Showing posts with label novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label novel. Show all posts

Saturday, April 13, 2024

A Letter to a Peace-Loving Humanitarian

 

The following letter is my response to an activist who tried to recruit me for his cause of "Strategy of Nonviolence, For the Children." 




Dear Mr. Sheldon,

          Thank you for writing to me, as it gives me the opportunity to explain that despite your good intentions, your initiative is, unfortunately, misguided, if not outright hateful and fateful.

            The idea of an enforced cease-fire between Israel, a democratic state and Hamas, a terror organization, means only one thing: the terror organization will continue to pursue its declared goal of eliminating Israel and killing its entire population. You will be prohibiting Israel from responding to murderous attacks on her populace. Not only has Hamas been showering Israel for years with thousands of daily missiles aimed at the civilian population—which had not prompted you to announce an initiative to force Hamas to stop—but Hamas broke every ceasefire ever negotiated with them. 

            How is your forcing Israel to stop fighting Hamas promotes peace? All it will do is strengthen and legitimize the terror organization which has declared that October 7th was only “a rehearsal” and that it would continue to repeat these barbaric atrocities to eliminate Israel. 

            Why isn’t your first call to demand that Hamas return the hostages? Why doesn’t your “strategy for non-violence” begin with a demand that Hamas surrender and stop using the Palestinian population as human shields? 

            You’ve had plenty of chances to take initiative. For years you could have demanded that US and Europe stop funneling money through the UN to perpetuate indefinite refugee status of the Palestinians. Tens of millions of displaces people after WWII had long been resettled. None is claiming to be a refugee three generations later, even while living in other countries, where they have made a home. Definitely not the Jews, who’d lost more than any other ethnic or national group. 

            Why haven’t you demanded—or demanding now—that the Arab countries who had exploited these people in 1948 with their murderous intention of annihilating Israel, now take responsibility for the results? None has ever offered to absorb a single Palestinian family. In fact, most have enacted apartheid laws against the Palestinians’ entry and integration. Unlike Israel which had provided employment to tens of thousands Gazans daily, Egypt had sealed its border with Gaza. 

            For your information, in 1948, the population in Gaza was about 300,000. It has since swelled to 2 million. In 2030, Gaza's population is projected to reach 3 million. Yes, in only six years it will grow by 50%. Whose responsibility is that? Where do you want these people to live? 

            Asking the question differently: What should the world do for this population you so care about when it grows additional 50% six years later, reaching over 4 million? Taking over modern-day Israel and killing the Jews living there? 

            Why haven’t you cried out your indignation when, for 75 years, UNRWA-sponsored schools taught children not only how to hate Jews, but how to use weapons to kill them, viewing Jews as less than humans? Why haven’t you cried out when you heard time and again that Palestinian parents’ greatest hopes for their children were for them to become “martyrs” who kill Jews? Where was your initiative when your tax dollars paid for militant summer camps teaching Palestinian children to kill? 

            What you now learn about children killed in Gaza, is that thousands of them are teenagers fighting as terrorists they had been indoctrinated to become. What was your strategy of non-violence for these children then, and what is it now? 

            The atrocities visited upon the Jews on October 7th were rarely recorded in their intensity, barbarism, and severity in modern human history. Yet, your past silence allowed it to happen. Your future “initiative” will make such final genocide of Jews in Israel a fact. 

            Where are your Christian sensitivities and benevolence when you accept the beheading of Jewish babies in their cribs and the lopping off of women’s breasts? What about shooting nails into women’s vaginas? How about gouging out a father’s eyes in front of his children, or burning a whole family alive in their home? 

            This will be the fate of the Jews under the repeat torture and massacre that your “non-violent cease-fire” will bring.  

            Cease-fire does not mean non-violence as you state. It means increased violence against the Jews of Israel. That is exactly what you preach. 

            Yes, Mr. Sheldon, there is a lot of work to be done, but the first of it is to support Israel which is under constant, unrelenting attack by terrorists whose actions against both populations—Israelis and Palestinians—are accepted by you and by other misguided good souls cheered on by mobs of anti-Semites. The cost of the war to both sides is enormous, but stopping it before it achieves its ultimate goal of eliminating Hamas only means the end of Israel, while giving legitimacy to a terror organization.  

            You can help stop the war. When you present your views to your list of misguided supporters and to the UN Secretary-General, please demand that the onus for achieving peace is on the world to stop terrorism. Demand Hamas’s unconditional surrender, just as ISIS was defeated. Demand the immediate return the hostages—and the end the war on Israel. 

            Please do not shift your gaze, for one minute, from the one entity that can stop the war: Hamas

            By doing so you’ll be freeing the Palestinian people, who may not be enamored of Israel, but whose suffering is wholly the result of years of oppression, corruption, and savagery by Hamas. Without Hamas, the war with Israel will stop and, with time and a different educational approach, these people may begin to have a vision of peace and prosperity. 

            It’s a simple as that. 

            Then you may turn to the world to fix the evil of UNRWA and the barbaric teaching of hate under its sponsorship. You may see future funding of Gaza not exploited for the construction of war-designated tunnels, but for the civilian purposes of building a society whose institutions carry out a vision of economic growth. 

            Mr. Sheldon, I urge you to rechannel your energy to support Israel, not to make her the victim of another Holocaust, as Hamas promises to do.

 Shalom,

Talia Carner

www.TaliaCarner.com 


Talia Carner is a novelist with HarperCollins. Her latest novel is THE BOY WITH THE STAR TATTOO. 

Sharon, an assistant to an Israeli naval officer stationed in Normandy, France, is intent on tracing his orphan roots to the French village from where he had been rescued post-WWII. When she identifies the mother who had tragically lost him, Sharon is unprepared for the shock of her discovery.


 

 

Sunday, September 12, 2021

Talia Tells Tales--Late Summer 2021

 

Many of us are breathing a bit easier....

Not back in Paris yet....

The battle is far from over, yet compared with the previous months of total isolation, many of us have been picking up the pieces--hopefully with extra precautions....

We see friends and dine out; some step back into deserted offices and gyms; we hug our children and cousins; we schedule medical check-ups--and greet neighbors with a smile.

But as many of my friends and readers tell me, most have gained a new perspective with shifting priorities and interests. But one thing remains constant: Books are here to stay!

Celebrate with me the second anniversary of THE THIRD DAUGHTER:

September marks the second anniversary of the novel's launch, and since then THE THIRD DAUGHTER has garnered thousands of rave reviews, The Jewish Book Council Award seal--and invitations for me to present at over 320 events (mostly on Zoom).

I've received many emails from readers who would have liked to hear my talks, but do not belong to any of the clubs or communities that have scheduled me. Therefore, I will be giving an anniversary Zoom talk and open Q&A to respond to your questions and to share insights about the novel, from its historical background to the creative process of shaping research into a compelling novel--and the anti sex-trafficking activism the book has inspired.

Please join me for an open Zoom chat on Tuesday, September 14th at 7:00 PM (ET). Please click to register


How cool is this?

A-Word-A-Day calendar has selected to quote from my novel, HOTEL MOSCOW, when introducing its subscribers to the phrase "golden parachute."

I thought it was super cool....

My next novel? In progress....

Yes, I've been working on another novel for a few years, since the idea for a historical Jewish novel set in France hit me in 2017 while I was still writing THE THIRD DAUGHTER. I ended up conducting 20 interviews in Israel, the US, and France--including four trips to France within three pre-pandemic years.

The novel, titled THE BOY WITH THE STAR TATTOO, has found its groove, but I must return to France (perhaps October?) to tie up many physical details. In the meantime, I enjoy editing it on the beach.

The novel covers two separate events in Normandy and the Loire Valley. (No publishing date yet before 2023.)

September milestones in women's history:

2019 pre-COVID meeting at the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

September 14, 1964 – Helen Keller receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom


September 20, 1973 – Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in the battle of the sexes tennis match


September 25, 1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn in as the first woman U.S. Supreme Court Justice


Some of my novels tell unique stories of women's history: JERUSALEM MAIDEN (lives of Jewish women in traditional Jerusalem, entrusted with the impossible mission of saving world Jewry), HOTEL MOSCOW (the trials and challenges for Russian women during transition from communism), and THE THIRD DAUGHTER (exposing our most painful chapter of legal sex trafficking).


Some in-person events resume, but also a new hybrid format!

Since the start of the pandemic, I've presented 300 Zoom talks!

Some groups are moving into in-person gatherings, but enjoy a long-distance author talk. Members get together, but the author is projected via Zoom!

Dispersed communities that could not previously afford to fly authors across the country (or authors' time did not permit such trips) are continuing their programming via Zoom.

If you're considering an outreach program for your membership, please contact my event coordinator, Helaine Denenberg, at MecoxHudson@gmail.com or (617)329-5651 for our flyer of speaking topics.

NOTE: Audible promotion on Labor Day weekend for the THE THIRD DAUGHTER!

Watch out for a Labor Day promotion, under "Easy Listening," at Audible.


Thank you for your enthusiasm and support! Forward to a Friend

Each week I receive heart-warming emails from readers. There is no greater pleasure for an author than to share her work with an appreciative audience.

Thousands of readers post reviews. Here's one of over 3,000 on GoodReads.com: "I enjoyed every minute of this book! Talia is an outstanding writer. Her writing flows and captivates the reader. The characters are well developed and will evoke either deep affection or enmity. Talia is a master at her craft. Read this book for enjoyment and a little-known history that needs to be told."

I am looking forward to a promising Fall 2021--and to connecting with you through the spoken and written word, a gift that nothing can snatch away from us!

Wishing my Jewish readers and friends a happy and healthy New Year!

Talia

www.TaliaCarner.com

AuthorTalia@aol.com 

P.S. A reminder to post reviews as your gift to any author who's given you hours of engagement. (Here are the links to post reviews for THE THIRD DAUGHTER on Amazon and GoodReads.)

P.P.S. If you have not yet read THE THIRD DAUGHTER, please check out the first chapter on my website. I encourage you to support your local indie store, but it is also available on B&NAmazonand iTunes--as well as in LARGE PRINT!