THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Another View of The Little Drummer Girl'
(Editor's note: This re-
view of John Le Carre's
"The Little Drummer
Girl" appeared in the
April 8 issue of Near East
Report. Charles Madison
reviewed the book in The
Jewish News April 1.)
After considerable pre-
publication publicity, it
seems impossible that any-
one interested in the Middle
East would not know that
John Le Carre, author of
"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier,
Spy" and "The Spy Who
Came in From the Cold,"
has written a highly con-
troversial book about Mid-
dle Eastern skullduggery.
Le Carre is back in his
familiar world of aliases
and agents. This time, how-
ever, he has made a spy
story a metaphor for the
Arab-Israeli conflict and in
so doing transcended his
genre. He tells the tale from
the point of view of Charlie,
a confused English actress
of muddled radical sym-
pathies who is used by Is-
raeli agents to track down a
particularly dangerous
Palestinian terrorist.
Le Carre's work was
sharply criticized in the
Washington Post for dis-
playing a knee-jerk sym-
pathy for the underdog. The
book was also attacked in
the New Republic by David
Pryce-Jones, a journalist
who has covered the Pales-
tinians. He calls "The Little
.
r
Drummer Girl" sophisti-
cated "agitprop."
Why the controversy?
Partly, it is because the
book is ambiguous in a
situation where alle-
giances and perspectives
tend to be black and
white. In places, Le Carre
is extremely sympathetic
to the PLO and harshly
critical of Israel. Palesti-
nians spout PLO rhetoric
which goes unanswered.
While in Beirut, Charlie
falls in love with the PLO
fighters and their cause as
well. Some readers will con-
clude that Le Carre is jus-
tifying terrorism.
Why then can't "The Lit-
tle Drummer Girl" simply
be dismissed as prop-
aganda?
The reason is that Le
Carre is not altogether
one-sided. Is the PLO
viewed sympathetically? It
is. But then there is its dark
side: its gaining camps for
budding terrorists, its roc-
kets and guns, its ruthless
disregard for civilians.
Does the book justify
terrorism? In places. But
it also' depicts its mad-
ness, its indiscriminate
bloodshed and the irra-
tionality of its practition-
ers.
Are the Israelis ruthless?
They are. But they are also
individuals with per-
sonalities and consciences,
people who, Le Carre points
Flint News
Community
Calendar
Saturday — USY Con-
vention, Columbus, Ohio.
Tuesday — Bnai Brith
Women luncheon, 11:30
a.m., International Insti-
tute; Bnai Brith Women
meeting, 7:30 p.m., home of
Bette Heidenrich, 1194
Woodkrest; and Bnai Brith
executive board meeting, 8
p.m., River Valley club
house.
Wednesday —Hadassah
elections, Temple Beth El;
and FJF/Hadassah adult
education, 7:30 p.m., Beth
Israel.
Thursday — ORT meet-
ing, noon; FJF men's deli
night, Beth El, 6 p.m.; and
FJF Community Relations
Committee, 8 p.m.
Flint Obituaries
Leo Binder
Leo Binder, founder of the
Reliable Furniture Store,
died March 18 at age 93.
Born in Poland, Mr. Bin-
der lived in Flint since 1916.
He was a member of Cong.
Beth Israel, Jewish War
Veterans, Zionist Organiza-
tion of America and the
Flint Jewish Federation's
Senior Friendship Club.
He is survived by two
sons, Harry and Albert; a
brother, Arthur of Miami
Beach, Fla.; and six grand-
children.
Bnai Mitzva
James Riseman will be-
come Bar Mitzva 11 a.m.
Saturday at Flint's Temple
Beth El.
Elana Grossman will
become Bat Mitzva 9 a.m.
April 23 at Cong. Beth Is-
rael.
Terri Kasle will become
Bat Mitzva 9 a.m. April 30
at Cong. Beth Israel.
June Institutes
at Brandeis U.
WALTHAM, Mass. --
Registration is now open for
three summer institutes at
Brandeis University that
offer continuing education
to Jewish educators, com-
munal workers and reli-
gious leaders.
The Jewish Communal
Workers Institute, June
27-30, will feature a one-
day workshop on manage-
ment skills for professionals
working in a variety of
Jewish communal settings
as well as seminars on con-
temporary Jewish com-
munal issues, professional
skills and classical Jewish
perspectives on community,
leadership and tzedalia.
The Rabbinic Leadership
Institute will be held June
27-30. The implications of
pluralism in the contem-
porary world of Jewish edu-
cation will be the focus of
the Jewish Educators Insti-
tute, June 28-30.
out, serve an ideal and seek
to protect the innocent.
A reader may, in the end,
be left exhausted, holding
neither side better than the
other and regarding each as
equally elevated and
equally depraved.
Le Carre's is a grim objec-
tivity and balance which no
straight reporting can
achieve. And that is where
the moral ambiguity be-
comes immorality; the Is-
raelis, after all, are pursu-
ing terrorists, people who
have committed crimes.
They are not engaged in
battle for its own sake but
are seeking to punish the
guilty and to prevent new
crimes against their pepole.
Le Carre does not seem to
perceive the difference be-
tween that and the choice of
terror as a substitute for
political action.
Ultimately, factors out-
side the book may influ-
ence how it is perceived.
Le Carre has given inter-
views in which he
strongly criticizes Israeli
policies. There is talk of a
movie which may end up
as propaganda of one
sort or another.
This much is certain:
.
Friday, April 15, 1983
A Lasting Impression
Give your guests a memory they will keep
forever — an instant photoparty favor
"The Little Drummer Girl"
seems destined to be this
year's major work of fiction
on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
PHOTOS BY GILBO
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