Israel
November 25, 2009
- I was invited to appear on a BBC World Service programme last weekend. If you’ve ever wondered how radio producers feed their on-air people interesting information about their guests (thus enabling them to create a breezy “chemistry” and to relate the day’s news stories to the knowledge or experience of the guest), here’s the questionnaire sent to me for The World Today by Affan ...
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November 23, 2009
- <span style="font-weight:bold;">Latent shame over the Jews' failure to stand up to the Nazis is cited as a reason for the success of "Inglourious Basterds." </span>By Matt Beynon Rees - <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/general/091118/israel-holocaust-tarantino-spielberg?page=0,0">GlobalPost</a> JERUSALEM, Israel — Quentin ...
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November 22, 2009
- I was on the BBC World Service's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2009/03/000000_world_today.shtml">The World Today</a> chatting about my Palestinian crime novels today. Because of the nature of the show, I also was asked my opinions on Cairo's muezzins, Ethiopian distance running and the value of Michael Jackson's rhinestone-encrusted white glove (you ...
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November 22, 2009
- By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPostJERUSALEM — Donald Bostrom, a freelance Swedish journalist who wrote an article this summer accusing Israeli officials of trading in Palestinian organs, came to Israel late last month to defend his piece at a conference on the media.Neither Bostrom, who needed a bodyguard because of the stir his article has caused, nor the media came out looking good.At the ...
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November 13, 2009
- Worn out has-been or drama queen? Interpretations of the Palestinian president's threat to quit vary greatly. By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPostJERUSALEM — Sometimes a quitter really does quit for good. The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, announced last week that he wouldn’t run for re-election in the proposed January elections. Back when he was Yasser Arafat’s deputy in the ...
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November 12, 2009
- When foreign correspondents come to Jerusalem they often ask me for advice on stories and places from which to witness the various conflicts that play out in this city. Next time, I’m going to buy them a ticket to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo.I go there every Saturday afternoon with my two-year-old son. But perhaps because our favorite animals (the cute little prairie dogs) have hibernated, I ...
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November 4, 2009
- I’m always looking for a good spot in which to kill someone. Still, as a crime writer, I rarely have to ask about potential locations for a good murder. People are keen to suggest that the blood be spilled on their doorstep.Most recently, it was a pastor and his wife.To be fair, they actually said I ought to have my Palestinian detective Omar Yussef visit their church on the top of the Mount of ...
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October 30, 2009
- I dreamed that President Obama made a decision to end the unresolved dilemma between Israel and Palestine. Until now, efforts for the parties to come to a final agreement on their own had failed. He realized that only forced action by America could end the stalemate. He had received the Nobel Peace prize and felt he must do something to deserve that honor, so he made the decision to do ...
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October 29, 2009
- Yet another report accuses Israel of human rights abuses, this time for denying Palestinians water. By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPostJERUSALEM — Human-rights reports condemning Israel’s dealings with the Palestinians have become so frequent of late they’re like the dripping of Chinese water torture.In the last few months, there have been reports on the conduct of Israeli forces in Gaza, on ...
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October 27, 2009
- I started to feel recently that my bio on www.mattbeynonrees.com was a bit over-serious. First of all, it was in the third person. I honestly never refer to myself in the third person (except when I'm shopping and I ask my wife "Would Matt Beynon Rees wear a shirt in this shade of pink?") Then I saw that the bio took my writing and -- worse still -- me, rather seriously. I prefer to ...
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