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 History Proves Him Right
HARON: THE LIFE OF A LEADER Gilad Sharon’s voluminous tome is not just an intimate
biography of an illustrious father he loves dearly, but a
spectacular inside look at the military and diplomatic
history of Israel in recent years. With access to personal
papers and cabinet minutes, Gilad exposes the failures (and
triumphs) of such leaders as Shimon Peres who played
politics with the nation’s security (page 233) and Benyamin
Netanyahu who proved to be "subversive" and "a coward" (page
574).
For 13 months in 1980 Prime
Minister Menachem Begin and his cabinet pondered in secret
what to do about Iraq’s nuclear reactor, built by the French
the previous decade. With help from France and Italy, it was
capable of producing two small atomic bombs a year. Gilad’s
father, Ariel, Minister of Agriculture at the time, pressed
for immediate destruction of the reactor. Shimon Peres, of
the opposition Labor Party, cautioned against taking any
such action.
After Begin directed the air force
to take out Saddam Hussein’s nuclear capability in 1981,
predictably the whole world condemned him for it. The New
York Times called "Israel’s sneak attack…an act of
inexcusable and short-sighted aggression." After the 1991
Gulf War against Iraq aggression, former Secretary of State
James Baker admitted in 2005, "We were wrong and Israel was
right."
Gilad points out that when Jordan
controlled the West Bank, and Egypt the Gaza Strip, the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) never called for the
establishment of a Palestinian state. They engaged in terror
attacks, massacres of civilians in their home and on the
buses, and hijackings of airliners, all in the aim of
destroying the State of Israel and placing thre entire area
under Arab rule. It wasn’t till after the Six Day War in
1967, when Israel acquired these territories, that Arafat
and subsequent PLO leaders maintained that the "occupation
of the West Bank was the reason for the conflict."
(Harper, 626 pages,
$29.99,
Amazon.com Price: $18.98)
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 Whither The Middle East?
HE ARAB AWAKENING What’s in
store for America and how the transformation of the Middle
East will play out is the concern of 18 scholars of the
Saban Center at the Brookings Institution think tank.
Long subject to the whims of
despotic dictators and monarchs, the people of the Middle
East "are no longer willing to accept their misery" but have
at last found that "when they take action, they can change
their own circumstances."
Of course, danger lurks in every
enterprise. Iran, which has its own narrative, will try to
exploit the fall of pro-American rulers and fill the gaps to
its own advantage. Tehran’s restraint so far suggests it is
hedging its bets. How America responds to the vast changes
taking place is a formidable task for policy makers.
Among the distinguished
contributors to this study and analysis are Kenneth M.
Pollack, a former Persian Gulf military analyst at the CIA
and currently director of the Saban Center; Daniel L. Byman
of Georgetown University; Salman Shaikh, director of the
Brookings Doha Center; Bruce O. Riedel, professor at Johns
Hopkins and author of Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America and
the Future of the Global Jihad). (Brookings Institution
Press, softcover, 381 pages,
$26.95,
Amazon.com Price: $17.79)
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 Conversations With Actors
ETTING into the psyche of an
actor is not an easy task. Rose Eichenbaum succeeds
admirably with an open mind and probing questions and the
results,
The Actor Within: Intimate Conversations with
Great Actors, is a delightful book consisting of
interviews with 35 talented personalities that will keep
your interest from cover to cover.
How did you become an actor? For
Joe Mantegna (currently starring on TV in Criminal Minds),
it was a jolt of electricity that coursed through his body.
At an audition for West Side Story in high school in
Chicago, after he sang Maria, he was struck by thundering
applause.
"No one had ever applauded
anything I’d ever done in my entire life. It was like an
electric bolt going through my body. My God, it was a
revelation…this is where I’m supposed to be!"
Early on, Debra Winger (star of
TV’s In Treatment) had a premonition that she’d make
it. Her inner voice told her: "You can do it if you want it
badly enough." In the ‘80s she starred in three successive
movies, Urban Cowboy (1980), An Officer and
a Gentleman (1982) and Terms of Endearment
(1983), and was catapulted to celebrity status. Let her
mantra be a lesson to us all.
(Note to Eichenbaum: Urban
Cowboy is listed on p. 236 as a 1970 film instead of
1980.)
Some of the other subjects
Eichenbaum interviewed include Elijah Wood, Larry Miller,
Marlie Matlin, Julia Stiles, George Segal, Bill Irwin and
Lainie Kazan. Eichenbaum makes them all interesting to
listen to. Eichenbaum’s unique photographs of each subject
are outstanding. (Wesleyan University Press, 262 pages,
$30.00,
Amazon.com Price: $21.19)
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 Tweaking Your Pictures
ILEY PUBLISHING offers a
choice of three guidebooks to help navigate through Adobe
Photoshop Elements 8. (Okay, they’re touting version 9 now,
but 8 still suits me fine, thank you.) I still find the ever
popular Dummies series the easiest way to learn.
Photoshop Elements 8 for Dummies, on slick paper and
with an abundance of colorful illustrations, covers all you
need to know to fine-tune your images, make collages and
slide shows, create albums and compose better photos.
(Wiley, softcover, 400 pages,
$29.99,
Amazon.com Price: $19.79)
Adobe Photoshop Elements 8:
Digital Classroom is written by a team from American
Graphics Institute (AGI), creators of many Adobe official
training guides, so you’re in good hands with this volume.
It’s like being back in school, with a no-nonsense approach
to learning everything about Elements 8. The material flows
seamlessly; the lessons are easy to absorb; and in no time
you’ll find yourself organizing photos, correcting images,
and becoming a better photographer. As a bonus, a DVD full
of tutorials is included with the book. Wiley, softcover,
408 pages,
$39.99,
Amazon.com Price: $26.39)
 Adobe Photoshop Elements 8:
After the Shoot Written by Adobe Certified Photoshop
expert Mark Fitzgerald, this is one of the better books that
teaches you everything you want to know about processing
your digital images. Mark is a wonderful teacher. You may
want to take further lessons from him through his consulting
business, the Digital Darkroom. Visit him at his website:
www.ddroom.com. (Wiley,
softcover, 258 pages,
$24.99,
Amazon.com Price: $16.49)
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 Page Turners
EORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE
MATERIAL WORLD Olivia Harrison has produced a
revealing and endearing album packed with letters,
memorabilia, diaries and photographs spanning the entire
career of her late husband. This hefty (9.5"x10.75")
doorstopper is nirvana for every Beatles fan, which probably
means every one of us, is virtual nirvana and a tribute to a
musician and spiritual seeker who touched the lives of
millions all over the world.
(Abrams, hardcover, 400 pages, 260 illustrations,
$40.00,
Amazon.com Price: $25.97)
 JUDY: A
LEGENDARY FILM CAREER The author, John Fricke, is a
Judy Garland historian who earned two Emmy Awards and a
Grammy nomination. He ought to get an award for this mighty
impressive, lavishly produced outsized volume on one of the
world’s greatest showbiz icons, who’s star quality consisted
of that "little something extra" that set her apart from
mere mortals. That’s what James Mason told her in A Star
Is Born. Elaine Stritch says she watches a Judy Garland
movie before going out on stage, even for an Edward Albee
play. What that does for her is not to tell a lie the rest
of the evening. Toi see Garland "reach over to an audience
with the absolute 100 percent truth is something else.Never
have I caught her in a lie. And never have I caught her
‘acting.’" (Running Press, 9x12 inches, 352 pages,
$30.00,
Amazon.com Price: $19.80)
 THE DEAD
CELEBRITY COOKBOOK Don’t worry, you won’t find
ghosts lurking behind the pot, but you can emulate any of
145 stars by following their gastronomic interests. One page
carries a brief historic note of a long-gone personality,
and the facing page presents their favorite recipe. In these
pagesd you’ll find John Denver’s Flemish apple cake, Bette
Davis’s red flannel hash, Lucille Ball’s persimmon cake,
Dirk Bogarde’s Spanish paella, Yvonne De Carlo’s exotic
chicken ecstasy and Eartha Kitt’s chicken wings among other
delectable dishes. My favorite: Dean Martin’s burgers and
bourbon. Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef, ¼ teaspoon salt,
and 8 ounces bourbon, chilled. Preheat a heavy skillet and
sprinkle with salt. Shape beef into four patties, Cook for
four minutes. Pour two ounces of bourbon in each of four
shot glasses. Drink with burgers. That’s Dino for you!
(HCI Books, soft cover, 370 pages,
$19.95,
Amazon.com Price: $13.57)
 METAMAUS
Art Spiegelman won the Pulitzer Prize 25 years ago
for his groundbreaking comics-novel Maus. That
comics-novel altered the way we regard literature. He’s back
with an inside look at this modern classic, probing: Why
comics? Why the Holocaust? Why mice? That’s easy. In order
to eliminate a menace (the Jew), first you dehumanize him,
compare him to rats, hen it’s quite easy to arouse the
populace to exterminate this subhuman, this demon. That’s
why the Nazis used Zyklon B—a pesticide manufactured to kill
vermin—as the killing agent in Auschwitz and elsewhere.
Metamaus includes a DVD that contains reference to The
Complete Maus and an archive of private notebooks, sketches
and audio interviews with Spiegelman’s survivor father.
Pantheon, 301 pages,
$35.00,
Amazon.com Price: $23.10)
 THE PERFECT
PHOTO This is one of three books of a new
series, Edition Espresso, published by Rocky Nook of Santa
Barbara, Calif., printed in Estonia, and distributed by
O’Reilly Media of Sebastopol, Calif. Like an espresso, these
short books give you a shot in the arm with inspiration and
practical advice for every photographer. They fit in your
pocket so you can refer to them on the go. I take them out
in the subway. The Perfect Photo (128 pages,
$19.95,
Amazon.com Price: $13.49)
contains 71 tips such as avoiding blurry images, adjusting
ISO speeds for brightness, the special quality of twilight
and so on. The other two titles are
Nature and Landscape Photography (128
pages,
$19.95,
Amazon.com Price: $13.35) and
Ten Photo Assignments
(112 pages,
$19.95,
Amazon.com Price: $13.35)
 THE BETTER
PHOTO GUIDE TO CREATIVE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY Another
addition to the BetterPhoto Guide series, this gentle,
undemanding and masterly instructive handbook is essential
for any photographer to enhance their skills in composition,
color and design. It is one of the better books I’ve seen
anywhere for learning how to create images with impact. The
awesome authors are Jim Miotke, founder of
www.betterphoto.com, and Kerry Drager, content manager
of that valuable website.
(Amphoto, soft cover, 224 pages,
$24.99,
Amazon.com Price: $16.49)
THE MEN’S
SECTION There’s a subtle anti-traditionalist wave
sweeping the Jewish Orthodox synagogue scene. It seems some
fervently observant men are seeking ways to absorb feminist
inclinations into synagogue practice in the United States,
Israel and Australia. These are called Partnership Minyanim
where women share in conducting services, reading publicly
from the Torah and assuming egalitarian roles in the
administration of the congregation. Last time such a
phenomenon occurred, in the 19th century in
Germany, monolithic halachic Judaism split into Reform and
Orthodox branches (with middle of the road Conservative
strain arising later). The jury is out whether modern
Orthodox Judaism can embrace these egalitarian inroads and
thrive into the future without controversy. Meantime, the
author says, "perhaps an all-women’s space is really the
best place for a woman. It is, without question, the
safest." I forgot to mention that the author is a woman,
Elana Maryles Sztokman who writes on gender issue for The
Forward. Brandeis University Press, soft cover, 288
pages,
Amazon.com Price: $29.95)
 THE SCATTERED
TRIBE Veteran travel writer Ben G. Frank has a
winner here, a fascinating road map of his amazing
adventures in Cuba, Vietnam, Tahiti (there are Jews there?),
Algeria, Siberia, India and, of course, Israel. He shows how
Jews are not Western but global. He learned that India is
one of the happiest places on earth and the most hospitable
country for the dispersed Jews. Globe Pequot Press,
softcover, 320 pages,
$17.95,
Amazon.com Price: $12.32)
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