Lessons from ‘The Haj

FrontPage Mag ^ | Joseph Puder

[ventanax5]

In his 1984 bestseller, “The Haj” (Doubleday, NY), Leon Uris captured the essence of the Arab-Israeli conflict through his two protagonists: Haj Ibrahim, muktar of the village of Tabah in the Ayalon Valley of Mandatory Palestine, and Gideon Asch, a pre-Israel Palestinian Jew, whose familiarity with Arab life, language and culture made him an honorary Bedouin. Uris’ dialogue astutely reveals the vast differences between the Arab and Jewish mindsets – deeply rooted in their cultural differences. Uris focuses on the Jewish liberal, cosmopolitan culture of openness, practicality, compromise, and humanism in contrast to the unforgiving desert culture of the Arabs, where betrayal, distrust, hate and vengeance are commonplace. As the story unfolds, we discover that the Jews of a kibbutz (called “Shemesh”), who bought land from an absentee Arab-Muslim landowner, had also bought the water rights, and that water had previously served the neighboring Arab village of Tabah. An angry Arab villager from Tabah enters the Kibbutz Shemesh with the intention of stealing something and killing someone if possible. Caught stealing by a young girl from the kibbutz, he tries to rape her and beat her, but her screams cause him to flee.

[Retired Greyhound]

Great book! Read this a few years ago.

[txhurl]

It is a great book. Invaluable for understanding how and why Arabs are the way they are.

[klb99]

Read this 20 years ago - not knowing a thing about islam - ........frightening how appropriate it is for today when we know so much more and none of it good.

[Red_Devil 232]

I bought and read this book when it came out. Looks like it needs a revisit and I need read it again! I think I have read every one of his books and enjoyed them all!

[Pessimist]

Lesson 1: Be careful where you eat Mexican.

(Or am I the only one who’s ever heard of going to the bathroom as “taking a hoj”?)

[Sans-Culotte]

Interesting. I think I’ll pick this one up.

[G Larry]

Lesson from the first 10 pages, that is expanded on larger scales as the book progresses:

Young, bright, Arab lad, discovers his older brother and Uncle, acting as tax collectors for his Mayor, Father, are stealing from the latter.
Rather than report to his Father, he blackmails brother and Uncle, saying, “If you don’t cut me in, I’ll tell Dad.”

Says alot about the culture....

[Oatka]

Basically, it’s a zero-sum game. You can’t get ahead unless you pull the other guy down.

[Moltke]

Great to see this book mentioned here. I’ve read it twice, and in many a thread concerning the mideast conflict I’ve thought, read ‘The Haj’! (Not a true documentary, but close enough.)

[PalmettoMason]

“The Haj” is one of my favorite books, along with “Exodus”, and James Michener’s “The Source”.

[elteemike]

From memory...Paraphrasing...

“My brother and me against our father, our family against the clan, our clan against the tribe, our tribe against the nation, and all of us against The Infidel...”

Pretty well sums things up...

[txhurl]

It really does. The average Arab really doesn’t see past his own cage, except to covet his upper’s cage.

They are directed to outbreed every civilization they seek to conquer, and do.

I work with an extended Iraqi family, moderates, but their closet Wahabbism leaks out liberally. Islam is incompatible with Democracy: the average Arab fears freedom and welcomes overlords’ control. They expect to be killed or maimed if they step out of the Koranic line.

[txhurl]

And most importantly, Arabs do not possess a Chivalric bone in their body, over millenia. They are rats at heart. Run for the opportunity, avoid any scenario that calls for chivalry.

[GOPJ]

Peace treaties are not viewed in the Muslim culture in the same way that non-Muslims see them – as binding agreements. Rather, a treaty is considered a “time-out” and an opportunity to grow stronger or buy time. Peace with the infidel is, above all, never seen as permanent. Moreover, establishing the supremacy of Islam overrides such considerations as honor (Western), ethics, or treaty obligations. Muslims today clearly understand the word “Hudabiyya” to be a code-word, which in brief means: “Kiss the hand of your enemy until you have the opportunity to cut it off.”

These ideas must seem strange to people who think everyone is like them... but for those who have a mild understanding of the ME, the above rings true.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ventanax5.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

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[Sans-Culotte]

Well, I finally finished this book. It was kind of a long read; not really a page-turner. I do read a lot of long nonfiction/history, so I can handle long, somewhat dry narratives. In any case, it was quite a good book. The fictional framework of The Haj and his family was a great backdrop to depict 20th century mideast history.

I wish more people would read the book. It really is a good portrait of Islam and the Arabs and shows why the "can't we all get along" approach will never work wit them.