Two Minutes over Baghdad by Amos Perlmutter,Michael Handel and Uri-Bar Joseph

There is a lot of small talk going around about the way Israel has attacked the Gaza Strip and the murder of innocents that followed. I call it 'small talk' because its easy to take a stand that is morally right, based on the reports of the media that are streaming in. What is difficult to notice and is usually called 'propagandist' is how easily Hamas got elected and how very conveniently did they place their defence capabilities near schools and hospitals. 

Of course the Hamas versus Israel is just one of the battles that Israel has fought with its neighbours. The most famous one is the Six Day War. The next in that category would be the destruction of the Iraqi Nuclear Plant. And post the elections in Israel, there will be heightened talk of a second attack on the Iranian nuclear reactor. 

7the June 1981 --the first time in modern history a nation conducted a preemptive strike on a nuclear facility and succeeded. It remains the only successful strike by one nation on  another , one that involved meticulous planning,impeccable secrecy and looming elections.

'Two Minutes Over Baghdad' is a definitive account of Operation Opera from the point of view of those that carried out this attack. The authors--Amos Perlmutter, Michael Handel,Uri- Bar Joseph, have done a remarkable in collecting evidence and presenting it to us in a way that is easily understandable by a lay reader. Its not a full-length military novel, rather its divided into parts , the preparation and fears--as early as 1950s, the attack itself and the repercussions. What authors tell us is the detailed military preparation that went on before the attack--something that is textbook material in military schools like the Six Day War--the number of people that knew about the attack--a total of five,and Israel's fear of the holocaust.

Indeed, this book illustrates what it is like to live in a neighbourhood where countries have 'wiping out Israel' as a part of their constitution. And to think that the Iraqi nuclear program was under the control of Saddam Hussein. 

The Osirak nuclear reactor was attacked by Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, but its complete destruction took place during the bombing by the Israelis. The book also talks about how the missiles and planes were to be chosen. The planes had to be able to fly at a low range, should have enough capacity to fly 350 miles and back without refuelling and should be able to attack without detecting. All this was to happen without any collateral damage and without any pilot being in the custody of Iraq. 

When you read the book, you also realise that almost every Israeli family--including that of PM Menachem Begin-- has been through the trauma of the holocaust or that of Anti-Semitic strife. PM Begin took Saddam's Anti-Zionist threats seriously and tried to negotiate with the French Government to try and stop the transfer of nuclear technology. When that didnt work out, he developed a plan to wipe out the reactor itself. The book also talks about the brilliance of the then Minister of Agriculture, Ariel Sharon, who provided inputs for the nuclear attack and was a firm supporter of the attack. Post the attack, the world took a position against Israel,as did the US. The opposition condemned the attack because it was too close to the polls and Begin's party--the Likud party-- was trailing. However if the opposition,led by Shimon Peres, were to have been in power, there is every reason to believe that they would have carried out the attack too. The victory was hailed by Israel and Begin's party came to power again with Ariel Sharon as the Defence Minister. 

The book is a detailed non-fiction account that gets over in under two hours. The writing is not heavy and is easy to understand. Its not a biased book that aims to sway the reader towards the Israeli point of view,rather it maintains a neutral position and shows both the positives and negatives of the attack. What is a constant throughout the book is a nation and its government's need to stay alive. So much so that PM Begin had to proclaim " On no account shall we permit an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the people of Israel." This came to be known as the Begin doctrine. It is a good background read before the next Israeli elections. 

There is enough material to suggest there this time there will be an attack on the Iranian nuclear reactor. And the government that comes to power will pursue that goal doggedly. In all, after you read the book you will realise that apart from the usual media channel we have a lot of other sources of information that give us the other side of the story. The other side may or may not be right, but as a spectator, with the right to form a judgement it becomes important that we have all information.

The Amazon link for the book is here. It retails for $49.95.

At Landmark(Mumbai), with the current conversion rates, it will retail for around Rs.250. It will have to be ordered.

Words, Afterwords & All The Books In Between

I love books. Not text books, but books in general. I never liked studying but I love reading. And they have been some of the best companions to me. Books bring various things with them. They can hold stories, knowledge, ideas and memories. They also hold in them the keys to unlocking the imagination, and the gateways to fantastic worlds.

Books also hold tactile experiences like weight, size, feel of the paper, texture and so on. I hate reading books online-I want to HOLD the book. (I do read many things online, but I prefer not to.) I also love the smells that attach themselves to books. I love the smell of old books. You close your eyes and it is like a whole life passes by in your mind’s eye. The smell of new books always holds that promise of something new and exciting. Old ones have that dusty, musty scent. I love old bookshops and libraries. New ones are so crisp and fresh. Different papers have different scents, too. Sometimes I smell a book that has

lived near a lake or sea and can smell that in it. Or a book that survived a fire -- there's a unique charred aroma. I love scents, and, books are a very tactile experience, very sensual, if I may say so.

And I try and get my hands on old books whenever I can. There are quite a few places in and around where I live that cater to this fetish; mostly second hand stores and bargain basement types that I trawl through and invariably always get a valuable gem that I would quite honestly pay much more to get my hands on.

For example, through some of my treasure hunting, I now have a first edition copy of The Godfather. And 2 James Bond novels autographed by Ian Fleming himself :) both of course also first editions.

But more than even the monetary value of these books, there are some books I pick up either intentionally or accidentally, that offer me an insight into the lives of the previous owners. Most of these books are used right? So the previous owners sometimes leave things lying in the books as bookmarks or keepsakes and forget about them. These little things survive the years and end up in a complete stranger’s hands. It’s like finding a message in a bottle washed up by the ocean. At once strange and familiar and exciting! For it is full of possibilities. These are my time-capsules. 

There is something incredibly romantic about it all, if you actually sit and think about it. These knick-knacks come in various forms. I have found items ranging from simple grocery lists, to photographs, to visiting cards and greeting cards, to letters to stamps and sometimes even currency notes. And not all of them were Indian. The everyday items are the most interesting ones. It reminds us of the days gone by and something like a grocery list or a shopping list or a laundry list(yes, those too make it to the books) can take me on a trip down memory lane, if its within my memory, or offer me a glimpse into the times existing then.

Most of us am sure would have had some experience with this. 

Those of us with elder siblings in the same school get hand me down textbooks.

Or some of us might have borrowed seniors’ books. Sometimes these have priceless scribbling, sketches in them that keep you entertained in an otherwise boring class and perhaps beyond. Maybe you have even contributed to some yourself!

Do you ever feel like leaving things in library books or books you are getting rid of, just so that some future person can wonder where this weird Polaroid, note, sketch etc came from? Or have you ever found something like I have?

-Arjun

Reading Lolita in Tehran

To most of us who love reading books, the stories have meanings beyond the plot. In many ways, the stories have shaped how we see places, people and even ourselves. Reading Lolita in Tehran is about all this and more.

In a country taken over by religious fanatics, Azar Nafisi, tells her story of how and she and her students found liberation through books. How they found the courage to face oppression at home and in the streets, how their minds refused to be bound even though their bodies were.

In her little book reading class, Azar finds the women slowly transforming themselves as they encouter Lolita, Elizabeth Bennett and others who stood out and stood up for themselves. The class soon becomes their little act of rebellion against Khomeini's transformation of Iran from a liberal to a fanatical society. Finding their bodies suddenly encased and covered from head to toe, their movement within their own country and city restricted, these women use books and stories to experience other worlds, and to let these experiences shape their own decisions.

Reading Lolita... brings to life what some books have meant for each of us, it puts in words how some characters have shaped us, and its pages recount the solace that I have found at many points in time in certain books. It is a book lover's tribute to books, her memoir of the most potent influence in her life and how that helped shape an act of individual rebellion for a group of girls in Islamic Iran.