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    Israel: Stripped Bare
    Israel: Stripped Bare
    Israel: Stripped Bare
    Ebook188 pages2 hours

    Israel: Stripped Bare

    By Dr. David Rabeeya

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    About this ebook

    Israel: Stripped Bare is a book about the brutal reality of Israels existence, written from a perspective of an Arab-Jew. Some of these articles were already published in Sephardic Heritage Update, and some have been added over the years. It becomes crucial to see Israels existence through the eyes of the Levantine prison, outside of the European perspective of the Jewish State. The book provokes serious ideas and thoughts concerning the future relationship between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East and the possible contribution of Jews born in Arab and Muslim countries to the future cultural symbiosis of this historical crossroads.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris US
    Release dateJan 16, 2007
    ISBN9781477179222
    Israel: Stripped Bare
    Author

    Dr. David Rabeeya

    While Dr. David Rabeeya has dedicated his life to preserving the history and culture of Jews born in Arab lands, he has also written books for children and teenagers as well as detective stories, poetry, music and even comedy. This, his 50th publication, is from a Jew born in Baghdad Iraq who lived in Israel and now resides in America. His work reveals the soul of men and the universality of mankind.

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      Book preview

      Israel - Dr. David Rabeeya

      Copyright © 2007 by Dr. David Rabeeya.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      To order additional copies of this book, contact:

      Xlibris Corporation

      1-888-795-4274

      www.Xlibris.com

      Orders@Xlibris.com

      38400

      Contents

      Acknowledgement

      Introduction

      Chapter 1

      The Middle East: Eternal Abyss

      An Arab-Jew’s Perspective

      Post Zionism: Reality and History Today

      J’Accuse! Listen All Ashkenazic Jews!

      Chapter 2

      Four Israeli Civilizations: Historical Perspective

      A Time of Change in Israel

      Israeli Bi-National State: A Dream

      or a Nightmare

      On Allah and Arab-Jews in Israel

      The Human Toll in the Israeli-Palestinian Wars

      Chapter 3

      Arab-Jews: The History of Watershed

      On Arabs and Westerners: We Are All Human

      Arabization and Englisition of Modern Hebrew: Why?

      Culturally Arab, Religiously Jewish,

      100% American

      There is No Return for An Iraqi Jew

      Arabic: The Gates to the Soul

      Arabic: My Psychological Medium to the World at Large

      On Accents and Physical Gestures in Arabic

      On Sharaf (Honor) of Arab-Jews and

      Its Arab Sources

      On Names and Surnames in the Life of the Judeo-Arabic Communities

      Curses, Sex and Female Anatomy in

      Israeli Hebrew

      Sephardic Life: On Holy Graves, Superstition and Past Tradition

      Arabic Words and Melodies: Sun and the Water

      Eastern and Western Communication: Generalizations Are Real Sometimes

      Laughing and Crying in Arab-Jewish Planets

      I Laugh A Lot and Cry Only Once:

      Personal Perspectives of the Middle East

      Iraq: The Dialogues of Shadows

      The Faluja Syndrome is Iraq: Implications

      Atrocities in Iraq: Why?

      Islam: Moderation and Radicalization

      The Law of Return: Revisited

      The Vanunu and the Amir Affairs: Revisited

      The Arab Zaeem and Raeess:

      Differences and Illusions

      Ashkenazic Racism: Alive and Well

      Christian Arabs in the Near East Quo Vadis??

      Critical Reading of the Ashkenazic Educational System

      Islam: Revisited

      Judaism Without God: Is it Possible?

      One Judaism, Two Churches

      Sephardic Jeremiah, Amos and Isaiah

      Sephardic Perspective of Ashkenazic America

      Superstitions and Psychology in the Sephardic Community: Why?

      The Ashkenazic Establishment: Exposed

      The Exodus of Palestinian Arabs: Why???

      The Islamists Will Probably Take Over the Arab World???

      Two Traditions: One World?

      Sephardic and Ashkenazic Religious Conduct

      Muslim Treatment of Prisoners:

      A Brief Survey

      The Browning of America: Historical Perspectives

      Dedication

      This book is dedicated to David Shasha, a dear friend and mentor who devotes his life to bringing the message and information about the little known world, struggles and culture of the rich Sephardic peoples and heritage to the world through his incredible writings and his newsletter.

      I wish to thank David for his kind words about my contribution to Sephardic Heritage Update, his newsletter. He was kind enough to give me permission to re-publish some of my articles from his newsletter in this book.

      Dr. David Rabeeya: A True Arab Jewish Legend

      By David Shasha

      Some three years ago I discovered the name David Rabeeya in an article I was reading on the Internet. Though it took me a bit of time to track down the man in question, over these few years I am delighted to say that Dr. Rabeeyahas become both a friend and a mentor to me. His encyclopedic efforts and his boundless energy to restore the Sephardic Jewish culture continues to dazzle those who are familiar with his prodigious capacity for writing and pedagogy.

      Dr. Rabeeya, as you will see in the introduction to his work that we have prepared, has published many books, music recordings and written scores and scores of articles ranging from historical pieces to cultural analyses to thought-pieces. His output is truly overwhelming.

      Like manyof his generation, Dr. Rabeeya has traveled far distances and accumulated a tremendous amount of perspective from his peregrinations in the world. From Iraq to Israel to America and beyond, David Rabeeya brings to his writing and teaching a deeply intimate and penetrating knowledge of the Middle East its history, its culture, its mores and its traditional values. He has truly a Renaissance Man and a rare repository of so many different aspects of Sephardic civilization that it is difficult to begin to even discuss the depth and brilliance of his work.

      His articles range from discussions of language, religion and ethnicity to presentations of history and culture from within a native Middle Eastern perspective that is leavened by a humanistic sensibility that is as inspirational as it is intellectually challenging.

      For those of us who value the Sephardic culture that has been transmitted in an unbrokeb chain from the early MiddleAges when the Talmudic academiesin Dr. Rabeeya’s native Iraq began to adopt the Arabic language and civilization that took root throughout the Jewish Mediterranean world, these writingsrepresent a treasure thatgoes beyond mere words.

      The Sephardic civilization was once an indispensable part of Jewish culture priorto the many changes inthat took place in the 20th century.

      Now that same Sephardic culture whichstood as a shining beacon in a sea of obscurity and darkness has becomealmost completely unknown outside of a small circle of scholars and laypeople who diligently tend to its growth.

      Dr. David Rabeeya must be marked as one of the prime movers in this Sephardic cultural regeneration. We must applaud the tireless years he has spent in the disseminationof a culture whose utility in the current situation that has led to so much pointless violence in the Middle East is clear to those whocan still think in arational manner. There seems to be little doubt that if the Jews and Arabs are to find a path to peace, that path will have to be paved by those who can still remember the civilization that linked Jews and Arabs and not by those who continue to promote binary views of culture.

      So in the end we present these articles by Dr. David Rabeeya with the hope that the vast scope of his vision will become known throughout the world and that his insightswill teach those who want to achieve a more nuanced and balanced perspective on Jews and Arabs things that will promote the cause of peace.

      The twin concepts of peace and justiceare at the very core of Dr. Rabeeya’s writings and with God’s help we will all be able to transform the current discourse from mindless polemics into the fruitful Religious Humanismthat David Rabeeya has so expertly laid out for us in his work.

      * * *

      Dr. David Rabeeya: The Man and His Works

      David Rabeeya was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1938 of Jewish parents, the middle of fourteen children. He received his primary grade education at the Alliance Francais in Baghdad. He immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of fourteen and completed his high school equivalency examinations during his military service in Israel. He received a BA degree in History and Literature from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, an MA in Semitic Languages from Tel Aviv University and a PhD in Arabic from Dropsie College in Philadelphia, PA. In 1997, David Rabeeya was ordained as a rabbi.

      He is the author of 32 books including several novels, poetry, plays and historical commentaries as well as a cookbook and two books for children and young adults. The theme of his writing has always indicated his concern with Arab-Jewish relationships from his own unique perspective as an Arab-Jew who has lived in Iraq, Israel and America.

      He has been a teacher for the past 47 years both in Israel and America and has instructed students of all ages, especially those at the college level and beyond. He has lectured extensively to a broad range of adult groups, both Jewish and non-Jewish, on Islam, Judaism, the Israeli-Arab conflict and the history of Jews in Arab lands.

      To quote Dr. Rabeeya as he writes in his recent play Iraq, Israel, America: One Man’s Evolutionary Journey to Acceptance:

      I collected sadness and tragedies like everyone else, but I did it in a Jewish, Iraqi way. I am an Arab clown and a Jewish comedian. I am the exile and the redemption, the destruction and the renaissance of my eternal people, the House of Israel. I am the religious journey of Abraham, but not of Herzl. I am Moses who entered the Promised Land and felt a stranger in the European Ocean. I am the melodies deriving from the manirate of Baghdad. I am the Jew who never moved from the ancient and new East. I am the one who was uprooted from the Euphrates and the Tigris and I have faced the tiny Jordan. I am the one who called God Allah and Elohim and they were the same. I am Christianity, Islam and Judaism in my acculturation. So many tragedies, so many joys. So many struggles, so many achievements. Iraq does not wish to leave me because she gave birth to me. Israel is my step-mother and America is my mother-in-law. The spirit of Jeremiah was in my daily lessons. Amos begged me to look for social justice. Ecclesiastes left me with my Iraqi, Jewish questions, but, finally, I found one of the answers: love.

      Dr. Rabeeya’s writings are always academic, thought-provoking, provocative and insightful as well as sharp, cynical, humorous and challenging. His comments concerning the Middle East always provide the reader with a new and different perspective on this area of the world because of his birth in an Arab country and his Jewish religion which gives him a unique and realistic perspective of the culture and the politics of this area of the world. Underlying all of his writings his deep spirituality and love for humanity is always evident giving all of us hope for the future.

      The following books represent only a sampling of his many published books, but they cover all of the major themes which appear throughout his writings.

      • The Journey of an Arab-Jew in European Israel is written from the personal and historic perspective of a Jew, David Rabeeya, whose immersion in the Arab culture and intimate knowledge of Islam brought an explosive encounter between his Judeo-Arabic tradition and secular Zionism in Israel.

      • Zionism: Final Call. The Expiration of Tainted Idealism deals with Zionism which was established in the secular milieu of the 19th century and is now reaching its final expressions. This movement is seen through the eyes of an Arab-Jew (Sephardic) in a challenging and provocative manner. His analysis is based not only on academic research, but also on his own first-hand perceptions.

      • Visionary Memoir: Arab Mother, Jewish Baby tells the personal story of an individual who was able to not only overcome numerous and incredible challenges and setbacks in both Iraq and Israel, but also to find physical and spiritual security in the United States. Both steadfastness and psychological stamina and an unyielding sense of humor were utilized in order to triumph against many odds.

      • Fundamentalism: Roots, Causes and Implications with the foreword written by Shadi Hamid sheds light on fundamentalism in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The terrorist attack on the United States on September 11th brought this issue to our shore. An historical and religious analysis is needed to better understand and deal with our new forever changed world.

      • A Quarter in Half Time: Arab Soul, Jewish Eyes is a trilogy written as a novel, poetry and essays written by an Arab-Jew (Sephardic). The novel specifically addresses the cultural and psychological conflict of a teenaged Arab-Jew in an alienated Ashkenazic-European Israeli environment. The poetry section includes three parts: the Zionist Movement in Israel, love and universal themes. This section, written with experience and the insight that comes with maturity, emphasizes the deep-rooted birth culture that exists in each individual. The third section is a potpourri of material for both enjoyment and intellectual stimulation.

      • Afifah: A Bedouin Odyssey is a novel which looks at history through the eyes of an uneducated but clearly perceptive Bedouin woman whose life begins in a traditional and safe environment and ends in the drastically changed and shattered world of

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