There's little hope that Israeli bureaucracy will mount a modern hasbara effort. Historical evidence is overwhelming. One must hope for either an IDF unit devoted to this (an offshot of Unit 802?) or some kind of a volunteer, privately sponsored group - now that would be a cause to contribute to...

Haven't seen here fiction suggestions from the people who wrote in my native tongue.

So, a few of the outstanding examples of 20th Century Russian literature (I think all of them have come out in English translation):

- Short stories by Isaac Babel

- The Foundation Pit by Andrei Platonov

- Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

- Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

- We by Evgeny Zamyatin (a dystopia novel a generation before 1984)

Reading materials:

http://www.debka.com/article/20936/

http://www.debka.com/article/20934/

and also

http://www.debka.com/article/20932/

and a comment from Commentary here:

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/05/15/slanting-nakba/

So what's the best way of publicizing this retraction and explaining what it means to the widest possible audience? Will the MSM give this item of news enough attention? I doubt it. Is it a good idea to try to get a pro-Israeli journalist to interview Goldstone and to tease more details / information from him?

Agreed, agreed. However, my personal all-time favorite is Anthony Burgess's "It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."...

I'm not Claire but let me just say: go and see for yourself! The climate - in the sense that you mention - or, come to think of it, in the default sense either - will not change in our lifetimes (it is a very pessimistic assessment, I know but my crystal ball was manufactured by Kafka, Zamyatin and Orwell, Inc.). Go and enjoy the great country and the mind-boggling archeological and historical richness - and see for yourself how vibrant that country actually is...

How about some books by Antony Beevor - say, on Stalingrad, the 1945 Berlin operation, the D-Day, the Spanish Civil War? Instant classics, I'd say.

Are we talking only about autobiographies? If we can mention fiction, then the first things to mention would be Im Westen nicht neues by Remarque, In the Trenches of Stalingrad by Viktor Nekrasov, Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, The Red Cavalry by Isaak Babel, Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman, Die Apfelchen (The Little Apple) by Leo Perutz... (for some of these I don't know whether the titles were retained in translation...

There are many more, of course (does the war from War and Peace count? Does La Chartreuse de Parme?)

This constant worrier appreciates the soothing balm of potential good tidings listed but politics is a phenomenon much too ephemeral for civilization-scale reckoning, I think.

So, the puzzle to solve is twofold: first, where on the decline curve we actually find ourselves; and second, how fast a new civilization that is congenial to our hopes and expectations could rise after this one sees its demise.

There are so many parameters and so much uncertainty in trying to solve this puzzle that it's not worth even trying. Therefore, Peter is right: let's be merry as long as we can and let's keep trying!

So, Happy New Year to all the rebounders at Ricochet!

This is impressive! Hitchens remembers Guy Wetmore Carryl.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Wetmore_Carryl

The incomparable world of parody... I wish I knew more of its Anglo-American incarnation.

I was originally steeped in its Russian and Ukrainian variants (for the latter, try the 1798 version of the Aeneid by Ivan Kotlarevsky), which is too remote for much dinner conversation...

Hey Judith -

Are you sure that you don't need another "yud" at the end of the nice rendering of the name of this site in your headline? As is, it looks to me like a nice Hungarian last name (smile)...

Am coming over for a long-overdue visit in January. Can't wait!..

Of course, in the country of my geographical origins the main "civilian" holiday of the year was the one that's coming in 4 days. So, even though the sheen of those celebrations has faded in my memory, happy ליל סילבסתר and the rest of the year to you and yours!

My memory may be not what it used to be - but isn't it the case that AT&T offered to create and support Bell Labs (and its basic research) in return for some special consideration wrt anti-trust issues raised against it?

Aaron - I've been out of that neck of the woods for 35 years (lucky me!); so, I don't have first-hand impressions; still: a) he is a typical Russian boss, a law upon himself, expecting everybody to be plotting against him, believing only in force, stooping to propaganda when force does not work directly; caring nothing about the citizens, etc., etc. The masses in Russia LOVE him for being "strong", for "showing it" to America, etc. SO, he is, in fact, what the people want (I don't count a few million dissenters). He hopes to KEEP his power - nothing much more, I am afraid. He may be forced out of power, sure, but only by somebody who is more ruthless. Just my $0.02

http://news.icanhascheezburger.com/2010/09/04/political-pictures-putin-ritz-2/

or

http://putincracker.ytmnd.com/

or, maybe,

http://skiptucker.blogspot.com/2010/05/putin-on-ritz.html

Well, I didn't click on the pictures and I was not sure of it but it did immediately look to me like Lake Lugano with Mt. San Salvatore... Visited that place many times, for work mostly... Beautiful.

As to my personal route, here it is: Kharkov, USSR (now, Kharkiv, Ukraine - in my passport it says that I was born in Ukraine, but there was no country like that till I was almost 40!)* --> Jerusalem and then a rather predictable chain of university places in the US: Hamilton, NY --> Pittsburgh, PA --> Las Cruces, NM --> Baltimore, MD. Happiest memories are from Jerusalem... But a good job is a mighty magnet...

*As usual, this reminds me of a joke: Vienna, 1928. "Professor, do you know how last night's Austria - Hungary game ended?" "No, whom did vee play?"

Start with the Rabbit novels. Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit at Rest...