Yehudit Hendel’s “Small Change,” a harrowing tale of familial disintegration and the impact one generation can have on succeeding ones, presents pictures of mental disturbance so gripping that to find a grain of reality among all of the hallucinatory images might seem a daunting task. However, to read this work simply as a story of…
Tag: Israel
Small Change by Yehudit Hendel – Summary
“Small Change” is told alternately through the voice of a female narrator and the voice of the main character, Rutchen. Rutchen relates what happened to her in a Swiss jail and tells about the troubled relationship she had with her father, who is dead at the time she tells her tale. The story is not…
How are radical transformations in perception and practice of homosexuality impacting Middle East society?
Introduction: Each of the four articles in question discusses an aspect of homosexuality in the Middle East. Despite the region being largely Islamic, with its attendant conservative sexual codes, queer sexuality is being expressed in unprecedented ways. Israel, Iran, Morocco and Lebanon are the focus of the four articles. Each of these countries has had…
Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel By William G. Dever
The book ‘Did God Have a Wife?’ was written by Syro-Palestinian archaeologist William G. Dever and published in the year 2005. This is a fascinating piece of scholarship that delves into the evolution of early religious ideas and practices in Ancient Israel. Given the importance of Israel (and the greater Middle East) to the understanding…
On Orientalism featuring Edward Said
Orientalism, a concept coined by the renowned American intellectual Edward Said has attracted praise and controversy in equal measure. While remaining Said’s definitive scholarly work, its thesis is a condensation of themes found in his other works such as The Question of Palestine and Covering Islam. To be concise, Orientalism can be defined as the…
Overview of Orientalism by Edward Said
Orientalism as a geo-political and sociological concept has attracted much controversy. It remains author Edward Said’s definitive work, alongside other titles such a The Question of Palestine and Covering Islam. Orientalism as a scholarly work is the combined study and analysis of Oriental “philology, linguistics, ethnography, and the interpretation of culture through the discovery, recovery,…
A brief review of O. Yiftachel’s ‘The Ethnocratic Regime: The Politics of Seizing Contested Territory’
The reading titled ‘The Ethnocratic Regime: The Politics of Seizing Contested Territory’, written by O. Yiftachel, continues on the theme of secession and focuses on its political aspects. There are three core arguments forwarded by the author. These include arguments supporting “the existence of an ethnocratic regime as a distinct identifiable type and the existence…
The Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt were justifiably denounced by most of the Arab states and the Palestinians
The official signing of Camp David Accords took place in Washington D.C. in the March of 1979, where President Jimmy Carter played the role of the mediator. The accords were signed between Israel and Egypt, effectively handing over the contentious region of Sinai to Egypt, causing indignation to Palestinians and Arabs who felt their religious…
‘United States Foreign Policy from 1945- 1991 was overwhelmingly concerned with USSR’. Explain.
Yes, the foreign policy of the United States has been predominantly concerned with the balance of power with USSR from 1945 to 1991. The rest of this essay will present facts and arguments in support of this assertion. Right through its history, America has not hesitated to use force under the pretexts of principles, sovereignty…
The Pentateuch: An Overview
The Pentateuch is an important historical and legal document in the Christian tradition. They essentially depict the lives of the “Chosen People”, right from the origins up till the demise of Moses. In doing so, these sacred scriptures inform the followers of Christian faith about the rules and laws governing the lives of Israelites during…