By Sarah Burke

Sadder Than Water: poems by Samih al-QasimMaps

Several years ago I traveled in Tunisia with a friend. We felt pretty cool: we avoided the resorts, took local transport, ate local food, practiced our languages. One day we rolled into a town by the edge of the Sahara that is the starting point of many coordinated journeys into the desert—camels, sunset over the dunes, dinner cooked on a fire, etc. We had compared the reviews of several tour agencies in Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, volumes stored like talismans in our respective backpacks. As we emerged from the shared van into this new town, a man approached us and began talking about the agency he represented. It was the best, he said, the number one agency for trips into the desert.

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After decades of war in the post-colonial Middle East, statesmen and women of the region—particularly the battle-fatigued Israelis-have finally understood something about war and peace that most of us have known all along: there is no military solution to our problems. Lines will be drawn and peace will be achieved through negotiated agreements—or there will be no lasting peace for anyone...

By Alfred Madain

I was recently enlightened about the idea of collective guilt while watching a documentary on people who are attempting to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians. A former Israeli hardliner mentions in the documentary that he had always felt the burden of having to carry the weight of the persecution of all Jews throughout history and that is the reason that he felt that he had to protect Israel at any cost.

I very much empathized with these words for as I was growing up in Jordan the ideals of Arab nationalism had seeped into me. I later learned that most Arabs, from Morocco to Iraq, feel the same guilt and sense of responsibility for the oppression of all Arabs through Turkish and European colonialism and of course dealing with the immediate persecution of our fellow Arabs, the Palestinians. It was clear to me as a child to feel united with a collective Arab identity for two specific reasons: my dislike of Israel and my Arab nationalistic identity through my dislike for nations like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait where it is felt “Arab money” is being wasted instead of being used to help the Palestinians.

By Adina Hoffman

Something of the street punk and village elder mingle in Jawad Siyam. Wiry, dark and stubble-chinned, with a cigarette often dangling from the side of his mouth and a slightly amused look in his eye, he bears more than a passing resemblance to Jean-Paul Belmondo—if, that is, one can imagine the star of Breathless as a Palestinian community organizer who speaks five languages fluently, is married to a Bosnian Serb, has two small children, and is waging a possibly last-ditch struggle to save his village from destruction.

By Rachel Donadio

From the war in Iraq to the rumblings in Iran to the heightening tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, there are few bright spots in the Middle East these days. But one boutique Jerusalem press has cleared a space for conversation in a contentious region. Started in 1998 by a husband-and-wife team, Ibis Editions has published English translations of works in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, French, German and Judeo-Spanish—all relating to the Levant.

The 4th Annual God Loves Beauty Festival, Nov. 12-20, 2008

The eclectic Al-Fareed aka Alfred Madain is a deejay, musician and ethnomusicologist in Los Angeles. A walking encyclopedia of traditional, folkloric and contemporary music of the Arab/Islamic world and Africa, he intimately “gets” and analyzes music ranging from ancient traditions to modern world techno, hip hop, western new wave, heavy metal and punk. Al-Fareed’s attuned feel for rock gives him the ability to reflect on the west from an eastern perspective and on the east from a western perspective. As a music historian he can explain the history and influence of ziryab (a musician of the Baghdadi and Andalusian courts) as well as the history and influence of Woody Guthrie, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Black Flag, Blind Lemon Jefferson, the Velvet Underground and more.

From October 24-26 in Hollywood, Arpa International Film Festival will screen 50 films from 21 nations, including Armenia, Australia, Canada, China, Congo, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tobago, Trinidad, Turkey, UK, and Venezuela.

Arpa International Film Festival, which goes green in 2008, is produced by Arpa Foundation for Film, Music, and Art (AFFMA), a non-profit organization dedicated to artists exploring identity, multi-culturalism, war, exile, genocide and global empathy.

"My Lebanese Sandwich," by Maher Kassar and Ziad Halwani courtesy of Transit Beirut: New Writing + Images, edited by Malu Halasa and Roseanne Khalaf, (Saqi Books, 2004).

This is one of the most memorable pieces of culinary reporting we’ve come across by non-food writers, guaranteed to make you hungry. Beirut natives abroad will long for a piece of home, while others will get a glimpse of the city’s life not often seen by outsiders. It’s a prime example of the creative nonfiction, short stories and photography characteristic of this unusual book from Saqi in London.

Best of Natacha Atlas: your purchase benefits LCC programmingNatacha Atlas has long been one of our favorite Arab fusion artists, though it’s been several years since we’ve seen her in Los Angeles. The London-based singer was born in Belgium of Egyptian and Moroccan heritage. She sings in Arabic, French and English. Natacha cut her teeth singing with the Transglobal Underground and has more than half a dozen solo albums to her credit. She’s also served as Good Will Ambassador for the United Nations and has always been an outspoken peace advocate.