In my hearth I am at war with you Ireland
And the stereotype of an idyllic country-side upbringing
Fuck Sheep.
My war of brothers continues through the fifth column calm colm قلم
the sacrifices our grandparents made
i bear the scars
i am their pale ghost
haunting you, I-land
your bizzaro double
by post
from the west coast
a crackle on the line
no email though I’ve tried
and by appearance

Orphans
martyrs
drunks
teachers
nurses
officer
pig
father
O’Leary
curses
the irish
outside in

sin! my brothers
it’s a sin!
you will haunt the graveyard still
for the time you hast put in

and your cousin’s in the pen
and the bleach runs through your veins
the plastic sludge pumps slowly to your brain

the pale
beyond the pale
within the pale
for so long Lord, so long

your passport is your pale
your mailbox is your pale
your garden is your pale
your face is your pale
your skull is your pale
Fianna blood pounding at its frontiers – searching for weakness
enveloped in presence with vigor to trudge on
frustrated it retreats
leaving Londonderry walls
cold, silent, foreboding

faces: pale
streets: pale
foot steps: pale

Text and photos by Matt Horton
Vol. XXVIII, Issue #4 (May/June 2009)
Page 61-62

Suheir Hammad

Suheir Hammad lit up the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage on March 7 with “An Evening of Breaking Poems.”

After a rousing introduction by dapper hype-man and beaming father Muhammad Hammad, as Jay-Z’s “Brooklyn (We Go Hard)” played in the background, “the olive tree of Brooklyn” took the stage and dazzled the standing-room-only audience.

Hammad read favorites like “Mike Check” and “Exotic,” as well as selections from her new collection breaking poems (available from the AET Book Club).

In breaking poems, Hammad explained, she “wanted to write…the way I think. The poems are published in the chronological order in which they were written so you can see all the weaknesses, the leaps taken, where I failed, where I didn’t, and you’ll be introduced to Arabic differently.”

Hammad invited New Orleanians in the audience to the stage for her reading of “A Prayer Band,” inspired by the work of Louisiana Poet Laureate Brenda Marie Osbey.

She also read powerful new poems written during Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead.” These poems, each titled after cities in the Gaza Strip, gave words to fresh wounds borne from witnessing horrific images of Israel’s bombing and invasion.

Clearly aware of the historic importance of the performance at the nationally funded center for the arts, Hammad’s performance was dedicated to writer Ralph Wiley. She reminisced about how she and Wiley used to “drive by [the Kennedy Center] listening to Tupac and he would say, ‘One day you gonna be up there, Palestine.’”

For more on Suheir Hammad, visit <www.suheirhammad.com>.

Marcel Khalife and Al Mayadine Ensemble

Marcel Khalifé and his Al Mayadine Ensemble returned to the Kennedy Center March 7 as the festival’s top-billed performer. The evening performance in the Eisenhower Theatre was titled “And We Love Life…A Salute to Mahmoud Darwish.” Although Khalifé had previously performed at the Kennedy Center, the historic nature of his participation in its “Arabesque” festival was evident as the ensemble’s core, sons Rami and Bashar and upright bassist Peter Herbert, were joined by 11 top artists, including clarinetist Kinan Azmi and long-time Khalifé vocalist Oumaima Khalil.

The greater Al Mayadine Ensemble treated the audience to the full orchestral sound of Khalifé classics like “Walking Tall” and “Arabic Coffeepot.” Khalil also joined Khalifé for a moving performance of “Ya Asfoor,” which he dedicated to “Arab prisoners in Israeli jails, Arab prisoners in Arab jails, and all prisoners of conscience.”

The audience was mesmerized by a memorable “Rita,” and a jazz-infused “Passport” received a mid-performance standing ovation.

For more information about Marcel Khalifé and Al Mayadine Ensemble, visit <www.marcelkhalife.com>.

Nathalie Handal

Unofficial Palestinian cultural ambassador Nathalie Handal also dedicated her March 11 performance on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage to the late Mahmoud Darwish. The multimedia performance was titled “The Poetry, Theatre and Film of Nathalie Handal.”

Handal’s reading mixed favorites from her published collections (available from the AET Book Club) and new poems addressing the siege of her hometown, Bethlehem, the experience of the Palestinian Diaspora, and the possibilities for peace and coexistence.

The 30-minute reading was followed by the premiere of “Lions Gate: Museum of Stone.” The film, directed by Lovisa Inserra, is the first of seven short film adaptations, each with a different director, of Handal’s serial poem “Seven Gates.”

The performance concluded with a theatrical piece, titled “Hakawatiyeh,” written by Handal and starring Lameece Issaq as a comic storyteller from Bethlehem. For more information about Nathalie Handal and her many projects, visit <www.nathaliehandal.com>.

—Compiled by Matt Horton
Vol. XXVIII, #3 (April 2009)
Page 63

Upcoming Events

A solo exhibition of artist Emily Jacir’s work will be on view through April 15 at the Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10128-0173. For more information, call (212) 423-3500 or visit <www.guggenheim.org>.

The Arab American National Museum (AANM)’s “DIWAN: A Forum for the Arts” will be held March 26 to 29 at the AANM, 13624 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, MI 48126. For more information, or to register, call (313) 582-2266 or visit <http://www.arabamericanmuseum.org/diwan>.

An International Day of Action Promoting the Use of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to pressure Israel will be held on the Palestinian Land Day, March 30, in communities around the world. The date was agreed upon at the 2009 World Social Forum in Brazil and is part of its Global Week of Action against the Crises and War. For more information, visit <www.bdsmovement.net>.

Villanova University’s Center for Arab and Islamic Studies will host an international conference entitled “Mirror Images: Challenges for Arab and Islamic Studies,” April 2 to 4. For more information call (610) 519-4640 or visit <www.villanova.edu/artsci/arabislamic/>.

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California at Berkeley Interdisciplinary Lecture Series will include lectures on “The New Administration and the Challenge of Iran” by Prof. Juan Cole, April 16; “Political Da’wa: Understanding the Electoral and Parliamentary Participation of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood” by Prof. Samer Shehata,  April 23; and “The Abbasid and Byzantine Courts: Sources of Comparative Institutional Models” by Prof. Nadia El Cheikh, April 30. For more information, call (510) 642-8208 or visit <www.ias.berkeley/cmes>.

The Arab American Institute Foundation’s 11th Annual Kahlil Gibran “Spirit of Humanity” Awards Gala will be held April 23 at the JW Marriot Hotel, 1331 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20004. For more information, or for tickets, call (202) 429-9210 or visit <www.aaiusa.org>.

Announcements

The deadline to submit entries to the 13th Annual Arab Film Festival (AFF) is April 15. Submissions should be sent to the Arab Film Festival Submissions Department, 300 Brannan St., Suite 508, San Francisco, CA 94107. The festival will be held in October. For more information, and submission guidelines, call (415) 564-1100 or visit <www.aff.org>.

The deadline to submit entries to the 2nd Annual Toronto Palestine Film Festival (TPFF) is April 30. Submissions should be sent to the TPFF Selection Committee, 102A-1075 Bay St., Suite 148, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2B2, Canada. The festival will take place Sept. 26 to Oct. 2. For more information, and submission guidelines, call (905) 270-3628 or visit <www.tpff.ca>.

New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine has created a 25-member Arab-American Heritage Commission to advise the state, and decreed that April be Arab Heritage Month in New Jersey. For more information call Commissioner Aref Assaf at (973) 960-2673 or visit <www.aafusa.org>.

Obituaries

Mansour Rahbani, 83, died Jan. 13 at the Hôtel-Dieu de France hospital in Beirut, Lebanon of pneumonia. Born in a northern suburb of Beirut to a Greek Orthodox family, Mansour and his younger brother Assi were first instructed in music by Father Paul el-Achkar. The two later formed the Rahbani Brothers and revolutionized Lebanese and Arab music and theater. The brothers were perhaps most well-known through their compositions for Lebanese singer Fairouz, who was married to Assi. While Fairouz parted ways with the Rahbani brothers in 1979 to work with her son Ziyad Rahbani, and Assi died in 1986, Mansour continued to work until his death. His most recent play, “The Return of the Phoenix,” opened last summer in Lebanon.

Al-Tayyib Muhammad Salih, 80, died Feb. 17 in London of complications from a kidney condition. Considered one of the most important Arabic writers in the 20th century, Salih grew up on the banks of the Nile River in the village of Karmakol, near Al-Dabba, Marawi district, Northern Province, Sudan. At the age of 10, he left home to study at the Wadi Sayyidina School in Omdurman, then advanced to Gordon Memorial College (later Khartoum University), where he studied agriculture sciences. He left Khartoum in 1952 to study economics and political science at the University of London. After graduation, Salih taught in Sudan for a short time, before returning to London to work as a script writer and broadcaster for the BBC Arabic Service, eventually becoming head of drama. His career would also include positions as director general of Qatar’s Ministry of Information, and various posts with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.
    Salih’s first novel, Mawsim al-Hijra ila al-Shamal (“Season of Migration to the North,” 1967), has since been translated into more than 30 languages. His writing career began as a hobby with Hafnat Tamr (“A Handful of Dates”) in 1957, but was encouraged by his friend Tawfiq Sayigh, editor of the Beirut Arabic literary journal Hiwar, who began publishing Salih’s short stories in 1964. Between 1964 and 1966, Hiwar published a number of short stories, including Nakhla ‘ala’l-Jadwal (“A Date Palm by the Stream”), Daumat Wad Hamid (“The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid”), and part of the novella Urs al Zayn (“The Wedding of Zein”). A 1976 cinematic adaptation of “The Wedding of Zein” by Kuwaiti filmmaker Khalid Siddiq was honored at Cannes. Though Salih’s career was defined by the success of Season of Migration to the North, he continued writing literature into the 1970s with Daw al-Bayt (“The Light from the House,” 1971) and Maryud (1977), two works that made a novella titled Bandar Shah, as well as Al-Rajul al Qubrosi (“The Cypriot Man,” 1978). He also wrote a weekly column for Al-Majalla magazine. Salih is survived by his wife, Julia Maclean, a Scottish national whom he married in 1965, and three daughters, Zainab, Sara and Samira.

—Compiled by Matt Horton
Vol. XXVIII, #2 (March 2009)
Page 70

Upcoming Events

A SOLO exhibition of artist Emily Jacir’s work will be on view Feb. 6 through April 15 at the Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10128-0173. The Palestinian artist was selected to receive the prestigeous Hugo Boss Prize 2008 for significant achievement in contemporary art, which is administered by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, by an international jury of museum curators and directors. For more information, call (212) 423-3500 or visit <www.guggenheim.org>.

The 5th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week will be held March 1 to 8 in cities around the world. For more information, visit <www.apartheidweek.org>.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)-Chicago Chapter Annual Banquet will be held March 7. For more information call (312) 212-1520 or visit <www.cairchicago.org>.

Announcements

The deadline for submissions to the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights 3rd Annual Al-Awda Awards competition is March 16. Awards will be given for Best Children’s Story, Best Nakba Commemoration Poster, Best Research Essay, Best Journalistically Written Article, and Best Photograph by a Photographer under 18. Awards will be presented at the Al-Awda Award Festival in early May. For more information, or to enter, call +971-2-277-7086 or visit <www.badil.org/awda-award/>.

Application deadline for a 2009 Jack G. Shaheen Mass Communications Scholarship is April 1. The scholarship provides $1,000 for Arab-American students who excel in Media Studies and is awarded at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s (ADC) annual convention. For more information call ADC at (202) 244-2990 or visit <www.adc.org>.

Obituaries

Elizabeth Janet “BJ” Warnock Fernea, 81, died Dec. 2 at her daughter’s home in La Cañada, CA. After receiving her B.A. from Reed College in 1949, she pursued graduate work at Mount Holyoke College in MA, where she met her husband, Robert A. Fernea. She also worked and studied at the University of Chicago, where Robert was a doctoral student in anthropology. Fernea studied Arabic briefly at Georgetown University before traveling to El Nahra, a village in Iraq, where Robert conducted doctoral field work from 1955 to 1958. The experience prompted her to write Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village (available from the AET Book Club). The Ferneas lived in Cairo, where Robert taught at the American University in Cairo from 1959 to 1966, then in Austin, TX, where he became director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas, and where BJ Fernea became a senior lecturer in 1975. She served as chair of the Women’s Studies Program from 1983, as president of the Middle East Studies Association in 1985 and 1986, and was promoted to full professor in 1990. She received an honorary doctorate from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in 1994, and retired from teaching in 1999.
    Fernea authored six other books, including A View of the Nile: The Story of an American Family in Egypt (1970), A Street in Marrakech (1976), Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak (1977), The Struggle for Peace: Israelis and Palestinians (1992), and In Search of Islamic Feminism: One Woman’s Global Journey (1998, available from the AET Book Club). With her husband, she co-authored The Arab World: Personal Encounters (1985), Nubian Ethnographies (1990) and Remembering Childhood in the Middle East: Memoirs from a Century of Change (2002). She edited, introduced or translated many more books, including translation for Sahar Khalife’s Wild Thorns (1995, available from the AET Book Club).
    Also an accomplished filmmaker, Fernea earned two National Endowment for the Humanities grants and produced films including “Some Women of Marrakech” (1976), “Saints and Spirits” (1979), “A Veiled Revolution: Women and Religion in Egypt” (1983), “The Struggle for Peace: Israelis and Palestinians” (1992), “The Road to Peace: Israelis and Palestinians” (1995) and “Living with the Past: Historic Cairo” (2001). She is survived by her husband, of San Diego,  three children, and eight grandchildren.

Ibrahim Ibrahim, 75, died Nov. 30 of cancer at his home in Washington, DC. Born in Zeita, a village in the Tulkarm district of northern Palestine, he studied in Jerusalem and taught Palestinian refugee children during and after their expulsion from their homes in 1948. He received his M.A. in political science and Islamic studies from Germany’s University of Heidelberg in 1964, and earned a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern history and political science from Oxford University in 1967. He taught in England for a year, then moved to Lebanon, where he was an assistant professor at the American University in Beirut. In 1972 he left academia to become a government advisor in the recently formed United Arab Emirates. He also worked as a business executive there, before returning to academia as a research professor at Georgetown University in 1979. Ibrahim served as director of Georgetown’s prestigious Center for Contemporary Studies from 1990 to 1993 before retiring in 1994. Fluent in Arabic, English and German, he is the author of numerous articles and books, including The Gulf Crisis: Background and Consequences (1992, available from the AET Book Club). Ibrahim is survived by his wife, Mary C. McDavid of Washington, two brothers and two sisters.

Former Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos, 74, died Dec. 12 in Nicosia, Cyprus of lung cancer. A British-trained lawyer and leader in the Greek Cypriot guerrilla group EOKA (National Organization of Cypriot Struggle), in 1960, at age 26, when Cyprus was liberated from British colonial rule, he became the country’s youngest cabinet minister. He served as a chief negotiator in talks with Turkish Cypriots following Turkey’s 1974 invasion and was responsible for the 1977 vision of a federated Cyprus, forming the basis of subsequent peace talks. After serving in parliament, Papadopoulos was elected leader of the Democratic Party in 2000 and became Cyprus’ fifth president in 2003. In his five years in office, he oversaw Cyprus’ entry to the European Union. He was defeated in the 2008 presidential election by Dimitris Christofias of the Progressive Party of Working People. Papadopoulos is survived by his wife and four children.

Jawhar “Joe” Badran, 50, died Dec. 29 of a heart attack at his South Palm Beach, FL home. The Palestinian American was co-chair of the Jewish Arab Dialogue Association (JADA) in South Florida and an activist for human rights and civil liberties. Because he supported Dr. Sami Al-Arian against persecution by hate groups and government prosecutors in South Florida, Badran himself became the target of militant Zionists—among them Joe Kaufman, chairman of Americans Against Hate, alleged to be linked with the Kahane Chai movement, a group so violent in its attacks on behalf of Zionism that it is considered a terrorist organization by both the U.S. and Israel. Kaufman had recently sought Badran’s removal from the Broward County School Board Diversity Committee, charging that Badran supported terrorism. On the day of his death Badran gave an interview to the Palm Beach Post criticizing Israel’s assault on Gaza and its democratically elected Hamas government. Friends and relatives believe that the stress caused to Badran by the Israeli assault may have contributed to his death. He is survived by his parents and four sisters, including Linda Barghouthi of Charlotte, NC.

Reviewed by Matt Horton

Vol. XXVIII, #2 (March 2009)
Page 64
Books

breaking poems
By Suheir Hammad, Cypher Books, 2008, paperback, 63 pp. List: $12; AET: $9.

PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN poet Suheir Hammad is in a class of her own. The first Palestinian on Broadway, she received a Tony Award for her performance in “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam,” and won a Peabody Award for the HBO series of the same name. She stars as Soraya in Annemarie Jacir’s film “Salt of This Sea,” Palestine’s entry in this year’s Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film category. Hammad is also an accomplished playwright, as evidenced by “Blood Trinity” (2002) and “ReOrientalism” (2003). Used copies of her debut collection of poems, Born Palestinian, Born Black, when available, sell for hundreds of dollars. breaking poems, her fourth collection, demonstrates Hammad’s maturation as a poet and captures the Zeitgeist of this moment in the Palestinians’ 60-plus-year Nakba at the hands of Zionism—a relentless attempt to eradicate an entire people which continues to this day.

On a technical level, breaking poems represents new heights in Hammad’s sparse style. As the title suggests, the poems in this collection read like messages from the front lines—heavy, measured, parsed, rationed—boiled down to essential information and elemental emotion forged by the raging fury of a battle for survival. The style suits Hammad because it accomplishes what many spoken-word poets fail to achieve: a seamless transition from the energy and cadence of live performance to the printed page. Her words, carefully considered and organized, transcend two-dimensional black and white print to encompass voice, beat, image and visceral emotion.

While her previous collections read like galleries of poetic masterpieces, breaking poems is perhaps Hammad’s first conceptualized poetic narrative. Her character in this novella is a witness to unfolding physical and psychological terror. Like the assassinated Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali’s iconic Handala, Hammad’s character in breaking poems is both a victim and a witness to this terror. And, like Handala, her character is the personification of sumoud (steadfastness), clinging to tatters of humanity in a purgatory between hope and disillusion. She engages the scene, but also hovers above it, challenging the contradictions of appearance and reality. Exploring the relationship between mind, body, and soul, she deftly portrays the out-of-body experience of living through war.

Hammad also takes significant innovative risk through the infusion of transliterated Arabic into already densely referenced work. For those who understand the references and are familiar with the vocabulary, Hammad gives voice to unspoken words, feelings, and identities, embodying an Arab world on life support. Her words—at times almost unbearably heavy, intolerably familiar, unspeakably truthful—are glittering shards of a shattered world. As her character descends into madness, lucid verse is distilled to clouds of words the reader is left to decipher.

Skillfully illuminating the emotional and psychological consequences of this historic nadir of the Palestinian national movement, breaking poems is an intimate and gut-wrenching S.O.S. that seeks to heal through description—and awake numb survivors to fight anew.

Matt Horton is director of the AET Book Club.

—Compiled by Matt Horton
Vol. XXVIII, #1 (January/February 2009)
Page 70

Upcoming Events

Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture is partnering with the Kimmel Center to present Simon Shaheen in Concert Feb. 1 at 260 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102. For more information, call (267) 809-3668 or visit <www.albustanseeds.org>.

Interfaith Peace-Builders and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation will host a Grassroots Advocacy Training & Lobby Day Feb. 1 and 2 in Washington, DC. For more information, call (202) 244-0821 or visit <http://ifpbdel.org>.

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University will host a conference on “The Iranian Revolution: Thirty Years,” Feb. 7 and 8 at Traeys Hall Douglass Student Center, 100 George St., New Brunswick, NJ 08901. For more information, call (732) 445-8444 or visit <http://mideast.rutgers.edu>.

Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America is sponsoring a “Friendship Tour of the Holy Land,” visiting Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank, with transit through Syria, Feb. 15 to March 2. For more information visit <www.bpfna.org> or write tour leader Barbara Taft at <beejayssite@yahoo.com>.

The World Affairs Councils of America’s Annual National Conference, entitled “The Global Economy: A World of Change, A World of Challenge,” will be held Feb. 18 to 21 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. For more information, or to register, call (202) 833-4557 or visit <www.worldaffairscouncils.org>.

Deadlines

The deadline is March 16 for submissions to the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights 3rd Annual Al-Awda Awards competition. Awards will be given for Best Children’s Story, Best Nakba Commemoration Poster, Best Research Essay, Best Journalistically Written Article, and Best Photograph by a Photographer under 18. Awards will be presented at the Al-Awda Award Festival in early May. For more information, or to enter, call +971-2-277-7086 or visit <www.badil.org/awda-award/>.

The deadline is April 1 to apply for a 2009 Jack G. Shaheen Mass Communications Scholarship. The scholarship, which provides $1,000 for Arab-American students who excel in Media Studies, is awarded at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s (ADC) annual convention. For application details or more information call the ADC at (202) 244-2990 or visit <www.adc.org>.

Reviewed by Matt Horton

Vol. XXVII, #9 (December 2008)
Page 72
Books

Israel’s Vicious Circle: Ten Years of Writing on Israel and Palestine
By Uri Avnery and Sara Powell (ed.)., Pluto Press, 2008, hardcover, 230 pp. List: $29.95; AET: $20.

URI AVNERY, the octogenarian lion of the Israeli left, is a mentor and teacher to today’s peace movement whose life has been lived on the forefront of Israeli relations with Palestinians dedicated to peace. In this 60th anniversary of the Nakba, he represents the existence of a Jewish critique of Zionism in historic Palestine that has both preceeded and survived those six decades.

Above all, Avnery is an activist—grassroots, efficient and action-oriented. His writing exudes urgency, provokes debate, seeks doorways in the darkness. As the situation in the region has deteriorated over the past decade, this collection of his recent writings reads with more urgency. His introduction is emblematic of his personality and style: rather than being a flowery narrative or academic treatise, it is succinct, abrupt, courageous—a 101-point outline interpreting the conflict that logically leads to a practical plan for the development of a new Israeli peace movement, the basic principles it should employ, and the elements of a meaningful peace agreement.

In the view of the Israeli peace camp, the Palestinian national movement and the global anti-Zionist movement—where the tide has significantly shifted toward a one-state solution—Avnery’s most controversial position is his uncompromising advocacy of a two-state solution. The controversy has been mostly rhetorical, however, with the exception perhaps of his opposition to investing in a global Boycott and Divestment strategy. In her foreword, editor (and former AET Book Club director) Sara Powell guides the reader through this controversy. She demonstrates that Avnery is an Israeli anti-racist who advances a Jewish nationalism, an Israeli identity, that is not predicated on notions of supremacy. “Is this possible?” one may ask. Powell illuminates this fascinating Israeli anti-Zionist identity, pointing out that while Avnery believes, and argues forcefully, that two states are the only practical solution, the state of Israel he envisions is neither Zionist, exclusive, nor European. Rather, it would be part of the region, working in close collaboration with its neighbors on an equal footing through a “Semitic” alliance.

Whether one agrees or disagrees—or does not yet have an opinion—Israel’s Vicious Circle is a must read. Avnery is a political and intellectual force to be reckoned with. His demeanor and commitment elicit respect, and his lifetime of experience is something from which we all can learn. The articles contained in this book are the result of a real-time engagement in the issues of the past decade, and constitute a rallying cry from Israel’s most notorious and indefatigable peace activist.

It is hard not to end up agreeing with, or at least understanding, much of his analysis. Even those who don’t completely agree with Avnery, particularly on his greater vision, cannot but be grateful that his life and work have made us think and look for ways to act—something he himself has been doing as a voice in the wilderness for more than 60 years.

Matt Horton is director of the AET Book Club.