A View from the Eye of the Storm: Terror and Reason in the Middle East

by Haim Harari

Overview

In 2004, internationally known physicist Haim Harari was invited to address the advisory board of a major multinational corporation. In a short speech he offered a penetrating analysis of the components of terror, and presented a passionate call for a new era in the Middle East. The speech, entitled "A View from the Eye of the Storm," was not intended for publication, but when a copy was leaked and posted onto the Internet, it caused a worldwide sensation, eventually being translated into more than half a dozen languages. Now—as the modern era of Islamic terror continues to unfold—Harari reaches further, to offer this serious yet accessible survey of the landscape of Middle Eastern war and peace at this challenging crossroads in history.

Moving beyond the sterile discourse of foreign affairs journals, Harari encourages the world to view the Middle East through the eyes of a "proverbial taxi driver," a man on the street whose wisdom (and sense of humor) outstrips that of the experts. And, as he observes, to anyone familiar with the Middle East from a taxi driver's perspective, the "persistent ugly storm" engulfing the Arab world is far more than a territorial battle with Israel: It is an "undeclared World War III" that rages from Bali to Madrid, from Nairobi to New York, from Buenos Aires to Istanbul, and from Tunis to Moscow. The sad result is that much of the Arab world has become an "unprecedented breeding ground for cruel dictators, terror networks, fanaticism, incitement, suicide murders, and general decline." And unless the free nations of the world mobilize to stop it, Harari argues, this new world war will continue to cause bloodshed on all continents.

As a fifth-generation Israeli-born observer, Harari includes a thorough response to the conventional wisdom about Middle Eastern affairs, including a frank dissection of the media's lopsided portrait of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Drawing on his family's two centuries of life in the Middle East, he offers a compelling catalog of the steps necessary to reach a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians—steps, he writes, that are "inevitable—not because everybody accepts them today, but because all sides must accept them before peace can be achieved." And he urges the civilized world to combat terror by isolating its state sponsors, blocking its funding, and promoting education, women's equality, and human rights reform.

Eloquent in its simplicity, written with passion, humor, and the directness of a scientist who has spent a lifetime explaining his work to the general public, A View from the Eye of the Storm is that rare book with the power to change hearts and minds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061758386
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	12/15/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	252
File size:	593 KB

About the Author

Professor Haim Harari, a theoretical physicist, is the chair of the Davidson Institute of Science Education. He was the president of Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science from 1988 to 2001. In his career he has made major contributions to three different fields: particle physics research, science education, and science administration and policy. He lives in Israel.

Read an Excerpt

A View from the Eye of the Storm

Terror and Reason in the Middle East

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By Haim Harari

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Copyright © 2005 Haim Harari
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0060839112

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Chapter One

From Abraham Lincoln To the Internet

The first Internet line outside the United States linked the United States to Italy and Israel. Had it happened 130 years earlier, my great-grandmother could have sent e-mails from Jerusalem to Lincoln and Garibaldi.

My grandmother Sarah (same name as the biblical wife of Abraham) was born in Jerusalem in 1872, when Queen Victoria, Emperor Franz Josef, and Otto von Bismarck were in the news. My great-grandmother Yocheved (same name as the biblical mother of Moses) was also born in Jerusalem. She was eight years old when Abraham Lincoln became president. Her own mother was also born in Jerusalem at a time when California still belonged to Mexico and Garibaldi had not yet liberated Italy.

My four grandchildren, all of whom were born in Israel and live there today, are seventh-generation Israeli born. For seven generations we have lived here, in the eye of the storm. We have survived more wars and terror attacks than any other nation. But now we are informed by the former French ambassador to London that we are "a shitty little country" endangering the world; at the same time, we learn that the rulers of Iran want to replace our "shitty little country" with yet another Shiite country.

My mother, Dina (same name as the biblical daughter of Jacob), was eighty-two years old when Saddam Hussein sent his Scud missiles into the center of Tel Aviv in 1991. She lived in a fourth-floor apartment there, but did not go to a shelter and refused to put on her gas mask. "I survived World War I, the deportation of the Jews of Tel Aviv to Damascus, the first wave of Arab terror [or intifada] in 1921, the second one in 1929, the third in 1936 to 1939, World War II, the War of Independence and the Egyptian bombing of Tel Aviv in 1948, the 1956 Sinai War, the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and all the terror attacks in between," she said. "I am not going to get excited about Saddam."

As a scientist and educator, I travel frequently around the world, lecturing on topics of science, technology, and education, almost always avoiding discussions about the Middle East and the world around us. Why should I concentrate on painful issues when science is so exciting and education so rewarding? If you live in a constantly stormy area and you visit a calm resort, would you want to discuss the weather?

But in my travels I could not avoid detecting an incredible amount of ignorance regarding all matters related to our region of the world. I can understand disputes about opinions and views when the facts are known. I can even accept minor twists in describing facts; history is not an exact science. We also know about Rashomon: Different witnesses to the same event may tell different stories. But I cannot think of any other topic about which so much disinformation has been spread for so many years, by so many people, in so many places. An amazing number of educated and intelligent people have fallen victim to distortions, misconceptions, and pure unadulterated lies. And when you point out some simple undisputed facts, the response is always the same: "How come nobody told me?"

As long as the Cold War was dominating international politics, our own little corner of the world may have been a perennial trouble spot, but no one would even dream of blaming it for every evil under the sun. With the collapse of one superpower and the emerging threat of global terror, the large region from Morocco to Indonesia, or at least from Algeria to Pakistan, has become the principal theater in a very ugly drama. The Israeli-Arab conflict, while continuing to simmer and sometimes boil, is only a minor part of the scene, but that does not prevent many from blaming every piece of bad news, as usual, on Israel and the Jews.

Some people make such claims as a result of old-fashioned or newly crafted anti-Semitic attitudes. But most are the victims of a massive disinformation campaign. In addition to being fed a rich diet of lies, these people observe each new outrageous act of terror from a rather naive, sterile, and civilized point of view. It is noble to turn the other cheek, but not when you are facing someone who wants to kidnap you and cut off your head. To use civilized standards based on legal arguments when judging suicide murders or the use of children as human shields is an equally big mistake. It has been pointed out long ago that idealism increases in direct proportion to the distance from the danger, but the danger is now everywhere.

I have spent many years performing scientific research in the United States and quite a number of years in Europe. My wife is European and my non-Israeli friends are equally divided between Europe and the United States. I have my own list of what I like and dislike about the two sides of the Atlantic. Israel itself has many Middle Eastern features, but it also has strong influences from both Europe and America. In addition to loving my own country, I do love America and I do love Europe. If there were such a thing as a global passport, I would be proud to hold one in addition to my Israeli passport. All of these feelings color my view from the eye of the storm.

There is no reason that you should care about my political views. This book is not at all about them. But I want to live, and I want my children and grandchildren to live. I also want Israel to live, and I want everybody else in the Middle East to live in dignity -- unless they deliberately want to murder me. These wishes do not make me a fanatic, right-wing zealot ...

Continues...

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Excerpted from A View from the Eye of the Storm by Haim Harari Copyright © 2005 by Haim Harari. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

	Apologies	ix
	Foreword: The Scientist and the Taxi Driver	xi
Part I	The Raging Storm
1	From Abraham Lincoln to the Internet	3
2	Where Is the Storm?	11
3	MTA: Master's in Terror Administration	17
4	The Virgins Are Ready	23
5	A Ticking Bomb	29
6	Rewriting International Law	33
7	The Referee Is Biased	39
Part II	The Hesitant World
8	Trouble in Globania	47
9	Intellectual Property and Intellectual Poverty	53
10	There Goes the Neighborhood	57
11	The Non-Arab Crescent	65
12	Freedom Fries	71
13	Does the Sun Rise in the East	79
14	Right Is Wrong	87
15	Left Behind	91
16	Ignorance and Apathy	97
Part III	The Persistent Lies
17	The Superficial Village	105
18	Words Kill	113
19	Pictures Lie	121
20	The Truth, but Not the Whole Truth	129
21	Some Refugees Are More Equal than Others	137
22	Rewriting History	143
23	Life Near the End Zone	151
24	Fooling Most of the People, Most of the Time	159
	Intermezzo: "They"	165
Part IV	The Uncertain Future
25	They Mean What They Say	169
26	Why Don't You Choose Someone Else?	175
27	Milli-Globania in the Eye of the Storm	181
28	Collective Suicide	185
29	Everybody Knows the Solution	191
30	The Nuclear Stone Age	195
31	A Correct Diagnosis Is Half a Cure	201
32	The World According to My Grandmother	207
	Acknowledgments	213
	Index	215