Sunday, December 16, 2012

Never been given the feeling by the nation that he/she is part of it

"One of the most poignant moments in Ms White’s book is an exchange with Ishak Alaton, Turkey’s best-known Jewish entrepreneur and a frequent target of anti-Semitic rants in the Islamist media. “Jenny, you can write this in your book,” he says, “that the man you interviewed today, who has reached his 82nd year, has never been given the feeling by this nation that I am part of it.”"  Well, I am sure that this is true, but it was also true about Muslims in the Maronite-led Lebanon prior to 1975, and still true about Arabs in Israel, and still true about Muslims in the US.  But those are moments that Western reporters would not find to be poignant.