O JERUSALEM centers around an American State Department official who becomes entangled in Middle Eastern politics before and after September 11, 2001. Along the way, the protagonist encounters a Palestinian woman from his past. "It's true that O JERUSALEM, an exhilarating new play by A R Gurney ... seems especially timely because of its subject matter. After all, it touches on many of the issues now preoccupying people around the world: the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East, American foreign policy, terrorism ... Gurney's play manages to reach beyond its topical premise to pack a big, heartbreaking wallop. This is not a story about anything so cold as politics. Above all, it's about a man struggling to balance his ideals and personal relationships against a high-pressure career ... Gurney works with a wider geographic and cultural lens than usual. His previous plays have dealt mostly with domestic turmoil among white, upper-class Protestants; here, although the conflicts are still personal, they have global repercussions. And one of the main characters is decidedly nonwhite: Amira, a Palestinian activist ... Gurney's crackling dialogue. Each scene pulses with ... it has a scattershot energy and an ear for emotionally charged situations that make it totally engrossing. When a play has those assets, it doesn't need current events to be relevant." -Justin Glanville, The Associated Press "Even when he's angry and exasperated, A R Gurney holds on to a respectful air of apology. This most courteous of contemporary playwrights, known for his wry chronicles of upper-crust Protestant mores, has now focused on a fiery subject far from the country clubs of New England. The author of THE COCKTAIL HOUR and THE DINING ROOM has set up camp in Israel and Palestine. And he is the first to admit that, like many a Western diplomat before him, he finds himself lost and bewildered there ... there is something deeply touching in the urgency behind it ... Like the main figures in Mr Gurney's FAR EAST and MIDDLE AGES, Hartwell is haunted by a youthful affair with a woman of another culture. She is in this instance a Christian Palestinian named Amira ... One of the characters from the future in O JERUSALEM wonders if the title is 'a prayer or a sigh.' This exquisite, wistful observation reflects the troubled gaze through which Mr Gurney, like so many Americans, sees a distant land that seems to keep moving closer to home." -Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Updated through the first term of President George W. Bush, this edition analyses how each US president since Lyndon Johnson has dealt with the complex challenge of Arab-Israeli peacemaking.
Gordon to Epstein , 17 June 1940 , and Epstein to Gordon , 17 July 1940 , both in CZA , S25 / 4549 ( Heb . ) . 60. Black , “ Zionism and the Arabs , ” p . 278 . 61. Sasson contracted with one M.N. in Lebanon for the publication of 75 ...
McMahon ( 1862-1949 ) , British High Commissioner in Cairo , negotiated with Sharif Hussein of Mecca . He had approached the High Commissioner in July 1915 , offering Arab aid against Turkey if Britain , in return , would pledge support ...
In response to a surprise incursion by Hezbollah combatants into northern Israel and their abduction of two Israeli soldiers, Israel launched a campaign that included the most complex air offensive to have taken place in the history of the ...
A vivid, intellectual journey through the works of the renowned writer
Anything written today concerning the Jewish nation is significant. But when a book appears from the pen of a scholar such as Dr. Charles L. Feinberg, it becomes significant indeed. This book will stir much thought on the part of readers.
The responsibility for co - ordinating the efforts to advance the peace process fell to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State , Richard Murphy . He was trying to narrow the gap between what Peres could deliver and what Hussein could ...
The Case for Moral Clarity: Israel, Hamas and Gaza
Initiating. peres in not only a politician for the late twentieth century; he is Cognizant of his responsibility to those who came before and Thos who will follow.
Machomenos gia tēn eirēnē