Shut Up, I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government--A Memoir

The author, probably because of his youth, shows consistently a superior and patronizing attitude.
Probably due to his "outsider" point of view, he generalizes and presents negative stereotypes from just a few personal unpleasant incidents.
If you read it for laughs or to gain some understanding of the complicated situation of the Middle East, you will be disappointed.
I was.

I liked the concept of this book. Take the state of Israel and turn it into a Seinfeld episode. The writing style is rather basic and so flat, that it detracts from the revelations of the narrative. Also, too many lapses in the time line make for a heavily disjointed narrative. You often want to know more about his side trips to South Africa, than his glossed over, day-to-day grind in Tel Aviv.
Mildly amusing, but would have been a better New Yorker story than an actual book.

Levey, Gregory. "Shut Up, I'm Talking and Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government", Free Press, 2008.

A Laugh Riot

Amos Lassen

I do not think that many of us laugh when we think of the inner workings of government agencies but Gregory Levey knows differently. In fact, reading "Shut Up, I'm Talking" explains, in its own way, why the Middle East is so hard to understand.
Levey was once a speechwriter for the Israeli delegation to the United Nations when he was only 25 years old. He was thrust into a world of foreign ministers, heads of state and American senators and before he knew it he was attending sessions at the U.N. as well as being responsible for the drafting of major statements of the Israeli government. Then he was transferred to Jerusalem to be the speech writer for then prime minister Ariel Sharon,
I found myself laughing aloud while reading the book and then running to the phone to call a friend and tell it to him. Levey was in Israel for three years during which Arafat died, the intifada continued, Hamas rose to power and Sharon had the stroke that has left him in a coma. He takes us inside the government of Israel and we see how casual the workings are and as well as how the government works behind the scenes.
As a non-citizen of Israel he sat in the Israeli seat at the United Nations General Assembly and when an important vote came up, he not only had no idea of how to vote but he had virtually no idea of what was being voted on.
Levey mixes satire and reality to give us the poetical picture and we learn that he became interested in Israel when he came to law school in New York and decided to volunteer for the Israel Defense Forces. He is a Jewish Canadian and since he had time before he was due to report for military service, he applied for an internship at the Israel Mission to the U.N. and it is from that point that the comedy begins.
If you want to learn about Israeli politics this is not the book for you but if you want to laugh then you are at the right place.

** AUTHOR'S NOTE **
"As I write this note, things don't look good in the Middle East. I'm not sure when you're reading this, but I assume that things still don't look good in the Middle East, because they never really do."
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The author Gregory Levey at the age of twenty-five-years-old and not even an Israeli citizen found himself sitting alone at the State of Israel's seat at the United Nations General Assembly. An important vote was about to take place, and he not only didn't know which way to vote on the resolution... he didn't even know what the resolution was!

This humorous and almost satirical yet somber situation was all set in motion innocently enough when Greg became bored in his second year of law school. The author being Jewish and a Canadian citizen going to school in New York decided to volunteer to serve in the Israeli army. After he signed up on-line for the army he still had a number of months ahead of him until he had to report to Israel. Unwilling to accept the monotonous months of waiting ahead he decided to apply for an internship at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations. What follows could provide enough fodder for a full season of hilarious sitcom material. As Greg followed up on his application, over and over again, without any positive results, he showed dogged determination and made yet another phone call to yet another person who told him to fax his resume directly to her. After still no response Greg gave up on the whole idea and left for Christmas break.

After he returned to New York in January he got a strange call from a man named Yaron from Israeli security. This led to many, many, phone calls with varying degrees of time between each clandestine call, with questions that ranged from "what side of the street did he live on?" to questions about the Jewish summer camp he attended as a child. Finally an interview was set up with Israeli Ambassador Mekel. The first thing the Ambassador said was: "You look perfect on paper, so there must be something wrong with you." During the interview the Ambassador told Greg there is no internship program but offered him a deputy speechwriter job on a part-time basis, because the regular speechwriter was going to be leaving and if everything went well he could take over fulltime. "Greg accepted the offer, but told him that as a Canadian, he was not eligible to work in the United States. The Ambassador shook his head before he even finished the sentence and said, "I can hire anyone I want. We'll just change your status from student to DIPLOMAT!" "So that was it. From the U.S. State Department's point of view, Greg was going to be an Israeli Diplomat, even though he wasn't an Israeli citizen." Greg had come in the hope of getting an internship and walked out as an Israeli Diplomat.

From there Greg starts writing speeches for Ambassador's in New York and gets noticed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's staff in Israel, and as a favor writes a speech for the Prime Minister. While working in the Mission in New York he takes a vacation in Israel and takes a course in "combat firearms". He subsequently takes another vacation and goes to Israel and takes an "intelligence and counterintelligence" course, and as part of an assignment has to go undercover as "Joey Shmeltz". He then gets invited to come to Israel and work on Prime Minister Sharon's staff. From there on out the author provides a never before seen "outsider's" view of the "inside" of the tumultuous stress that Israeli's face daily as a people and as a nation with a smattering of rye humor along the way.

Levey is one of the funniest writer's I've read in a while. The best pieces in here are funny to the point that I laughed out loud in public. In fact, the best pieces are so good that you seek to retell it to your friends, yet sadly realize that you don't have the 1/10th the storytelling chops of Levey.

Beyond the humor, Levey is endearing and honest. Indeed, his stories are as funny as they are because they are wrapped in the context of Levey's empathy and thoughtfulness. I've purchased this book already for three friends, and look forward to further giving it away to people who haven't had the pleasure of reading it. If you haven't read this book, it is a must. I am very much anticipating his next work!