The Redhunter

I became intersted in this book after hearing Gabriel as a guest on one or another conservative radio talk shows. She speaks a mile a minute, reminding me of Camile Paglia with a Middle Eastern accent. Gabriel came across as knowledgeable about the Middle East and Muslims in general, and so after hearing about her book I put it on my Christmas list.

The Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990 was a terribly complex affair, with many factions and foreign powers involved. All sides committed atrocities and war crimes, and alliances shifted back and forth many times. It was not quite all Muslim vs Christian, although that did characterize much of it. Rather than try and summarize the whole affair, I'll simply direct readers to the Wikipedia entry, which seems as good an account as any I could find.

What Gabriel saw was her childhood shattered by Muslim militias attacking her town and Christian miltias defending it. The Muslims had the upper hand in her region, effectively subjecting her village to a siege that lasted several years. In her account, snipers roamed the hills surrounding their town and artillery fire was a constant, which wa s why most families in the area had moved into makeshift underground bomb shelters.

Gabriel's view of the world changed dramatically when managed to get her mother to a hospital in Israel. Wounded by artillery fire towards the end of this seven year experience, the Israelis saved her mother's life. All her life she had listened to the Arab media describe the Israelis as devils. Her Maronite community apparently shared this extremist opinion. Her experience at the hospital changed her view of Israelis dramatically and made her question the Arab media accounts that she had heard all of her life.

The 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon ended the Muslim siege of her town and allowed her to resume a somewhat normal life.

To make a long story short, she got a job working as a secretary for an Israeli general at a nearby base , which eventually led to a job as a TV journalist at World News in Israel. Now exposed to all media sources from around the world, and able to meet and speak freely with journalists from many countries, she realized that much of what she had been told as a child was a lie.

Her story of her life in Lebanon and israel is the best part of the book. It moves quickly and Gabriel does not get bogged down in details fo the Lebanese Civil War. It is at once a gripping action-adventure story and tragic tale. This part alone makes the book worthwhile.

The second part of the book starts out fairly well, with chapters on the "Clash of Civilizations" and "Terrorists Among Us". The best chapter is arguably "Societies are Not Created Equal", where because of her personal knowledge of the Middle East she can speak with some authority. However, you can't help but notice that she tends to paint with too broad a brush, not taking into account individual differences in Arab/Muslim societies.

The book also could have used a good editor. Gabriel has a bad tendency to write like one speaks. There are altogether too many exclamation points and rhetorical questions. At times the subject of her writing drifts around, and while it's not hard to follow her points, it is a bit disconcerting

All this said, she is mostly right. Radical Islam is a threat to the very existence of the Western world. They do want to establish a global caliphate. Muslim societies are mostly terrible places, something we are finding out in Iraq. Muslim media spread unbelievable lies. There are moderate Muslims, but most in the West tend not to speak up, and those who do find themselves isolated or denounced by "mainstream" Islamic organizations. Political correctness and the refusal of many on the left to recognize that radical Islam presents a problem at all inhibit a strong response.

Now living in the Washington DC area, Gabriel is the founder of Ameican Congress for Truth, whose mission is to educate Americans on the threat posed by radical Islam. The book jacket describes her as "a journalist and news producer...terrorism expert... (who) travels widely and speaks regularly on topics related to the Middle East. She has appeared extensively on television and radio, and has given hundreds of lectures nationally and internationally."

No doubt she has made many enemies. In her book she describes some of her lectures at universities in which she required police protection. The entry about her at Wikipedia is nothing but a political hit piece (and a warning about it's reliability), one I intend to rectify at some point.

You can get a much of her story by viewing this lecture that she gave at The Heritage Foundation.

All in all a worthwhile book. Her warning is timely, and despite the book's faults we ought to take heed.