In today’s news, Palestinians and Jews are more likely to meet over Kalashnikovs than coffee, but in Prisoners, a new book, New Yorker writer Jeffrey Goldberg portrays a friendship between himself, a committed Jew, and Rafiq Hijazi, a radical Palestinian. Goldberg was Hijazi’s prison guard in Israel in 1990.
In raw prose, Goldberg’s memoir paints them both as prisoners of their pasts and describes how they come together as friends years later in DC.
Goldberg was a Washington Post reporter and now writes the New Yorker’s Letter From Washington column.
Post political editor John Harris warmed up to ABC political director Mark Halperin when both were covering the Clinton White House. After Harris’s book on Bill Clinton, his publisher asked for one on George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove. Knowing he needed backup, Harris approached Halperin, and their collaboration— The Way To Win: Taking the White House in 2008 —comes out in October.
The narrative, jammed with memos and interviews with Clinton and Rove, is a look back spun to look forward.
Says Harris: “Bill Clinton will definitely be the strategist for Hillary’s campaign.”
