How does a New York law student apply for an internship at the Israeli Consulate and wind up writing speeches for Ariel Sharon during one of the most turbulent times in Israeli history? Gregory Levey answers the question and then some in his recent memoir, Shut Up, I’m Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government. The book’s description sets the absurdist theater tone from his outsider perspective:

Shut Up, I’m Talking is a startling account of Levey’s journey into the nerve center of Middle Eastern politics at one of the most turbulent times in Israeli history. During his three years in the Israeli government, the Second Intifada continued on in fits and starts, Yasser Arafat died, Hamas came to power, and Ariel Sharon fell into a coma. Levey was repeatedly thrust into highly improbable situations—from being the sole “Israeli” delegate (even though he’s Canadian) at the U.N. General Assembly, with no idea how “his” country wanted to vote; to nearly inciting an international incident with his high school French translation of an Arab diplomat’s anti-Israel remarks; to communicating with Israeli intelligence about the suspected perpetrators of suicide bombings; to being offered leftover salami from Ariel Sharon’s lunch.

If you want the scholarly native Israeli perspective, Professor Avi Picard will be appearing at the Y on May 15 for a discussion on the Israeli Political System: how Israel’s parliamentary democracy was built, how it has developed and the forces behind the shaping of the Israeli political arena.