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Immersed In Arab Culture
By Ellen McCarthy, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 20, 2009; WE23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/19/AR2009021900901.html

OC theater to stage controversial Gaza play
12:00 PM, February 18, 2009
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/02/anti-israel-pla.html

Workshop May Present Play Critical of Israel
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: February 17, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/theater/18chur.html?scp=7&sq=Israel&st=cse

Jewish engineer cleared of spying sues US government, says security claims denied him trial
By DAVID N. GOODMAN | Associated Press Writer
8:33 PM CST, February 19, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-spy-investigation,0,7209563.story

Jewish engineer cleared of spying sues US gov't
By DAVID N. GOODMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Last updated February 19, 2009 6:21 p.m. PT
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_spy_investigation.html

Jewish engineer cleared of spying sues US gov't
By DAVID N. GOODMAN, The Associated Press
Thursday, February 19, 2009; 9:21 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/19/AR2009021903091.html

Opinion: Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil
By JUDEA PEARL
Date: February 3, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123362422088941893.html

• New York Times: Courting Hitler, by Tom Segev (28 September 2008).
  This book review by Tom Segev criticizes the book for poor scholarship and groups it with other books that compromise the truth in order to support Zionism. The book exagerates the relationship between Hitler and Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Palestinian leader and grand mufti of Jerusalem.

• Christian Science Monitor: Book Reviews: A Map of Home, by Yvonne Zipp (25 September 2008).
  First novel of growing up Palestinian in the diaspora.

• Washington Post: Q& A: Dishing Up Foreign Policy With 'Evil' on the Table, by Bonnie S. Benwick (27 August 2008).
  This article reviews a cookbook that also provides social commentary of the countries where the dishes presented originate. Interesting to note - Israel is excluded because "Israel has pursued nukes beyond the scope of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and, like India and Pakistan, is a hideous violator of human rights" whereas a Palestinian dish is included to comment on how Israelis often present Arab dishes as Israeli dishes.

• Los Angeles Times: 'Zohan' a case of art imitating life, by Nathaniel Popper (8 June 2008).
  This article portrays the human side of being an oppressor. In this article there is discussion of the daily life of an actor/producer working with local people to develop a film about military life in Israel leading to life as a hairdresser in the United States - there is no clue about the terrible things that that military and its government is doing. It raises the question - how can such nice people be involved in or support such terrible things. We can ask the same questions of the nice, law-abiding German people who supported Hitler, and the nice, law-abiding Serb people who supported Milosevic, and the nice, law-abiding Sudanese people who support their leadership who are perpetuating the genocide next door in Darfur. The answer is in the complex psychology and sociology of racism. It is a human mystery that demands a solution.

• Boston Globe: With a snip here and a smack there, Adam Sandler amusingly tackles terrorism in 'Zohan', by Wesley Morris (6 June 2008).
  This movie review praises Sandler for his courage in tackling a film about this extremely controversial subject, and praises him for his message - that "the ... villains aren't the Israelis or the Palestinians. They're the rednecks and white-collar titans desperately colluding to defame and displace outsiders.". In the review he also criticizes some of the cinematic qualities of the film. But once again, this humanist view of the conflict completely misses the point that Israel continues to actually commit crimes in violation of international law - which is the meat of the conflict, and the source that leads to immense suffering on both sides, but especially for the Palestinian people.

• Chicago Tribune: ‘You Don’t Mess With the Zohan’ - Adam Sandler back to play in another topical sandbox, by Michael Phillips (6 June 2008).
  This review criticizes the film-making of the film, but declares "politically it's sort of interesting", seeing the film as suggesting that the conflict might be solved with "Israeli-Arab solidarity as the warring factions unite against the real enemy. Who is the real enemy? American greed" in this case, or by extension against other common enemies elsewhere. What the review and the film miss is that the conflict with the Palestinian people is rooted in Israel continuing to commit crimes against the Palestinians in an intentional, systematic, strategic way, and then covering that up with films like this that pretend it is only a conflict of cultures or something non-concrete like that.

• Los Angeles Times: 'You Don't Mess With the Zohan'- Adam Sandler's comedy is both smarter and dumber than you might expect., by Mark Olsen (6 June 2008).
  This review commends the film for "pok(ing) fun at the Israeli characters as readily and zestily as the Arabs... the Israelis are disco-loving, money-haggling, hummus-eating horndogs, while the Arabs are largely just put upon that everyone else thinks they are terrorists... except for the Arabs who actually are terrorists.", and thus the message is "why can't we all just get along" and "everybody can bond over enmity toward greedy real estate developers" and "predictably of the peace-and-brotherhood variety"

• Miami Herald: You Don't Mess With the Zohan - He's still Sandler, only with more style, by Rene Rodriguez (6 June 2008).
  This review sees the film's message as "anti-war, pro-peace and harmony messages" with "can't-we-all-get-along sermons" having "taught the neighborhood the value of peaceful cohabitation".

• New York Times: Watch Out, He’s Packing a Blow-Dryer, by A.O. Scott (6 June 2008).
  This movie review says that Adam Sandler's film "taps into deeper and more durable sources of American global power in its quest for a plausible end to hostilities... ancient grievances and festering hatreds are no match for the forces of sex, money, celebrity and exuberant, unapologetic stupidity", and that Israel has fulfilled Theodore Herzl's dream by showing "a vision of the Jewish state on its 60th birthday that emphasizes lithe young bodies frolicking, flirting and playing Hacky Sack on the beach... if you will it, it is no dream". And thus its effort at even-handedness misses the reality of disproportionality including the fact that the problem is the Israeli govt violating laws, but to this reviewer such "political strife is a trivial distraction from the things that really matter".

• Philadelphia Inquirer: Don't mess with Adam Sandler, by Angela Dawson (6 June 2008).
  Describing the origin of the film from when "Adam Sandler was enthralled with stories about Israel and the heroics of its commandos in defending the tiny nation from its many enemies" does not question why Israel would be surrounded by so many enemies, and thus in this film seeks "to be equally offensive to both sides", Sandler says about his film, ""We are saying, wouldn't life be so much easier if we were just hanging out and getting along?" he says. "It's not a brand new theory, but that's what it gets down to". Of course the film and its reviewers continue to completely miss the point that Israel is strategically and systematically continuing to commit crimes against the Palestinian people, and thus this film and its reviewers, continue to unintentionally help cover that point up by only focusing on the human aspects of the conflict.

• Philadelphia Inquirer: 'Zohan's' silly, separate peace, by Carrie Rickey (6 June 2008).
  This film illustrates the point-of-view which "finds that immigrant Arabs and Jews are more alike than not. In the Middle East, Arab and Jew are adversaries. In America, they share a common enemy: racists" and that "Jews and Arabs both are cunning merchants with specialized niches, respectively electronics stores and newsstands" as the film "exploits ethnic stereotypes - dim Arab bombmakers who don't know the difference between nitroglycerine and Neosporin, wily Jewish salesmen who bait and switch their customers". Thus it portrays the conflict between the Palestinian people and Israeli government as merely a clash of cultures and personalities and completely misses sthe fact that the Israeli government is committing crimes against the Palestinians in a strategic, systematic way, and then encouraging covering it up with stuff like this film.

• Washington Post: How Low Will Adam Sandler Go? Nasty Stereotypes Drive 'Zohan's' Vacuous Plot, by Stephen Hunter (6 June 2008).
  This movie review simplifies Sandler's film to a simple presentation of stereotypes such as "Arabs are childish, violent, stupid; Israelis are aggressive, mendacious, oversexed; white Americans are gun-crazed, violent rednecks or smarmy aristocratic businessmen/gangsters; post-menopausal women are riven with lust. And all this hatethought is expressed in support of a political argument that's no more sophisticated than 'Can't we just all get along?'".

• Los Angeles Times: With 'Zohan,' Robert Smigel will mess with you, by Chris Lee (5 June 2008).
  This film only refers to the Middle East conflict as "his (Zohan's) country's war on terror", but "made it a point to avoid dehumanizing Zohan's Palestinian nemeses", and emphasizes that "I didn't want to take one side or the other, or for the movie to have an answer to the Middle East crisis... if there is a message, it's that hate is an institutional thing that's learned".

• Miami Herald: MOVIE REVIEW: 'You Don't Mess With the Zohan', by Donald Munro (5 June 2008).
  This review commends the film for having "no generic stock characters vaguely labeled Middle Eastern, say, but without specific ethnic labels... in this case, Sandler opts for explicit jabs that put us squarely in the middle of the Israeli-Palestinian experience, right down to jokes about Hezbollah, Ramadan, the Gaza Strip and the Six-Day War", and shows a "Manhattan neighborhood a world in which immigrant Jews and Palestinians have forged an uneasy truce on opposite sides of a street", which is also revolutionary.

• Philadelphia Inquirer: 'Zohan': The knee-slapping side of terrorism, by Gary Thompson (5 June 2008).
  This film review sees the conflict as the "the perpetual conflict in the Middle East" and finds in the film "a parody of how real, poorly trained, spontaneously formed sympathy cells in Europe have tended to operate", but ultimately the film "make(s) a plea for an America that welcomes all, on the condition that they check their hatreds at the door". Of course the film completely misses the point that Israel is strategically and systematically committing crimes against the Palestinian people, and thus this film, and its reviewers are unintentionally helping cover that up by only focusing on the human aspects of the conflict.

• New York Times: Israelis and Arabs Walk Into a Film ... , by Dave Itzkoff (25 May 2008).
  This review reduces the conflict to "the fact that people are so mad at each other" caught in an "intractable cycle of violence in the Middle East", and thus that the film's " modest moral that Israelis and Arabs are more alike than dissimilar". and one Arab actor in the film says that "by offering Arab or Muslim characters that are in any way divergent from the usual Hollywood stereotypes, “Zohan” is a step in the right direction".

• New York Times: Arts, Briefly: Israel Below the Surface, compiled by Steven McElroy (5 October 2008).
  Quote - "The festival is dedicated to showcasing the lives of Arab citizens of Israel, who make up about 20 percent of that nation’s population, and will include feature films, shorts, documentaries and special events, including a daylong program called “Building Bridges."".

• Chicago Tribune: Jewish site transcends borders, by Joel Greenberg (28 September 2008).
  Israel's Holocaust memorial sets up a website for Arabs to explain the holocaust. The article then quotes from a variety of responses, including many that they say they have increased understanding but still do not know why the Jews who have gone through such terrible things are now doing terrible things to the Palestinians.

• New York Times: Arts, Briefly: McCartney and Israel Make Peace, by Dave Itzkoff (26 September 2008).
  

• Chicago Tribune: Love, love him do? Some don't, by Ashraf Khalil (25 September 2008).
  This story describes the controversy over Paul McCartney doing a concert in Israel and then visiting holy sites in Bethlehem claiming he is bringing a message of peace.

• Los Angeles Times: Paul McCartney concert in Israel touches a nerve, by Ashraf Khalil (25 September 2008).
  

• Chicago Tribune: LETTER FROM NABATIYEH: Hezbollah exhibit touts slain operative's exploits, by Liz Sly (3 September 2008).
  

• Chicago Tribune Turkish soap opera's view of married life charms audience (27 August 2008),
  Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
  Washington Post:
  Soap opera shakes customs of Arab married life, (27 July 2008)
  both article-versions by Karin Laub and Dalia Nammari, Associated Press - the show is a modernizing influence throughout the Muslim world including in the occupied territories.
• Washington Post: Palestinians Turn Out to Lay Beloved Poet to Rest, by Linda Gradstein (14 August 2008).
  

• Washington Post: Mahmoud Darwish, 67; Palestinian Poet, by Nora Boustany (13 August 2008).
  

• Christian Science Monitor: Harry Potter causing trouble in Israel, by Kendra Nordin (11 August 2008).
  This article details conflicts with both Muslim and Jewish orthodoxy.

• Washington Post
  Kosher crises, scandals not new, Associated Press (11 August 2008) - this article describes the implementation of Jewish ethics in business.
• Miami Herald: Show aims to shatter stereotypes of Islam, by Andrew DeMillo (5 July 2008).
  This article describes an art exhibit by Arab and Muslim women from across the world. The aim of the exhibit is to break down stereotypes and to help non-Muslims connect to people in the Arab and Muslim worlds. The pieces include some pieces on the Arab-Israeli conflict from the Palestinian perspective.

• New York Times: A Poet's Palestine as a Metaphor, by Adam Shatz (22 December 2001).
  This article describes an in-depth interview with Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens, records charity song to raise money for Gaza children
By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer
12:20 PM CST, January 26, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-ap-ml-palestinians-yusuf-islam,0,1059490.story

The former Cat Stevens performs song for Gaza
By ARON HELLER, The Associated Press
Monday, January 26, 2009; 1:20 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601134.html

• Washington Post
  Jewish 'modesty patrols' sow fear in Israel, by Amy Teibel, Associated Press (4 October 2008).
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thousands cheer McCartney's Tel Aviv performance,
  Washington Post Paul McCartney performs for thousands in Tel Aviv,
  Chicago Tribune Paul McCartney performs 'Friendship First' concert in Tel Aviv for thousands of cheering fans,
  all 3 article-versions by Josef Federman, Associated Press (26 September 2008).
• Washington Post
  McCartney wows fans with historic Israel concert, by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Reuters (25 September 2008).
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
  Washington Post: McCartney in Bethlehem: I'm carrying peace message,
  Chicago Tribune Paul McCartney rejects criticism of Israel trip, visits Bethlehem, calls for peace,
  both article-versions by Bernat Armangue, Associated Press (24 September 2008).
• Washington Post
  Paul McCartney visits West Bank with peace message, Associated Press (24 September 2008).
• Washington Post
  Rekindled Beatlemania greets McCartney in Israel, by Ari Rabinovitch, Reuters (24 September 2008).
• Chicago Tribune Muslim group asks for probe of whether 'radical Islam' DVD is a front to help elect McCain,
  Washington Post Muslim group seeks probe of 'radical Islam' DVD,
  both article-versions by Eric Gorski, Associated Press (23 September 2008).
• Chicago Tribune: Turkish soap opera's view of married life charms audience, by Karin Laub and Dalia Nammar, Associated Press (3 September 2008).
• Washington Post
  Palestinians bury poet Darwish in emotional funeral, by Mohammed Assadi, Reuters (13 August 2008).
• Washington Post
  Easy-listening West Bank station goes off air, by Aron Heller, Associated Press (11 August 2008) - quote from article - "A West Bank radio station that sought to bring Israelis and Palestinians together to the tune of pop music has gone of the air because of a lack of funding... Owned by South African Jewish businessman Issy Kirsh, RAM-FM was modeled after a South African station that provided a venue for reconciliation after apartheid. It attracted fans in both Israel and the Palestinian territories".
• Washington Post
  Palestinians plan big funeral for poet Darwish, by Mohammed Assadi, Reuters (10 August 2008).
• Washington Post
  Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish dead at 67, by Diaa Hadid, Associated Press (9 August 2008).
• Washington Post
  Israeli president posts peace song on Web site, by Mark Lavie, Associated Press (6 August 2008).
• Chicago Tribune
  Los Angeles Jews forge bond with Pentecostal Latinos to counter anti-Semitism, by Christina Hoag, Associated Press (31 July 2008).
• Washington Post
  Soap opera shakes customs of Arab married life, by Karin Laub and Dalia Nammari, Associated Press (27 July 2008).
• Washington Post
  Israeli newspaper publishes Obama's private prayer, by Aron Heller, Associated Press (25 July 2008). This article discusses the journalistic ethics that many said were violated by this action, as well as insult to the sacredness of the wall.
• Washington Post
  Festival spirit defies instability in Lebanon, by Alistair Lyon, Reuters (23 July 2008).
• Washington Post
  Hope, pain in film about Palestinian organ donor, by Rebecca Harrison, Reuters (14 July 2008).
• Philadelphia Inquirer,
  San Francisco Chronicle:
  Israelis flattered by `The Zohan' movie, by Aron Heller, Associated Press (24 June 2008).