A Voice of Reason: Hanan Ashrawi and Peace in the Middle East [Hardcover]

Barbara Victor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 1994

When violence erupts in the West Bank and Gaza, Hanan Ashrawi is the one the media turn to for commentary. She has become as linked with the Palestinian cause as Yasir Arafat, and her astute political performance is the reason she has become the Israelis' public relations nightmare. She is a wife, a mother, a Christian, an Arab, and a scholar, and she has pulled off a near impossible PR coup: changing the image of the PLO from terrorism to diplomacy. How did she succeed (where Arafat failed) in bringing the factions within the PLO to the negotiating table for one of the most important peace conferences in fifty years? And why have the leaders of one of the most sexist societies in the world put their fate and the fate of their people in the hands of this Christian woman? A Voice of Reason is the story of how a remarkable woman was able to influence and significantly alter the politics of the Middle East.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to this vibrant biography, Palestinian spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi has done more "to change the image of the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation than any war, uprising, or terrorist attack." Appointed shortly before the opening of the 1991 Madrid peace talks, Ashrawi's telegenic presence and European manners helped the Palestine Liberation Organization remake its image from that of a terrorist organization into a negotiating party perceived by the West as responsible enough to handle an eventual measure of self-rule. Victor (Terrorist) covers the 47-year-old Ashrawi's prominent family background, her education, her emergence in Palestinian politics, her tenure as Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Bir Zeit University on the West Bank, her marriage to a younger and far less educated man and her domestic life as the mother of two daughters. The author also discusses personal and career problems arising from Ashrawi's presence as an articulate, order-giving female in a male-dominated culture and as a Christian in a mostly Muslim society. Photos. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This is a valuable addition to the small but growing canon of books in English providing multidimensional accounts of Palestinian history; no longer are we limited to one-sided works featuring Yasir Arafat as the token representative of the Palestinian people. This book presents a balanced portrait of the complex, highly intelligent, controversial Christian Arab woman who emerged as the media-savvy PLO spokesperson at the first Middle East peace talks in 1991 and remained highly visible to the signing of the Palestinian-Israeli peace accord on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993. As spokesperson, Ashrawi was responsible for changing the PLO's image from terrorism to diplomacy. Victor, a novelist and journalist with extensive experience in the Middle East, spent 15 months interviewing Ashrawi and her family, friends, and adversaries (both Palestinian and Israeli). The resulting book reads more like a novel than a journalistic report. Victor is particularly adept at the descripiton of place and people and has done a skillful job of making a coherent whole from the sum of many fragmented interviews. Recommended for all libraries.
Ruth K. Baacke, Whatcom Cty. Lib. Sys., Bellingham, Wash.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 310 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Brace & Company; First Edition edition (September 28, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151039682
• ISBN-13: 978-0151039685
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,325,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Biased and misguiding, December 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Voice of Reason: Hanan Ashrawi and Peace in the Middle East (Hardcover)

Aside from including obvious historical mistakes in her book (such as stating that King Abdullah of Jordan is the uncle instead of the grandfather of the present King Hussein of Jordan and that the Balfour Declaration was signed in 1921 instead of 1917) Barbara Victor paints an image of a self-centered and calculating Hanan Ashrawi and offers a biased portrayal of the Palestinian people's plight. Mrs. Victor prefers to dedicate an entire chapter to the "latest gossip in town" concerning Mrs. Ashrawi rather than give the reader an insightful perspective into the ideas, goals and work that make Hanan Ashrawi a voice of reason. While Barbara Victor's depictions of Palestinian treatment by Israeli forces seem to be continuously justified by vivid descriptions of alleged Palestinian brutality towards Israeli civilians, not once does the author offer the reader a realistic insight into the hardships, injustices and abuses faced by the Palestinian population at the hands of the occupier. The reader therefore remains unclear as to how and why Mrs. Ashrawi constitutes a voice of reason amidst the hopelessness of the Palestinian plight. Unlike "A Voice of Reason" by Barbara Victor, "This Side of Peace" by Hanan Ashrawi gives a far more insightful and honest account of the Mideast Process, allowing the reader to judge who Hanan Ashrawi is, what her true motivations are and what life is really like for a Palestinian under Israeli occupation.

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Wicked Witch of the Middle East!, August 22, 2004

By 

Jill Malter ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voice of Reason: Hanan Ashrawi and Peace in the Middle East (Hardcover)

This book tries to present Ashrawi (a Christian Arab woman) as a voice of reason.

Unfortunately, Ashrawi's support of Islamic terror has put her squarely against both Christian rights and women's rights. Her role as education minister for Arafat has helped destroy the rights of a generation of Arabs. And if what she's done to her friends isn't bad enough, you might want to see how uncharitable she is to her enemies. She's a voice of irrationality and destruction. It's a shame that it will take more than a Dorothy from the Middle West to undo the damage she's done.

Christians are fleeing the Middle East in droves, and Ashrawi is part of the reason. This book should get no stars for failing to show Ashrawi's actual nature.