LimmudFest New Orleans 2016

My recent book, An Improbable Friendship, is a dual biography of Ruth Dayan, the widow of Israeli General Moshe Dayan, and of Ruth’s best friend Raymonda Tawil, the mother-in-law of Yasser Arafat.  Their friendship is an example of hopeful transformation in a part of the world synonymous with intractable ethnic war.  By fitting people into national or religious blocks determined by historical forces and opposing civilizations, politicians, historians, political scientists, and journalists all too often miss something essential in their approach to the Middle East--individuals and their hopes, desires, and dreams.   Ruth (aged 99) and Raymonda (aged 74), with their shared sense of empathy, are a case study in the dynamic cultural currents that will eventually push aside politicians (with their Big Ideas) and bring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to an end.