RIP Barry Rubin
This is shocking news: Barry Rubin, professor, author, and PJ Media Middle East editor, died this morning at the age of 64.
From Dave Swindle at PJ:
For the last least three years, his Rubin Reports blog has served as the roadmap to the Middle East that I rely on the most. Written from the center of the storm in Israel, his typical columns are densely filled with facts and fascinating observations. Perhaps the crucial insight that I’ve gained from trying to keep up with Barry all these years ”” he tends to publish his loaded analyses very prolifically, not that I’m complaining! ”” is the depth of complexity to the Middle East. The game is not a chessboard between two sides, and there are rarely easy answers given that there are so many different actors on the field.
Swindle goes on to provide links to thirteen of Rubin’s books. Rubin had made these works of his available online, for free. I didn’t know Rubin, but that sort of act says a lot about him.
He wasn’t idle in his last year, either. Here’s a book of his that’s due to come out this April; it sounds fascinating and important: Silent Revolution: How the Left Rose to Political Power and Cultural Dominance.
RIP, Barry Rubin.
Barry Rubin was affiliated with the Gloria Center: Global Research in International Affairs. You can access 13 of his books at the following site: Gloria Center free books for the reading or the downloading. The only excuse for not becoming better informed about the Middle East is time. With the availability of these free books, money is no longer an excuse.
http://www.gloria-center.org/ Global Research in International Affairs
I see that Neo beat me to it. I should have read the entire post first. Oh well.
How very sad. I’m not shocked, though, because he wrote about his illness a year or so ago at PJ Media and said the prognosis was very, very bad, but that he was going to do his best to work until the very end. Even so, I’d hoped he would beat the odds and make it. I always learned something from what he wrote, and I knew I could trust him to be honest. A great loss.
I only occasionally read Rubin’s work, but he struck me as being astute and realistic about Israel. His voice was that of knowledge of the realities on the ground. If only the progressives would listen to those like him, our Middle East policies would be much improved.
RIP.