Blowback

Not everyone's happy about Gregory Levey's memoir, Shut Up I'm Talking, about working for the Israeli Mission to the U.N. (I wrote about it before.)

The Jewish Week News reports:

Ben Harris, Levy’s predecessor and now a reporter for JTA, writes in a book review: “It’s not hard to read Levey’s memoir as a colossal act of betrayal.”

Harris writes that Levey portrays Israel’s diplomatic efforts as “ferociously inept and staffed by such insipid characters that no one should ever wonder why Israel seems incapable of convincing the world of the basic justice of its cause.”

But Levey defends his book, saying it was a “humorous take” about his experiences.

“I was just trying to bring light and humor to a situation that too often is taken too seriously,” he said. “It’s my own personal story and all I meant to do was to entertain. Everything in the book is true. Every incident is true, at least as I remember it. None of this should be taken negatively at all.”

The Sunday Serial

I've been a big fan of the New York Times' Sunday Serial since Scott Turow started writing for it in April 2006.

The latest is by Colin Harrison, a writer with whom I was not previously familiar. And from the second paragraph he's showing a virtue of the serial as a form: its ability to be absolutely topical, because of the shorter lead time compared to a book.

While they'd attempted this a bit in the past, I don't believe they've done it to this level of immediacy.

It all began the second Friday in April, a sloppy, cold day. People had finally stopped discussing Eliot Spitzer’s many complex urges. Oil had just hit $112 a barrel, but no one was shocked. People were getting worked up about the Olympics in China. The stock market, so recently up after being so recently down, was down again, and everyone I knew was hoping that the Fed’s quasi-legal voodoo might actually work, so that we wouldn’t all be sucked into a giant, cheap-dollared vortex of recession, inflation and coast-to-coast foreclosures. Then again, many of the folks in my firm had been slyly loading up on gold for months and no doubt counted themselves smart for betting against the American economy. Me, I’d done nothing to prepare for the fiscal apocalypse. All I wanted was to go home and have dinner with Susan.

I haven't liked (and therefore haven't read) the last two Sunday Serials. This one has grabbed me from the beginning.

An Internship Gets Out of Hand

Gregory Levey gets in over his head as an intern for the Israeli Consulate at the United Nations:

On an excruciatingly slow August day in New York City, a resolution was coming up for consideration, apparently, at the U.N. General Assembly. ... "You should go," one of my superiors said to me. "It won't be a big deal. Just take notes." ... I went to the meeting hall and took my seat at Israel's place... Although I didn't recognize him, the Italian representative greeted me and shook my hand. Then he leaned in and said, "So you know, the vote is definitely going to happen today after all."

Check out what happens next...

His book (the above is from a Salon excerpt) defintely looks like an interesting read.

More on the Youth Rally

From For God, For Country and For Yale:

The hosts were drawn from TV personalities and news broadcasters. They either were completely unfunny or unaware. A news anchor from a local TV station turned to the priests and seminarians in the front and asked them on the main microphone if they were going to vote for Obama or Hillary. She was promptly booed by the entire crowd. Suddenly flustered, she tried to laugh it off by saying she respected the separation of Church and State. She was then booed once more by the entire crowd.

He's also been sidebarred.

Tweaking the Paleo-cons

Richard John Neuhaus tweaks the noses of those who would call him a Neo-con.

Permit me a brief word on the several events. The first was not on the official program. It was the news conference on the plane coming over. The first question, not surprisingly, was about the sex abuse crisis. Benedict’s response might be described in other contexts as a preemptive strike. [Emphasis mine.]

Was Maureen Dowd really being clever?

That seems unlikely.

Joseph Bottum notes that Obama's friend is really a professor of education, which is something less than a professor of English. (I prefer my Ayers A.J. actually.)

(direct link to original Dowd column)

I must say I've been enjoying reading Bill Kristol in the Times.

Papal Politics

Excerpt from the Joint Communiqué of President Bush and Pope Benedict XVI
(my emphasis)

The Holy Father and the President devoted considerable time in their discussions to the Middle East, in particular resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict in line with the vision of two states living side-by-side in peace and security, their mutual support for the sovereignty and independence of Lebanon, and their common concern for the situation in Iraq and particularly the precarious state of Christian communities there and elsewhere in the region. The Holy Father and the President expressed hope for an end to violence and for a prompt and comprehensive solution to the crises which afflict the region.

This is probably one of the places in the world the Pope can have the most impact by something other than simple suasion, given the Maronite power in Lebanon. It's interesting to see him flex his muscle there.

McCain's Loyalty

Slate reprints the touching story of John McCain's loyalty to his friend Morris Udall, even when nearly everyone else had fallen away.