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Political speeches as well as municipal rhetoric paint the phenomena of terrorism along furthermore a black-and-white brush, granting it since a individual battle between evildoers furthermore heroes. With The Achille Lauro Hijacking“, Michael K. Bohn, who watched the episode unfold delight in the White House Situation Room, uses single of the various infamous terrorist events of the times of yore twenty-five days to analyze the folly of such oversimplified jingoisms. The 1985 hijacking of the Italian tour ship, the remarkable search out of the terrorists, along with a before now untold narrative of American bigotry come collectively inside this essay since a case probe inside the multifaceted forces that traumatize both terrorism with the rejoinder that it triggers.

In October 1985, four Palestinian people at large hijacked an Italian tour ship, Achille Lauro, holding hundreds hostage as two days. The hijackers execute a partially disabled, sixty-nine once a year aged Jewish American, Leon Klinghoffer, with threw his body into the sea. Many have in mind Klinghoffer’s death, however few recognize of the abundant murder linked plus the hijacking, that of Alex Odeh. Odeh defended on television tube Yasser Arafat’s comprehensible role inside defusing the hijacking. He was annihilate the subsequently sunlight hours by a terrorist’s bomb, which burst for he spread out the access door of his Los Angeles place of work – the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Palestinians exterminate Klinghoffer for he was Jewish, likewise Jewish extremists wiped out Odeh for the reason that he was a Palestinian. The Klinghoffer family’s lengthy campaign to transfer the hijacking mastermind, Abu Abbas, to justice was partially content also his April 2003 draw inside Iraq. The Odeh relations in addition waits for the reason that bills to troth conveyed opposition Alex’s murderers, a conspicuously distressing circumstance given that Israel, America’s comrade furthermore ally, refuses to extradite two suspects.

These two deaths pale inside comparison to the atrocities of September 11, 2001. Yet comprehension both the Achille Lauro incident, along with the tremendous sequence of functions that followed, will facilitate Americans improved discern the peril of terrorism. Terrorism is not an enemy, it is a policy chosen by various to also partisan goals. Terrorism is not merely just about transgression as well as punishment; it is just about violence, current politics, prejudice, hatred, land, religion, greed, money, in addition to a host of venal issues that affect man society. All of these forces are bestow the Achille Lauro hijacking plus its aftermath.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #747158 inside Books
• Published on: 2004-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.18 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Good volume on the Achille Lauro hijacking and aftermath
By G.C.
In October 1985, the world and US media were gripped by the hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro by 4 Palestinians, and subsequently were revolted at the hijackers’ murder of the elderly, wheelchair-bound US passenger Leon Klinghoffer. Michael Bohn worked in the Reagan Administration at the time, and reviews the history of the hijacking and its aftermath in this book. He also tries to draw lessons and parallels in how the media and Americans demonized Palestinians then with anti-Muslim hysteria and xenophobia in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. As well, Bohn recalls the murder of the Palestinian-American activist Alex Odeh in the wake of controversial remarks that Odeh made after Klinghoffer’s murder became known, but where there was much less attention at Odeh’s murder compared to Klinghoffer’s.

Bohn does a good job with his coverage of the history surrounding the hijacking and how his colleagues in the Reagan administration handled the events, although one has to be aware of a slight lack of emotional distancing when he continually refers to “Bud MacFarlane” (not “Robert MacFarlane”) and “Ollie North” (rather than “Oliver North”). He does take pains to try to bring Odeh’s story from out of the cold in the overall history of these events, to emphasize that the way Odeh was murdered was just as monstrous as the way that Leon Klinghoffer was murdered. Yet perhaps unwittingly, as a reflection of the coverage at the time, it’s perhaps inevitable that the Odeh aspect of the history would occupy less space compared to the Klinghoffer aspect, regarding pursuit of justice and of the murderers in both cases. Bohn also has an “interlude” chapter about the history of the Achille Lauro itself, in the middle of the book, which sort of disrupts the linearity of the narrative. He also notes how this incident was treated in various made-for-TV movies in both the USA and Europe, with different worldviews and degrees of political understanding and sophistication.

Bohn’s point that there are lessons to learn in how the US media particularly treat both sides in Middle East-related events still rings true now, as does the subliminal message that Americans need to be aware of the social contexts and historical perspectives of other cultures besides their own, to look past individuals to see larger pictures as well. For a refresher course on this past tragedy, with caveats noted, this book is worth a read.

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