe, one of a very small breed of so-called Israeli revisionist historians until recently a lecturer at Haifa University in Israel and now at Exeter University in the UK. Pappe's revisionism is his challenging the classic Israeli historiography of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

I am not a historian but, unlike most Jewish Israelis, I have talked to enough Palestinians to believe that the history of the State of Israel on which I (and most Jews) was brought up on is at best biased, partial and one-sided. Winston Churchill said that "History is written by the victors". Israel was the victor and imbued with a literary and cultural superiority over the Palestinians such that their narrative and perspective has little been heard in the West.

Ilan Pappe is definitely a radical by Jewish Israeli standards and he challenges the mythological and passionately-held Israeli narrative. It is a difficult position to hold. For me, the hysteria, hate and disdain which Pappe gets in Israel for his writings are merely a confirmation that there is clearly something in what he says. Otherwise there wouldn't be this ten-ton outpouring against him. Privately Pappe seems a very learned, cultured, reasonable man.

This history is different from others I have read in several ways. Firstly it is a history of a land, not that of a national entity. Nor is it a history of the conflict although it obviously covers much of the conflict. Its starting point is the end of the Crimean War which signalled, according to Pappe, the start of the European "invasion" of Palestine. The book is clearly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause but there is fair representation of the Zionist/Israeli position. Pappe does not spare the Palestinians from criticism. To his credit, Pappe does not hide his sympathies but he definitely goes against the trend of justifying the modernizing spirit of the Western world

The new insights I gained from this book were
1) Jewish colonialisation of Palestine was only one (even if, ultimately, the most significant) of the Western colonizing and 'modernizing' forces seeping into Palestine from the 1850s
2) throughout the period described the Palestinians (indeed the Arabs) were/are split, factionalised, tribalised and unable to agree and work on a common agenda. Unlike the Jews who managed to overcome their differences to work on a common agenda, the Arabs were divided, leaderless and pursuing several opposing agendas
3)The Hashemite monarchy of Jordan was a less-than-effective opposition for the Israelis because of their own political and territorial objectives in the WestBank.

It is very refreshing to read a history that presents the position of both sides and Pappe definitely has the credentials of a professional historian. I wouldn't be surprised that if his book were gone over with a tooth comb one might find some inconsistencies and inaccuracies but this is irrelevant. What is important is the main gist and that it would be a refreshing change if such histories were widely read by Israelis and Palestinians. One looks forward to the day when Palestinian historians will come up with a book this this.

Man in the Shadows

A book by Efraim Halevy, former Israeli diplomat and head of the Mossad

I bought (or got) this book 'cause I've always liked spy stories (I'm a John LeCarre man myself)and I had some expectations of a "show and tell" book by a former head of the Mossad. I also had some respect, as a citizen consumer of the news, of this official who had,somehow, something more European and dignified than the "average" Israeli macho security hero. Halevy was also Israel's ambassador to Jordan and very instrumental in brokering the peace agreement with Jordan.

I found the book rather tiresome with a great deal of muted self-glorification and almost no revelations or juicy bits. Halevy comes across as a very loyal and careful technocrat with clear views (which I don't subscribe to) about the "War on Terror" being the central stuggle of our times.

Sweet Mud (Adama Meshugaat)

This much acclaimed film about a small boy's view of kibbutz life in Israel in the the 1950's presents a very personal, controversial and, some would say, extreme view of the mores of kibbutz life.

(to be continued)

Beaufort - a film about the Israeli army in Lebanon

Joesph Cedar's film takes place in the cramped and frightening bunkers of a remote Israeli army outpost on the site of a Crusader castle in southern Lebanon in the year 2000, a few months before the Israeli evacuation of southern Lebanon.

According to the Wikipedia article, this 700metre high outpost was used from 1976 by the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation for firing rockets into Israel. Beaufort was captured by the Israeli army in a bloody battle and was held by the Israelis until the Israeli pullout in 2000. During the 1990's the army outpost came under increasing attack by the Hezbollah and the film shows the tension and despair felt by the Israeli soldiers in defending a position in a futile and bloody conflict.

The film is well made, sensitive accurately represents the life style of Israeli soldiers in outposts in hostile territory. It raises many of the dilemmas of war but without taking sides and forcing the viewer to figure it out for him/herself. Disturbing for those of us involved in Israeli existence and the fight for survival, but definitely reccommended.

Reviews:
Alertnet and Variety


Reviews

A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian

I don't usually read novels but the title of this book (together with a drawing of an Ukranian tractor on the cover) was too much for me to pass by.

It tells the story of first and second generation Ukrainian exiles in British town - an elderly, lonely widowed father whose heart is still very much in the "old country" and his two feuding daughters. The book has much humour and amusing insights into the seam between British middle-class provincial society and the world of refugees in the New Europe. Nikolai (the father) falls in love (or so he thinks) with a busty Ukranian , Valentina, who seeks a better life in the UK for herself and her son Stanislav. Nadezhada, one of the daughters (in whose first person the book is written) is appalled , detests the potential stepmother and only finds sympathy for her after the marriage breaks down. An entertaining read.

Book "Weeds like Us"

"Weeds Like Us" is a personal memoir written by a German-American by the name of Gunter Nitsch who grew up under the Nazi regime in East Prussia, the easternmost province of the then German Reich. Gunter was born in 1937 and this memoir is of his memories as a boy during the tumultuous period from Summer 1944 until 1950. In the final phases of World War 2 the Soviet Army captured East Prussia and most of the 2 million Germans who lived there tried to flee to Germany from the advancing Russian troops. Some 800,000 suceeded and according to Nitsch, 400-500,000 died in the fighting and the attempts to flee and 800,000 remained stranded in Russian-held territory once the fighting stopped. Nitsch, his mother and grandmother were amongst those East Prussian Germans who were caught in East Prussia and scraped by with great difficulty until they were repatriated to Germany in 1948. Most of the book deals with these difficult years and chronicles their existence as refugees in Germany thereafter.

Gunter Nitsch is not a professional author but it is a gripping and touching personal story of survival under very difficult circumstances. Until recent years it was not considered bon ton outside Germany (and often not even within Germany) to relate to the suffering of ordinary Germans during and after World War 2. The prevailing feeling in the Western world was that the Germans, by electing and supporting Hitler, had brought their tragedy upon themselves and deserved the cruel fate they suffered when their country, regime and aspirations collapsed. German cities were bombed mercilessly by the Allies, over a million German civilians died and some 10 million Germans from the former eastern provinces of Germany became refugees. Some settled in East and some in West Germany and had to rebuild their lives. Alongside the difficulty of the rehabilitation of Germany after the War, these refugees were probably at the bottom of the pile.

All war is a terrible thing and World War 2 with 6 millions Jews slaughtered and 20 million Russians who died was devastating. It's too easy for us to say who was right and who was wrong - we tend to overlook the personal tragedies on the losers' side. This book fills a vacuum. And for anyone who thinks I am being soft on the "hated" Germans, please note that I am Jewish, my mother's family was also from East Prussia and my East Prussian grandmother perished in the Holocaust.