Our Last Best Chance: The Pursuit Of Peace In A Time Of Peril (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Ok...i am not a huge fan of King Abdullah or his wife.and when i heard that his book was published i decided i'll wait for an epub/pdf version.i don't judge a book by its cover nor its author,but i knew i'd give it less than 3 stars.at the end of the book King Abdullah mentions his father's book Uneasy lies the head,which is one of my absolute favorites.i can hardly compare the two of them as kings ,leaders,or books.i don't know how accurate it is that Jordan is a home for over 1.9 million refugees.as far as i know Palestinians/Jordanians of Palestinian origins are over 50% of the population.i have to double check.Some parts of the book were interesting,some were just a repetition of facts. i was expecting more to be honest.i was expecting him to step out of his father's shadow,but i guess it is impossible when your father is King Hussein.I wonder how he sees Jordan now,and how it benefits ( according to His majesty ) from Queen Rania's intelligence.this has nothing to do with her being a Palestinian ,Queen Alia Touqan was Palestinian too.but there is no comparison according to me.I wonder how King's Academy which resembles Deerfield means that education is for all ,that it is accessible for students from all over the world,including Jordanian students as a priority .There is no gratitude for Jordanians,who are the backbone of the regime.even the names that were mentioned like Bassem awadalla and Samir Rifai did absolutely nothing to better the Jordanian economic status.11 years are simply not enough to write a book during which our foreign policy has been going astray because the right man for the right position is never our motto.not just our foreign policy,but our image as a country with a firm attitude that once was a key player in brokering peace in the middle east.a policy of privatization and taxes..in fact Jordan seems to me as the world's largest refugee camp.this is not a detailed review,just my own thoughts on some points,as a Jordanian who struggles like many to prove that there is no such thing as the ''Jordan Option''and yes...it is called a Shmagh ,the traditional Jordanian red checkered head scarf. When we lived in Matamoros, Mexico, Honey and I took part in a bike tour co-sponsored by the Mayor’s office and the U.S. Consul General. Matamoros is just across the border from Brownsville, Texas, and our house was just a long block away from the Rio Grande, which we found out was called the Rio Bravo on the Mexican side of the border. You could literally see Texas from the roof of our house, and Honey could walk to work at the Consulate. On the day of the bike ride, our large group, accompanied by TV cameras, rode from a square near the mayor’s office on a winding tour around town, ending at the U.S. Consulate building.One stop along the way was Casamata, a historical fortress, now used as a museum of Matamoros’ history. In it is an exhibit commemorating the war between the Mexicans and the Texians in which the Texians lost the Alamo, but won independence at San Jacinto. As I read the text in Spanish, I started to realize that the bad guys were, well, us. The Texans. I was walking along with Diego, who was a local staff member at the Consulate, and I gasped. He chuckled as I explained that I’d never read the story from that perspective before. The ungrateful, aggressive Texians, who refused to pay their taxes to the Church or respect their government, were reviled on the wall of Casamata. It unsettled my thinking and made me realize why, perhaps, there is still some residual resentment towards the United States. Let’s say the people of Maine decided back in the 1830′s that they no longer wanted to be part of this country; they seceded, fought us off, and joined up with Canada. Then, for generations, we were forced by geographical proximity to watch Maine flaunt its Canadian-ness. We might be a little bitter, too. I haven’t changed my mind about being a loyal Texan. My reading of the Mexican perspective, though, helped me see that there is another side to the story, one that is useful to understand when working or living alongside them.Well, the three books I’m reviewing today had the same effect on me. (I do realize this is the first Thursday of the month, not the third, but I couldn’t wait!) As I read them, some settled notion in me became unsettled, some opinion opened to a larger vista. These three books are Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas, Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay, and Our Last Best Chance: The Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril, by King Abdullah II of Jordan. It may seem odd that a biography, a novel, and a memoir/current affairs book would group themselves together, but I found that reading them all gave me deeper insight.I had heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and pastor who was killed under the Nazi regime, and I own a couple of his books. As I read Metaxas’ account of Bonhoeffer’s life, I was struck by the development of Bonhoeffer’s faith. He entered theology as an academic discipline; as his studies continued, his exactitude as an academician did not decrease, but his faith in Jesus Christ dramatically increased. Bonhoeffer’s studies, then, were infused with an importance that surpassed schools of thought or academic recognition. He became magnetic, drawing others into his vision for the German Church and founding a seminary. As the Nazis came into power and Hitler’s decrees began to squeeze the German Church into submissive, and at first, subtly unbiblical positions, Bonhoeffer became more alarmed and more active in opposing Hitler and his policies.Bonhoeffer spent some time studying in New York City, where he found American seminarians to be shockingly lazy and liberal thinkers. He experienced a vibrant, more orthodox faith, in his view, at churches in Harlem. His ability, in the first half of the twentieth century, to transcend race and truly worship alongside brothers in Christ, was one of the first unsettling things about Bonhoeffer to me. It ought not surprise us, true, that a Christian would be able to join alongside people of another nationality and race in a church setting; nevertheless, when I think of Germans during the Nazi era, I had never before thought of racial acceptance.As I continued to read, I was stricken by the impossible task of convincing English officials to help support the Confessing Church, as Bonhoeffer and his colleagues named their congregations. To the British, in a time of war against Germany, to support or aid any German group that could not flee Germany was to open the door to accusations of aiding the enemy. It’s understandable, but regrettable.As it became apparent that foreign aid would not arrive, a small group planned to assassinate Hitler. Bonhoeffer was part of that group, and it was his involvement that ultimately led to his death after a lengthy imprisonment. Again, surprising, given Bonhoeffer’s pacifism, but something Metaxas explains about Bonhoeffer early in the book seems to explain much about Bonhoeffer’s surprising life. Discussing Bonhoeffer’s seminary education, Metaxas writes, “Harnack’s theology was something like Archilochus’s proverbial fox, knowing many little things, while Barth’s theology was like a hedgehog, knowing one big thing. Bonhoeffer would side with the hedgehog, but he was in the fox’s seminar, and through his family and the Grunewald community, he had many ties with the fox. As a result of his intellectual openness, Bonhoeffer learned how to think like a fox and respect the way foxes thought, even though he was in the camp of the hedgehogs. He could appreciate the value in something, even if he ultimately rejected that something – and could see the errors and flaws in something, even if he ultimately accepted that something.”Reading this book reminded me that even within a group of “enemies,” there is a range of thought and opinion, and that we should be aware of those within the group who might be willing to affect a move toward finding common ground. German culture and history appealed to me more after reading Bonhoeffer; I even commented to Honey, “Maybe I’ll learn German.” His raised eyebrow was enough to nip that idea in the bud, but I have never ever had the least desire to learn German before. Such is the power of Metaxas’ account of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life and death.On the heels of that biography, I picked up the best-selling Sarah’s Key. I thought of it as a light read when I approached it, if any book about World War II can be light. Quickly, I learned that was not to be the case. The opening scene of the book is of a family in Paris rounded up in the early morning hours, led away to the Vélodrome d’Hiver. There, detained with other Jewish families, Sarah, the daughter, reveals to her parents that she has hidden her four-year-old brother in the apartment. She promised him, she said, that she would come back for him. Her father, horrified, pleads with officials to return home to free his son, but is rebuffed. Sarah’s resolve to rescue her brother will make up the bulk of her part of the rest of the book.Alternating with Sarah’s story is the account of Julia Jarmond, and American woman married to a Frenchman and raising their daughter in Paris. As a journalist, she receives the assignment to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél d’Hiv round-up. As she pursues her story, her marriage falls into a harsher spotlight, and her still-shaky relationships with her French in-laws will take unexpected directions.As a Francophone, I expected to be firmly on the side of our WWII allies as the story unfolded. A round-up of Jews during the Nazi occupation of Germany? Terrible, yes. Part of a larger tragedy that was the Holocaust, yes. But surprising? No. Except for Sarah’s words as she stood by her mother’s side at the door of their apartment: “He spoke perfect French. Then we are safe, thought the girl. If they are French, and not German, we are not in danger. If they are French, they will not harm us.”The Vél d’Hiv round-up, occurring in a place whose later destruction limits the number of visitors who will come to remember, has largely been forgotten. Lines have entrenched themselves in our collective mind about the sides taken in WWII, and the French stand by us, the “good guys.” This book reminds us that in the moment, even we can succumb to base impulses to classify others and participate in their destruction. Bystanders, observers, can sometimes escape our judgment, being powerless. Sarah’s Key reminds us that even we, even the “right” side, contains an element of hatred, of willingness to rid ourselves of others. For me, facing that horror within, at a time when no such decision faces me, was a gift. A gift that reminds me of my need for God’s grace, for a keen eye and loving outlook toward others.Last in my grouping is King Abdullah II’s memoir and plea for peace in the Middle East, Our Last Best Chance. As the king of Jordan, one of our economic partners in the region and a leading moderate Muslim voice, I was interested to read Abdullah’s account of his history with the elusive pursuit of peace between Israel and Arab countries. America has unswervingly aligned itself with Israel in diplomatic circles for many years; it is almost as unquestioned a policy in my mind as is our diplomatic embargo with Cuba. Though I was certainly aware that myriad opinions exist about how one-minded we ought to be as a nation about either of those policies, I have not deeply researched either issue enough to question what I perceived as a longstanding, unchanging diplomatic stance, particularly in regard to Israel.I will hasten to add that reading King Abdullah’s book did not turn me against Israel. I believe that standing by Israel continues to be a policy that lends Israel diplomatic cover in a region that is largely hostile to its interests.You’re expecting a “But” sentence here, aren’t you? On the contrary. What King Abdullah did in his book was narrate the Jordanian point of view, held by his father, King Hussein, and himself. His reasonable approach to pursuing peace opens the door to a wider view of what peace could look like in the Middle East. It explains another viewpoint of Israel’s actions and reactions. Abdullah’s track record of friendliness with the West, in addition to his domestic policies improving (not perfecting, I know) Jordan’s economy and civil rights outlook, calls us to consider his point of view as we move forward in partnership with Israel and Arab countries to see peace come to fruition.In other words, instead of looking at peace in the Middle East as a win/lose situation in which Israel must be the victor on all points and at all costs, Abdullah’s hope is that Americans will work toward a win/win scenario in which Israel’s interests coexist with those of its Arab neighbors and peace, perhaps fragile at first, is allowed to sprout.With an unsettled mind but a willingness to keep learning, I come away from these three books feeling as if a wider perspective affords me the chance to become a better citizen, a better Christian, and in future, a better friend to those with whom I might at first not agree. I recommend all three of these books.
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كل التحية للملك عبدالله..يكتب كما ارقى الروائيين..
—fatima
A good King who's hands are tied by circumstances.
—huntergirl84
