David Harris-Gershon and his wife, Jamie, moved to Jerusalem full of hope. Then, mere days after Israel thwarted historic cease-fire negotiations among the Palestinians, a bomb ripped open Hebrew University’s cafeteria. Jamie’s body was sliced with shrapnel; the friends sitting next to her were killed. When a doctor handed David some of the shrapnel removed from Jamie’s body, he could not accept that this piece of metal changed everything. But it had. The bombing sent David on a psychological journey that found himdigging through shadowy politics and traumatic histories, eventually leading him back to East Jerusalem and the Hamas terrorist and his family. Not out of revenge. Out of desperation. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, this fearless debut confronts the personal costs of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and our capacity for recovery and reconciliation.
Winner of the 2019 Courage in Fiction Award from Independent Publishers of New England IT’S OCTOBER 2015. Meet Mahmoud al Ramadi, 23, a bitter displaced Iraqi who unexpectedly becomes a terrorist. Fresh from battling ISIS in Syria, he’s sent to float to Greece as a refugee. There, in gritty Piraeus, he adopts terrorism—or more precisely, terrorists adopt him. The ambitious operation his new comrades are plotting will, he’s informed, decimate the power elite and nspire revolution around the globe. Having vowed payback for war crimes that orphaned him, the devout Mahmoud accepts the mission as his jihad. His thousand-mile odyssey from war-torn Mosul to strife-ridden Athens and part way back tests his metal, his wits, and his abiding faith. You’ll find memorable characters, tense action, straight and gay romance, ideological and other altercations, and ingenious improvisations in both the real and virtual worlds in this gripping, one-of-a-kind thriller. How you’ll feel about their rogue operation and its dénouement depends on who you are and what you stand for, but it could be complicated. All that Mahmoud experiences edits his articles of faith and just might edit some of yours. Book Review 1: "Turkey Shoot is much more than a thriller, more Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds than 007, elegantly written by someone who clearly knows the history, geography, and political turmoil of the region with great empathy for those victimized by unnecessary wars and heartless policies." -- San Cassimally, playwright and novelist, winner of the Mobil Prize for his play Acquisitive Case Book Review 2: "Experience a cast of colorful characters who band together on a dangerous mission. The dialogue sparkles and the prose thrusts you on an adventure that twists and turns. The bittersweet ending will surprise you." -- Dr. Arnold Kamis, founder, Lexington Writer’s Group Book Review 3: "If invaders destroyed your home, your family, your people—what would you do? Where would you go, how would you get there, what could you take with you, how could you reach out to friends and family or make money? Whom would you trust, or even love? Enough such trauma might drive you to terrorism, might it not? Why not stake out this cell of fed-up international radicals and find out? What they’re planning will kill you." -- Dr. A. Bengola, Professor of English, Newark State Teachers College Book Review 4: "Geoffrey Dutton wraps the reader into a first-person scenario, tracking an outsider as he negotiates a maze of twisty streets and untested persons who claim to be allies. The observations of great detail bring the scenes to life along with the contradictions that lie ahead. Expect the unexpected in this fast-paced thriller." -- Dr. Nick Chrisman, Author, Editor, Geographer, Bellingham WA
Terrorism is one of the most significant security threats that we face in the twenty-first century. Not surprisingly, there is now a plethora of books on the subject, offering definitions of what terrorism is and proffering advice on what causes it and how states should react to it. But one of the most important questions about terrorism has, until now, been left remarkably under-scrutinized: does it work? Richard English now brings thirty years of professional expertise studying terrorism to the task of answering this complex--and controversial - question. Focussing principally on four of the most significant terrorist organizations of the last fifty years (al-Qaida, the Provisional IRA, Hamas, and ETA), and using a wealth of interview material with former terrorists as well as those involved in counter-terrorism, he argues that we need a far more honest understanding of the degree to which terrorism actually works--as well as a more nuanced insight into the precise ways in which it does so. Only then can we begin to grapple more effectively with what has become one of the most challenging and eye-catching issues of our time.
This book recuperates the important history that Haitian thought around Vodou possession has had in French critical theory. The author takes the period of the 1930s and ‘40s, as the centerfold of a more complex network of relations that places Haiti as one of the pivots of a more expanded intellectual conversation around “possession,” which links anthropology, literature, psychoanalysis, human rights, and visual arts in France, Haiti, and the United States. Benedicty argues that Haiti as the anthropological other serves as a kick-starter to an entire French-based theoretical apparatus (Breton, Leiris, Bataille, de Certeau, Foucault, and Butler), but once up and running, its role as catalyst is forgotten and the multiple iterations of the anthropological other are cast back into the net of Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s “Savage slot.” The book offers the reader unfamiliar with Haiti a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of twentieth and early twenty-first century Haitian thought, including a detailed timeline of important moments in the intellectual history that connects Haiti to France and the United States. The first part of the book is about global dispossessions in the first decades of the twentieth century; the second part points to how the narratives of ‘Haiti’ are intimately linked to a Franco-U.S.-American discursive space, constructed over the course of the twentieth century, a discursive order that has conflated the representation of ‘Haiti’ with an understanding of Vodou primarily as an occult religion, and not as a philosophical system. The third and fourth parts of the book examine how the novels of René Depestre, Jean-Claude Fignolé, and Kettly Mars have revisited the notion of possession since the fall of the Duvalier dictatorships.
State responses to terrorism have shaped politics and society globally. But how far, and in what precise ways, has counter-terrorism actually succeeded? Based on the author's experience of studying terrorism and counter-terrorism for over three decades, Does Counter-Terrorism Work? offers an historically-grounded, systematic, and expert interrogation of the effectiveness of state responses to terrorist violence. Previous analyses have too often tended to be polarized, simplistic, and short-termist; they have also lacked a comprehensive framework against which properly to assess the (in)efficacy of counter-terrorist efforts over time. Richard English's pioneering book carefully defines what effective counter-terrorism would involve, and then tests that layered framework through cross-case, balanced, historically-focused comparison of important counter-terrorist campaigns. Drawing on a vast range of source material, Does Counter-Terrorism Work? assesses in detail the strategic, tactical, and personal or political achievements and failures evident this blood-stained field of work. The book is intended to stimulate debate and reflection among scholars, students, practitioners, and the wider public. Every one of us is daily affected by the choices made in counter-terrorist politics and policy. This deeply original book helps us to understand how society and politics have been shaped by such decisions in the past, and prepares us to respond more effectively in the future to one of the world's most important challenges.
The definitive story of one American family at the center of a single, shocking act of international terrorism that "manages to capture the essence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" (Dan Ephron). On October 3, 1985, Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled Jewish New Yorker, and his wife boarded the Achille Lauro to celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary with a Mediterranean cruise. Four days later, four Palestinian fedayeen hijacked the Italian luxury liner and took the passengers and crew hostage. Leon Klinghoffer was shot in the head, his body and wheelchair thrown overboard. His murder became a flashpoint in the intractable struggle between Israelis and Arabs and gave Americans a horrifying preview of what it means when terrorism hits home. In this richly reported book, drawing on multiple perspectives, Julie Salamon dispels the mythology that has grown around that shattering moment. What transpired on the Achille Lauro left the Klinghoffer family in the grip of irredeemable sorrow, while precipitating tragic reverberations for the wives and sons of Abu al-Abbas, the Palestinian mastermind behind the hijacking, and the family of Alex Odeh, a Palestinian-American murdered in Los Angeles in a brutal act of retaliation. Through intimate interviews with almost all living participants, including one of the hijackers, Julie Salamon brings alive the moment-by-moment saga of the hijacking and the ensuing U.S.-led international manhunt; the diplomatic wrangling between the United States, Egypt, Italy, and Israel; the long agonizing search for justice; and the inside story of the controversial opera about the Klinghoffer tragedy that provoked a culture war. An Innocent Bystander is a masterful work of journalism that moves between the personal and the global with the pace of a geopolitical thriller and the depth of a psychological drama. Throughout lies the tension wrought by terrorism and its repercussions today.
On Sunday, September 6, 1970, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked four airliners bound from Europe for New York. One, a brand new Pan Am 747, was taken to Cairo and blown up only seconds after its passengers escaped. The attempt to hijack a second plane, an El Al flight, was foiled and the plane landed safely in the UK. Two other planes, one TWA and one Swissair, were directed to the desert floor thirty-five miles northeast of Amman, Jordan, where a twenty-five day hostage drama began. With the additional hijacking of a British airliner, over four hundred and fifty hostages had landed in the Jordanian desert. David Raab was on the TWA flight with his mother and siblings but was separated from them and taken to a refugee camp and then to an apartment in Amman where he was held hostage through a civil war. This is his story.
David Harris-Gershon and his wife, Jamie, moved to Jerusalem full of hope. Then, mere days after Israel thwarted historic cease-fire negotiations among the Palestinians, a bomb ripped open Hebrew University's cafeteria...Jamie's body was sliced with shrapnel; the friends sitting next to her were killed. When a doctor handed David some of the shrapnel removed from Jamie's body, he could not accept that this piece of metal changed everything. But it had. The bombing sent David on a psychological journey that found him digging through shadowy politics and traumatic histories, eventually leading him back to East Jerusalem and the Hamas terrorist and his family. Not out of revenge. Out of desperation...Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, this fearless debut confronts the personal costs of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and our capacity for recovery and reconciliation.
Despite the worldwide dramatic spread of religious-based discriminations, persecutions, and conflicts, both official data and academic literature have underestimated their role as a root cause of contemporary migrations. This multidisciplinary study aims to overcome this gap. Through an unprecedented collection of theoretical analysis and original empirical evidence, the book provides unique data and insights on the role of religion in the trajectories of asylum seekers and migrants – from the analysis of the religious geography of sending countries to the role of spirituality as a factor of resilience and adaptation. By enhancing both academic and political debate on these issues, the book offers the possibility of regaining awareness of the close link between religious freedom and the quality of democracy. Contributors include: Paolo Gomarasca, Monica Martinelli, Monica Spatti, Andrea Santini, Andrea Plebani, Paolo Maggiolini, Riccardo Redaelli, Alessia Melcangi, Giancarlo Rovati, Annavittoria Sarli, Giulia Mezzetti, Lucia Boccacin, Linda Lombi, Donatella Bramanti, Stefania Meda, Giovanna Rossi, Beatrice Nicolini, Cristina Giuliani, Camillo Regalia, Giovanni Giulio Valtolina, Paola Barachetti, Maddalena Colombo, Rosangela Lodigiani, Mariagrazia Santagati, Fabio Baggio, Vera Lomazzi, Paolo Bonetti, Laura Zanfrini, Mario Antonelli, Luca Bressan, Alessandro Bergamaschi, Catherine Blaya, Núria Llevot-Calvet, Olga Bernad-Cavero, and Jordi Garreta-Bochaca.
In America’s very near future, a guerilla revolution is in progress. A group of youths who call themselves the Black Terrorists has taken up arms against its oppressors. But Keusi, a Vietnam veteran and the group’s most prized assassin, harbors counterrevolutionary thoughts. He doesn’t believe that all the killing is necessary—he finds it hard to hate, and thinks the Black Terrorists are bravely but poorly led. When the terrorists decide to assassinate a black politician who has pledged to destroy the insurgency, Keusi has grave doubts. Should black men kill black men? When and how will the slaughter end?
