From Bedouin nomad to Israeli diplomat

This is an inspiring story, one that everyone should know about. I recommend you read his book “A Shepherd;s Journey”.

Born into a poor, traditional Bedouin village in northern Israel, Ishmael Khaldi grew to become Israel’s first Bedouin diplomat. In this short book, he tells a remarkable story of transformation, from his modest village roots to his triumph as a diplomat and voice of reason in the Middle East. His road has not been an easy one. From his early days as a sheep herder, to his schoolboy “fights” with Arab kids [fellahin= farmers], his terrifying first forays into the mysterious New York subway system, and his later remarkable friendships with secular and religious Jews and Muslims on two continents, Ishmael’s life has been full of adventure and pathos, humor and love. This is a story that will inspire, educate, and charm, told with authenticity and passion, as only a Bedouin can tell it!

Alan Dershowitz, author of the Case for Israel.

    ?”..Anyone who doubts that Israel is a diverse and vibrant democracy should read Ishmael Khaldi’s story. Where else but in Israel could a young Bedouin man go from sheepherder, sleeping under the stars, to a diplomat, representing his country abroad. This is the story of one remarkable young man, and one remarkable young country”

SeattleSwimmer “SeattleS” (Seattle)

    Ishamel Khaldi has recorded a fearless,personal and deeply human explorer’s and adventurer’s journey as the first of his millennia-old people to go from a Bedouin shepherd family/tribal tent into international diplomacy on behalf of Israel. He describes, as no one else has, the complex family, tribal,religious, Israeli and global dimensions of his life and loyalties and explains the uniqueness of being an Israeli Bedouin Muslim who loves his people and his nation profoundly while seeing the challenges facing each.

    I recommend this short, personal,tender, funny and brave read for anyone trying to more deeply understand the future of democracy in the Middle East and the diversity of many Israeli cultures seeking to modernize while adhering to rational values, rhythms and economies.

April 16, 2011 | 1 Comment »

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  1. Alan Dershowitz(?) said,

    “Israel is a diverse and vibrant democracy”

    Not really. Israel is a Jewish democracy, just as the UK is primarily an English democracy. There is nothing Bedouin nor Druze about the Israeli National Anthem: It is purely Jewish. Benjamin Disraeli, the grandson of Jews, became the British PM in the late 1800s, but this did not make the UK “diverse”.

    I don’t even know if the US can be considered a “diverse” democracy. We have a flag with 13 stripes, representing the 13 founding states. The official religions of these colonies were:

    1. Anglican: VA, NY, MD, NC, SC

    2. Congregational: MA, CT, NH

    3. None: DE, RI, GA, PA, NJ

    The above religious differences were very regional, and correspond roughly to the major dialect differences of the country. In the South, the Anglican church fell into disfavor and was replaced by the Baptist church; and the great “none” vacuum in the middle, originally dominated by Quakers, Presbyterians and Dutch and German Reformed, spawned new religions: Methodists, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Churches of Christ, Pentecostals, Assemblies of God and others. Germans, Lutherans and Jews also settled in large concentrations in some places, making the US something of a religious patchwork quilt. Blacks in the South developed in a parallel society to the whites, and Mexicans and others also brought in racial diversity.

    With all that diversity, though, all these groups have been tending towards a homogenous society. Groups such as the Dutch, Germans and Spanish maintained the use of their language in places for generation after generation; but even there, English is spoken as the first or second language. The religious differences are also much less than they used to be: Religious groups can be put into broad categories, such as “Evangelical” and “Mainline” Christian, and “Liberal” and “Orthodox” Jewish; but Evangelical Christians are politically closer to Orthodox Jews, and Mainline Christians are closer to Liberal Jews, than they are to their Christian and Jewish “brethren”. Even Protestants as a whole and Catholics are statistically not that different from one another, on average, in political and social attitudes.

    This is not real diversity: Americans are, predominantly, English-speaking Christians, polarized politically along similar lines to those among Jews in Israel. Non-Christians are a minority here, just as non-Jews are in Israel; and in both cases this identification is often nominal, the people in both places being largely secular and sharing much the same values with each other. Only the racial lines remain; but they are getting blurred in both places. I think the term “diversity” is merely a cover term for “Non-Biblical”, “Secular”, or “New Age”. The whole world is rapidly becoming either Judeo-Christian, Secular/Materialist, Hindu/Pagan, Islamic or Buddhist, with the non-Judeo-Christian groups uniting under the banner of “diversity” in order to oppose the Judeo-Christians.