How to Make Peace in the Middle East in Six Months or Less: Without Leaving Your Apartment

Gregory Levey

Sept 2010 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this eBook

Gregory Levey’s modest goal is to solve the Middle East conflict—all by himself. After returning to North America following a stint in his midtwenties writing speeches for the Israeli government—first at the United Nations and then for the prime minister in Jerusalem—he thinks he is leaving the madness of the Middle East conflict behind. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Levey soon discovers that everyone on this side of the Atlantic seems to think that they have the solution to the intractable conflict—and they all feel the need to tell him about it. Fatigued by the endless debate, the constant hostility, and the cacophony of shrill voices, he decides that the only way he is going to escape it all is if he solves the conflict himself, once and for all.

So Levey sets out on a hilarious, quixotic, and surprisingly illuminating quest to broker a peace deal where a long line of world leaders have failed.

Interacting with White House officials, DC lobbyists, congressmen, advisors to presidential candidates, high-profile journalists, secretive fundraisers, former Israeli spies now living in North America, and hundreds and hundreds of Jewish grandmothers, Levey tries to understand why the Middle East situation refuses to be resolved, and why so many people who live a world away are so obsessed with it.

He combs through theories ranging from the eminently reasonable to the completely insane, engages in virtual peacemaking simulations, investigates an “online suicide bombing,” spends time with a former advisor to Yasser Arafat, undergoes training with a half-baked Jewish paramilitary group, goes undercover as an Evangelical Christian, and somehow ends up at a real-life castle owned by an eccentric, cape-wearing crusader for peace.

In How to Make Peace in the Middle East in Six Months or Less Without Leaving Your Apartment, Levey brings his trademark brand of street-smart levity to a situation that many see as hopeless— and thereby reveals the very human and sometimes very silly side of a brutal, decades-old geopolitical conflict. Along the way, he meets a cast of characters that would be outright funny if the situation weren’t so dire. The result is a fast-paced, humorous, and insightful romp through U.S. policymaking in the Middle East.

Ratings and reviews

In his author's note, Gregory Levey states: "In looking over this book, it occurs to me that even if I intended to take a bird's-eye look at the Middle East situation, I have inevitably approached it from the point of view of someone who is North American, who is of my generation, who is secular, and who is Jewish." He ain't kidding. Despite being a very funny book, it does not shed much light on the situation in the Middle East because of his perspective. He almost completely ignores the religious component of the conflict. He talks with one Rabbi accidentally (i.e. he doesn't purposely seek him out). He talks with no Imams. He does seek out Evangelical Christians but only to portray them in an unflattering light because of their beliefs. His views reflect a stereotypical liberal, secular Jewish perspective: suspicious of Christians and a preference to pretend the religious Muslims and Jews of the Middle East can't be taken seriously so its better just to ignore their viewpoint. He does talk to many people with radical viewpoints such as a member of the JDL, Stephen Walt and members of what would become J-street. He tries to talk to a member of the ISM but they seem to be very suspicious of him. He succeeds in this book to do what his Uncle tells him he did in his first book: "You were trying to show that everyone involved in the conflict are just humans, right? With all the stupid and silly things that humans do?" However, by completely ignoring the religious component of the Middle East conflict, he does the reader no favours. For instance, it never seems to occur to Mr. Levey to ask himself, "Why has the conflict gone on as long as it has?" Why can the bitterest of enemies, who have fought terrible wars with each other (such as the Japanese and Americans, etc.) make peace but the Israelis and Palestinians can't? Why is it that, even though Israel has made peace with Egypt and Jordan, those are not warm, friendly peaces but cold and hostile ones? Why is there an organized campaign to delegitimize the state of Israel? Mr. Levey should ask himself those questions and see what answers he can find to them before he writes his next book on Middle East conflict (which I have no doubt he will).

About the author

Gregory Levey is the author of Shut Up, I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government and has written for Newsweek, The New Republic, New York Post, Salon, and other publications. He served as a speechwriter and delegate for the Israeli government at the United Nations and as Senior Foreign Communications Coordinator for prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, and is now on the faculty of Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.