Congregation Shema Yisrael

Author: Robert Baer
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (September 30, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0307408647
ISBN-13: 978-0307408648

“With this complicated worldview, it’s little wonder Americans have found it so difficult to understand Iran…”

That fragment of a sentence from the latter part of Baer’s book could pretty much sum up my attitudes of Iran and probably, to some degree, my perspective of this book, however let me backtrack.

Robert Baer’s book was recommended to me by someone I know online, through my “tweets” on twitter. Like many Americans and many believers in Jesus (Yeshua), I have a very specific and straightforward view of Iran and, for that matter Islam, relative to Israel and the Jewish people. My perspective of the forces in the Middle East tends to be more Biblical than political, and being a Westerner, I view the politics rather simplistically. This book, I imagine, was recommended to help enlighten my perspective.

I have to say that Baer does paint a vibrant picture of Middle Eastern dynamics, political, religious, and historical. His decades as a CIA operative in that part of the world has given him a viewpoint that most of us lack. He approached writing this book after leaving Government service and as a journalist and author. That said, he always seemed to be connecting back to his past experience and his ability to “read between the lines” of the words and actions of the people he describes and interviews, from Lebanon, to Iraq, to Iran.

The book is difficult to review, at least for me, because Baer doesn’t write a linear narrative as such. It’s as if each chapter were a piece of a pie and Baer serves up one slice of after the other, based on theme rather than sequence. The themes are sometimes as complex as the dynamics of the Middle East itself. I don’t say just “Iran” because, although Iran is the core topic of the book, to understand Baer’s points, he must take you though a tour of the past 30 years (and occasionally across centuries), across the various different Arab factions, different forms of Islam (principally Sunni and Shia) and all the different people groups involved.

Even before getting to the last chapter, it seemed apparent that, while Baer was trying to educate the American reader on the “true” Iran, dispelling myth, assumption, and stereotype, he was also guiding the reader to a predetermined goal; a goal that the reader is not likely to swallow easily, even after consuming all of the preceding chapters.

I don’t have any particular knowledge of Iran beyond what I read in the media, so I suppose Baer could make any observation and I’d have to trust it (or not) based on his background and experience. He presents an Iran that is not reckless or random, or even religiously zealous as we might imagine. While the passions are there and layer upon layer of secrecy is there, the book presents an Iran that is calculating, planful, and patient. It also presents an Iran that isn’t necessarily genocidal towards Israel, America, or the West in general.

I can’t “resubmit” all of Baer’s arguments. You’ll have to read the book yourself for that, but he does finally tip his hand regarding the purpose for writing the book. In his vision, he believes that Iran cannot be dismissed, ignored, or defeated, either politically, or in a military action. Baer suggests that our only option is to sit down at the negotiating table with Iran, treat Iran as an equal, and solemnly consider it’s desires and requirements.

The first reaction of most people reading the previous paragraph, particularly if you support Israel as I do, is probably one of resistance. Baer does say that, despite the rantings of Iran’s President Ahmadinejad (who Baer states is not the “actual” leader of Iran and does not hold true power), the destruction of Israel would not be one of the issues on the table. While the book was published last September, before America went to the polls to elect our current President, I can see much of what Baer suggests playing out in the political arena today.

As I read Baer’s book, I could imagine that President Obama used significant portions of it in crafting his approach to Iran and the Muslim world (of course, I have no idea if President Obama has ever read the book…I’m speculating). However, even Baer in his book asks the question, “Can we trust Iran”? Baer’s response is that we can judge Iran on it’s actions rather than it’s words (and he does admit that from an Islamic point of view, it is permitted to lie to an enemy), and then trust Iran based on those observations.

Baer says that Islam sees a moral struggle in the world between good and evil. His perspective on the Sunni Muslims is that they are “loose cannons”…the Islam of al Queda and the Taliban, and that their version of good and evil requires a total commitment to the destruction of that evil, including Israel and America. Shia Islam, the Islam of the Ayatollahs, is part of what Baer “hangs his hat on” when he says that America can reasonably deal with Iran and even partner with Iran in the Middle East (I can only imagine how that would go down with Israel, another one of our partners in that region of the world). The Shia according to Baer (and I’m oversimplifying for space) are more measured in their vision and do not come to fanatical conclusions that ignore political realities.

I ended up asking myself a few questions. Certainly, if Baer is drawing on years of CIA service to come to his conclusions, how come we haven’t seen any other powers draw these same conclusions (at least up until the Obama administration)? Does Iran really have the level of control that Baer suggests, as if Iran can halt most of the destruction in the Middle East if we become “allied” with them? Are they holding that many cards in the game and if so, how come no one has responded to Iran as such before this? Why doesn’t there seem to be any indication that the CIA or other intelligence organizations see Iran in a similar light? If everything this book is based on comes from Baer’s CIA experience, you’d think it would be shared knowledge in the intelligence community.

Suffering a lack of corroborating information, I can’t answer those questions with any sort of authority. I find myself wondering if I am chafing at Baer’s conclusions because I’m an American who doesn’t like the thought of having to change my rather blunt worldview or for another reason? Baer wraps his book up in a neat package and it makes a great deal of sense, but even with a lack of perspective or context, the conclusions seemed too neat. Real life doesn’t often present only one avenue.

Baer does write a good book. He is a knowledgeable author, has apparently done his homework, and he relates a compelling tale. I do recommend the book, if for no other reason than as a introduction to the puzzle that is the Middle East; a puzzle you won’t get a tour of on CNN. I can’t however, look at the book through secular eyes and see the goals as being only about expedient politics. While Iran’s goals may not be as “diabolical” as we typically believe, I don’t particularly trust any sort of process that says to let our guard down and give Iran a due it may not merit. There’s an entire subtext going on behind the book that I can’t read, making the author’s conclusions seem a bit too convenient.

Update: Subsequent to my writing this review, I came across another written by Jonathan Schanzer for the Jewish Policy Center. Schanzer’s bio states in part, that he is a “former US Treasury intelligence analyst (and) is deputy executive director for the Jewish Policy Center”, so I imagine he possesses the qualifications I lack in evaluating certain aspects of Baer’s work. Read Schanzer’s review for more details.