An Englishman in Search for the Long Lost Levant
British journalist and author Michael Vatikiotis went to the Middle East in pursuit of his Levantine roots, and found forgotten stories about vanished communities
Lives Between The Lines: A Journey in Search of the Lost Levant, by Michael Vatikiotis, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2021, 368 pages
Haaretz, August 11, 2021
Michael Vatikiotis is a British journalist and author, and the son of P.J. Vatikiotis, an expert on the politics of the Arab world in the second half of the 20th century. Vatikiotis the father lectured at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, among other places, and wrote many books, the best known of which deal with the history of modern Egypt. He is also center of the story told by Vatikiotis the son about the role played by European and half-European communities – Greeks, Italians, Armenians and Jews – in Egypt, and Palestine too, during the century between the first half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
Theater and Politics in Oslo
Jewish Review of Books, June 13, 2017
by Itamar Rabinovich
In November 1995, the Dayton Agreement was signed, ending the war in Bosnia. This major achievement of American diplomacy was made possible by effective geopolitics and the diplomatic skills of America’s chief negotiator, the late Richard Holbrooke. It put a stop not only to armed conflict, but to civilian massacres and ethnic cleansing. Nonetheless, there is no award-winning Broadway show called Dayton, nor is there likely to be one. There is, however, Oslo.
New biography tries to answer the ‘What if?’ hovering over Yitzhak Rabin’s legacy
By Rabbi Jack Riemer/JNS.org
December 5, 2016
Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin embodied the qualities of his generation: toughness, gruffness and idealism.
Two Sons of the Levant: Fouad Ajami (1945–2014) and Patrick Seale (1930–2014)
Source: Bustan: The Middle East Book Review, 5 (2014), pp. 207-209
During the last few months, the world of Middle Eastern Studies lost two prominent experts on the region. It is difficult to imagine two individuals more different from one another than Fouad Ajami and Patrick Seale, but they had also much in common. Both were born in Lebanon and their intimate knowledge of the region and their attachment to its peoples derived from that original bond, whose impact remained powerful as their careers took off in the U.S. and Europe.
Review of Rashid Khalidi's Brokers of Deceit
Rashid Khalidi, Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East (Boston: Beacon Press, 2013), 167 pp. ISBN 978-080704475-9
Review of Bouthaina Shaaban's Damascus Diary
Bouthaina Shaaban, Damascus Diary: An Inside Account of Hafez al-Assad’s Peace Diplomacy, 1990-2000 (Boulder, CO and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2013), 245 pp. ISBN 978-1588268631
Review of Andrew Tabler's In the Lion Den
Andrew Tabler, In the Lion's Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle with Syria (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2011), 288 pp.
Review of Hadara Lazar's Out of Palestine & Shisha Yechidim
Hadara Lazar, Out of Palestine: The Making of Modern Israel (New York: Atlas and Co., 2011), 320 pp.
Hadara Lazar, Shisha Yechidim [Six Singular Individuals] (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2012), 256 pp. [Hebrew]