The Audio File: Miriam and Youssef

So, the audio drama we're looking at deals with the origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, and the founding of the State of Israel. Well, I can see absolutely zero ways that this could go pear-shaped. For those of you who couldn't tell, that was sarcasm. Well, no point in putting it off any further, so let's just get into it. We're taking a look at the audio drama Miriam and Youssef.

Miriam and Youssef tells the story of the British Mandate of Palestine and the founding of the State of Israel. It does so by following a Jewish woman named Miriam and a Palestinian man named Youssef. Miriam came to the Mandate of Palestine to escape persecution in Poland, and is optimistic about the future of the fledgling Jewish State. Youssef was born and raised in the village of Deir Yassin, just outside of Jerusalem. He's cautiously optimistic about the changes the British bring to Palestine, but fate has other plans. It is these two who will serve as our eyes as we explore the history of the British Mandate of Palestine. We begin in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration and the founding of the Mandate, and end in 1948, with the founding of the State of Israel.

Miriam and Youssef is created by Steve Walters and is a production of the BBC World Service. Steve previously teamed up with the BBC World Service to create the excellent audio drama Fall of the Shah. It is because of this that I was willing to give Miriam and Youssef the benefit of the doubt. And it would seem that my faith was not misplaced. So, a bit more background about Steve Waters. He worked on a kibbutz in Israel when he was a teenager. Kibbutz are a type of Israeli communal farms. So, he obviously got to know many Israelis, but he also met several Palestinians and learned their stories and perspectives.

As part of his research for Miriam and Youssef, Steve worked with several Israeli historians and scholars who have begun to question the traditional narrative of the founding of the State of Israel. These scholars argue that traditional narratives largely ignore the Palestinian perspective, and downplay Israel's less than shining moments. Was he right to do this? Are these scholars really worth their salt? I freely admit that I don't know the answer. I'm just letting you know so that you know what perspective Miriam and Youssef is aiming for.

For what it's worth, Steve has stated that he believes the creation of a Jewish state in the Levant was justified and necessary, especially after the Holocaust. That having been said, he also believes that Israel did wrong by the Palestinians.

Well, time to see how well I can navigate this mine field. So, what do I think? No nation is perfect or immune to criticism, and that includes Israel. I would say there probably were mistake made along the way. On the other hand, few other nations have their right to exist so often called into question. I also think they don't get enough credit for the good that they do. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East where you can have gay pride parades. Almost all of the Arab gay rights organizations are headquartered in Israel, because there is nowhere else in the Middle East they can do so. Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of conservative religious Jew in the Knesset, and in Israeli society in general. Still, Israel remains far more secular and liberal than pretty much all of its neighbors. The Middle East needs all the secularism and liberalism it can get.

On the flip side, Palestine is dominated by Muslim fundamentalists and other radicals who aren't above bombing school buses and targeting civilians. There's a reason Israel needs its Iron Dome missile defense system. One State? Two State? I don't know, I really don't know. Honestly, there is no easy answer, I don't expect a solution anytime soon. Still, there is a small, but hopefully growing, movement among young Jews and Palestinians living in Israel to move on from the past, and work towards a common future. We can only hope this is the case. Also, Arabs account for nearly twenty percent of Israel's population. Not all Palestinians live in the Palestinian Territories. Some do live in Israel proper. Just letting you all know where my thoughts and biases are.

Well, now that I have alienated just about everyone by discussing modern-day politics, let's get back to the podcast. This means we now get to discuss 1917-1948 politics. I will say that it is interesting that the series begins in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration. Usually, works exploring the origins of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, begin in 1948, with the founding of the State of Israel. By contrast, that is where Miriam and Youssef ends. You don't really see the British Mandate of Palestine explored in fiction very often, so this was a nice change of pace. This means we also get the preservative of British people who moved to Palestine during this time. We do so through the eyes of, arguably, our third main character: Harry Lister. He's a British civil servant stationed in Jerusalem. Unlike most of the other civil servants, he makes an effort to connect with the locals and learn their culture. He winds up befriending both Miriam and Youssef over the course of the series.

In fact, the podcast actually argues that the British are most to blame for the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Throughout the series we see the British do only the bare minimum required to keep peace between the Jews and Palestinians. Even this rarely proves sufficient. The podcast argues that the British made no effort to integrate the Jews and Palestinians, and often inadvertently fanned the flames of resentment. It's rather telling that, by the end of the series, both Jew and Palestinian alike are revolting against the British. The episode set in 1942 is especially sad. It intersperses the story of Miriam and Youssef with the story of a boat of Jewish refugees desperate to escape the Holocaust. They arrive in Palestine, only to be turned away because the British are limiting Jewish immigration to appease the Arabs. The ship spends several weeks docked at a Turkish port before it is torpedoed. It is a somber reminder that Miriam is lucky she got to Palestine when she did.

Interesting that the British are assigned the most blame. That's not a perspective you see too often in discussions about the Arab-Israeli Conflict. But the series doesn't just leave it at that. If anything, the blame is placed on the fear and mistrust both sides had for each other. Distrust leads to fear, fear leads to hate, hate leads to violence. This is best demonstrated in episode two. Jews and Arabs are doing work near the Western Wall, and some small bits of rock fall. The Arabs and Jews immediately get into a fight with each other. Worse, the Arabs have been wary about the Jews building kibbutz, and use the riot as an excuse to attack the kibbutz. Earlier, the Jews has been debating about if the kibbutz needed to have more security, or if they were worrying for nothing. It would seem they had good reason to be wary.

Now let's talk about our two leads. Miriam starts off very optimistic about the possibility of a Jewish state in Palestine. By the end of the series, she's still cautiously optimistic, though it is an optimism tempered with the world weariness of life experience. She quickly rises through the ranks of leadership within her local kibbutz. She also winds up working for the British administration in Palestine, which is how she meets Harry.

Miriam also rubs shoulders with several figures involved in the founding of Israel. For example, she frequently mentions having a cousin named Ben Gurion. When we finally meet him, it becomes clear that he is David Ben Gurion, one of the founding fathers of Israel. I can best describe him as the George Washington of Israel, as he was the first prime minister of Israel. In other figures, Miriam also works as the assistant to Rabbi Judah Magnes. He was a rabbi from New York City who was one of the leading voices of the Reform Judaism movement. He was a major propionate of the One-State Solution, with him envisioning Palestine as a multinational joint Arab-Jewish state. I guess he envisioned it as a federation of sorts.

Miriam's views on the Arabs shift throughout the series. She starts out reasonably open to coexistence, but then the attack on the kibbutz happens. Miriam's mother is among the causalities, which rather sours Miriam's views on the Arabs. As the series progresses, however, she begins to disavow the more extreme elements of Jewish resistance. Her major turning point when she participates in the bombing of the King David Hotel and the French Embassy. By that point, the Jews had grown angry with the British for failing to protect them from the Arabs, and for turning away Holocaust refugees; so the Jews began armed resistance against the British. Miriam grows guilty and try to warn the hotel, but it proves too little too late. Well, that and real history said the bombing had to happen.

Youssef is, in many ways, not all that different than Miriam. He starts out uncertain about the Jews and the British. He finds opportunity by attending British-run schools, and working for the British civil service, but these prove unsatisfying. He frequently finds himself falling in and out with various extremist groups. Usually, he'll try to do things the nice way, but then circumstances force his hand. In so, the series ask the question of just what drives someone to become an extremist? Ultimately, however, he rejects extremism, but doesn't necessarily accept peace. By the end of the series he's world weary and jaded, but accepts things as they are. The same can be said of Miriam.

Now, I do have a few criticisms of the series. For example, I felt like it seriously downplayed the role of religion in the conflict. Now, it is certainly true that there were more factors than just religion that went into the Arab-Israeli Conflict. For example, many Arabs weren't keen on having a largely scalar and westernized people moving in on their territory. However, to flat out ignore the role of religion in the conflict is, I would say, a major oversight. Also, I couldn't help but feel that Youssef and his family were awfully open-minded and liberal for their culture and time-period.  Arab antisemitism has roots way before the British Mandate of Palestine was established. In fact, it goes all the way back to the Prophet Mohammad himself. There were some Jews and Muslims living together in the Middle East, true. However, just because they weren't loping each other's heads off doesn't mean they got along particularly well.

Now, you could argue that Youssef and his family weren't meant to represent all Palestinians. Likewise, Miriam and her family aren't meant to represent all Israelis. It is the focus on the human element of the story that makes this podcast work so well. Still, there were a few times it felt like the podcast tried a little too hard to be sympathetic to the Palestinians. For example, at one point, Youssef bemoans that his father has been unjustly imprisoned. He conveniently leaves out the fact that his father was imprisoned because a hateful speech he gave caused the Arabs to riot against the Jews. The riot eventually leads to the attack on the kibbutz that claimed the life of Miriam's mother.

I think the podcast might have acknowledged this in a way. In episode three, Miriam and Rabbi Magnes are discussing the kibbutz massacre, and Magnes basically says "well, it is understandable why the Arabs attacked." Obviously, Miriam is having none of it and breaks-off their friendship. Even if Magnes might have had a point, it probably wasn't such a good idea to say so just after Miriam had lost her mother. He definitely could have been more tactful and sensitive.

On the other hand, there were plenty of well-written and powerful moments. The most notable of these was the depiction of the Deir Yassin Massacre. For those who don't know, Deir Yassin used to be a village located just outside Jerusalem. It had a population of about 600. During the War of 1948, a far-right Jewish paramilitia attacked the village, almost all of whom were unarmed civilians. To be fair, Israeli leaders, and international Jews such as Albert Einstein, condemned the massacre. All the same, it became a major rallying cry for the Arabs. Mind you, most Arabs don't love Palestinians. In fact, Palestinians are considered the bottom of the totem pole in most Arab nations. The Arabs primarily supported them to get back at Israel. Pretty much the only Middle Eastern nation, besides Israel, were Palestinians aren't still in camps is Jordan. And they aren't in a rush to give citizenship to Palestinian refugees, because if they did, Jordanians would be a minority in their own country.

Despite all of this, and despite acknowledging the massacre, the Israeli government hasn't really done anything to commemorate it. There were calls for the village to be abandoned permanently, but these were rejected. In fact, this is briefly depicted in the show. Today, a mental hospital sits on the former sit of the village. You can still see the ruins of the village in the hospital courtyards. Like the bombing of the King David Hotel, it is very much an example of the persecuted becoming the persecutors, and the hunted becoming the hunters.

Still, overall, I did very much enjoy Miriam and Youssef. Steve Waters said that originally, he wanted the series to be forty episodes long, but the BBC made him cut it down to ten. Perhaps if it has been forty episodes long, we would have gotten more nuance, well, more than what we already got. He also said that he could easily have made it about all the political maneuverings within the British government that allowed for the creation of the British Mandate of Palestine. Hey, I'd give it a listen. More than just that, I'd love to see what Steve could do with the history of Israel post-1948. Perhaps we'll get a sequel series one day. For the moment, though, that is only in our dreams. Of course, I'm also eager to see what Steve Waters can do with other eras of World History.

So there you have it. Miriam and Youssef tells the story of the British Mandate of Palestine and the founding of the State of Israel. It does so by examining these events through the eyes of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. It is a well-made and well-written podcast, and I happily recommend it.

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.