The Education of a Middle East Expert

IN THE MAIL:  “Live from Jordan:  Letters Home from My Journey Through the Middle East” (McGraw Hill AMACOM Books, 2007) by Benjamin Orbach, with this description:

On the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, 27-year old Pittsburgh native and grad student Benjamin Orbach traveled to Amman, Jordan, in search of answers. . . .  In the cafes and salons, and on the buses and streets of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Turkey, he found conflicted, curious, and multilayered people who had more to teach him than he ever imagined.

Below are several quotations from the book — posted without critical comment on the off-chance that the book is actually a satire of Swiftian brilliance:

On Anti-Americanism

“It is policy criticism, not hatred, which characterizes the majority of anti-Americanism witnessed in Jordan, by the rich and poor, the educated and uneducated. . . . Policy critics oppose the substance of American foreign policies rather than America’s character as an immoral and aggressive power. For them, it is more the unjust nature of American policies that deserves criticism . . .  Their America wouldn’t fingerprint Muslim visitors, sell F-16 jets to Israel, and reject entry visa applications.”

On Jordanian Palestinians’ Identity and Pride
“No matter what state of wealth or poverty they are in, being Palestinian is a part of their core character. . . . It’s possible that because I’m an outsider, people feel as if they need to get on the record and express their views, but the percentage of time that people talk about Palestinian issues surpasses anything I’ve seen.  The closest comparison I can make is to Pittsburghers talking about the Steelers during the playoffs.”

On Expectations in an Authoritarian Regime
“In a dictatorship like Syria, the separation between the public and private space is even starker because Syrians have such meager expectations of the government to work for them . . . . [F]or the most part, they seek only to have the government leave them to their own devices in their private worlds.  For autonomy at home, they have given up the sidewalks and the streets. . . .  Their aspirations are simply that the government not actively work against them.”

On Protecting a Woman’s Honor
“A responsible Jordanian son or brother would never leave his mother or sister to face the outside world alone.  It is the man’s responsibility to provide in every way — whether that means paying a bill or instructing a driver of a destination. . . .  [T]he man is the conduit to the outside world.  It would have been socially weird and sent an ambiguous message had I allowed my mother to sit next to a stranger on a bus or to negotiate room rates with the clerk at a hotel.”

Benjamin Orbach currently works in the State Department as an expert on the Middle East.