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Book takes on Middle East
conflict
By
Michele Nagar
Mitzpeh Staff
Writer
With memories of
Sept. 11 looming large in the upcoming presidential election, it seems
fitting that the university’s First Year Book selection should discuss
America’s often-controversial role in the Middle East.
Shibley Telhami’s
The Stakes: America in the Middle East, given to every freshman,
is expected by some to increase political awareness before many students
take their first trip to the voting booth in November.
But others wonder
whether freshmen will find a book about the Middle East conflict worth
reading.
“I think most
freshmen should know about it,” said Hayim Lapin, the chairman of the
Jewish Studies Program. “As American citizens...we’ve got a large number
of troops in Iraq [and] major diplomatic commitments to the stability of
the Middle East. It’s something they should be interested in.”
Rabbi Ari Israel,
executive director of Maryland Hillel, called Middle Eastern affairs a
“hot topic,” but expressed doubts as to how many freshmen would
actually read The Stakes.
Telhami, the Anwar
Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the university, is more
optimistic.
“I am certain that
Maryland students would find the issues addressed in the book engaging,
not because of the quality of my own writing, but because these issues
are the issues of our day,” he said. “They are at the core of our
national discourse on how we define ourselves as Americans in relation
to the rest of the world.”
The
Stakes
attempts to objectively assess the history of American involvement in
the Persian Gulf, including U.S. oil policy and increasing anti-American
sentiment among Arabs. Although it is not the focus of the book, an
analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on the Arab
world is also presented.
“Given the
difficult and complex issues that the book addresses, certainly one does
not expect everyone to agree with its conclusions, but I would like to
think that I was fair in my analyses and put forth ideas for people to
contemplate deeply,” Telhami said.
While Rabbi Israel
credited Telhami for his “well-balanced book,” calling him a “moderate,
mainstreamed individual,” he did take issue with the professor’s
presentation of Israel’s presence in Jenin, as well as the negotiations
at Camp David.
Still, “[Telhami]
has spoken at Hillel, he has spoken at AIPAC, and he’s certainly well
regarded,” Israel said.
Lapin, while noting
it was clear to him where Telhami’s preferences lie, said The Stakes
is “guaranteed to satisfy nobody” because students on both ends of a
debate over the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will
begrudge Telhami for presenting the opposing view in such a rational,
fair light.
Debate is something
Telhami welcomes; he instructed University Honors Program students at a
pre-semester lecture to read his book with a critical eye and to not
accept everything in it at face value.
“The academy is a
place to debate important ideas, both political and intellectual... No
one has a monopoly on truth or on justice, and neither professors nor
students should impose their opinions on those difficult issues that we
all struggle with intellectually and in our own hearts,” Telhami said.
“It would be
certainly gratifying if, as a consequence of raising the issues that the
book raises, there would be animated and constructive debate on campus
among students and faculty,” he said.
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