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My Life Fell Apart
Operation Cast Lead weaves together a soap opera storyline, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and your own lived experience that argues that this event was not just a war, but also part of a carefully designed narrative that played out both on TV and in real life. Why was this an important book for you to write?
My life fell apart early January of 2009, when I had my first nervous breakdown after gaining insight that there was an alternate reality behind the story on General Hospital and the romance between Sonny and Kate. Weeks later, I made the connection between the story and the war; a war codenamed “Operation Cast Lead”. It took me close to a decade to confess to my own motives and tendencies in that encounter. The tendency of having humiliating thoughts about myself and channeling those thoughts on the female character at the climax of the story and the war.
I finally confessed the truth, first to myself, and then to others, but a personal confession in a seemingly private setting did not create change or healing. My next choice was to write a memoir. It was a struggle for me to make that choice having to do with my fears of the consequences that may arise. After reconsidering once, I finally published the memoir on Substack, in 2023. But then again, war broke out in Gaza on October 7, 2023, and the situation deteriorated. It’s been the story of the universe that when a truth is about to be revealed, a crisis emerges.
A “confession” on my part, private or public, did not lead to fundamental change.
Change will emerge when accountability is pursued about this story on the soap opera and its connection to the war. The story must be investigated for its structure, theme, and dialogue and the true connection between Cast Lead and the story should be finally revealed. True change and freedom will come about when this incident in history enters the realm of public discourse.
This was the motivation for writing The Case. To call for an investigation of the story and to determine the international legal framework within which The Case may be investigated and prosecuted. The memoir was a confession, and The Case is more about accountability.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
My own darkness. My interpretations of the story twisted it. So did my insincerity in relation to the female character on the soap. Confessing that to myself and to others was most difficult but then that’s the path towards freedom. Both personal freedom and freedom of others. The systems we live within imprison us with guilt, shame, and fear. The experience of writing this book was that of overcoming these feelings. It was difficult to describe the soap opera plot and my interpretations of it and there was always this concern, on my mind and during the writing of the book, to clearly explain the journey as scenes played out on General Hospital and as the story evolved. The many details in theme, dialogue, and story structure were influential in interpretation and the outcome. It was difficult to write these out as this is an incident and a case with no known precedent.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
My journey has been the realization that we are not here to live a routine life. That our lives have an ending and that our presence at this historical juncture is a testimony to the truth of the universe. We are here to receive the truth and to proclaim it. History has evolved in the loop and limbo of a cycle but if we live this life as a “testimony” we can escape that cycle and repetition. This is the context within which Operation Cast Lead unfolded and the peculiarity that arises in reading the book is a result of the mindset that has been ingrained on the human mind. The mindset being that “this is impossible to be true”. This mindset is the default because we don’t realize we are witnesses on this part of history. That we are capable, and even responsible for, creating a breakthrough. This is one main idea behind Operation Cast Lead and its connection to the soap story and it’s one idea I was hoping to offer to the reader. Equally important is the question of the historical narrative. When the truth of Cast Lead is revealed, the path unfolds to understand the truth of other historical events and their true alternative narratives. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one such arena.
What is one thing that you hope readers take away from Operation Cast Lead?
Freedom is what humanity aspires to achieve but it’s elusive as personal responsibility is not always realized at important historical junctures. That’s why humanity’s fate has been a story of repetition. My hope is that the reader will realize their responsibility to ask questions about Operation Cast Lead and the “story” around it.
Operation Cast Lead – The Case
Operation Cast Lead by Banafsheh Zia is unlike anything I’ve read before. It weaves together a soap opera storyline, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and the author’s own lived experience of surveillance, paranoia, and spiritual searching. At its heart, it argues that Operation Cast Lead was not just a war but also part of a carefully designed narrative that played out both on TV and in real life. The story mixes memory, political history, and personal confession. It’s intense and full of questions about truth, power, and the meaning of freedom.
The writing is raw and sometimes disorienting, but that’s also what made it gripping. I could feel the author’s confusion, anger, and longing bleeding through every page. There’s a vulnerability here that’s hard to ignore. I found myself wondering what was real and what wasn’t. It put me in the same unsettled space the author describes. The way she ties together pop culture with political violence shocked me, and I caught myself rereading passages just to sit with the strangeness of it all.
What really stuck with me was the emotional honesty. Even when the connections were surprising, the feelings were sharp and undeniable. There’s a loneliness in these pages, a sense of trying to dance with the world while constantly being pushed out of step. I admired the courage it took to put all of that into words. There is a lot of details in this book. The references to TV plots and political events pile up quickly. Reality and fiction blur, and the reader is left to sort out what matters most.
What amazed me most was how the book connects the soap opera General Hospital to something as heavy as war and international law. By showing how a love story between Sonny and Kate lined up with political turning points and the violence in Gaza, the book makes you question how much of what we consume is innocent entertainment and how much is design. It’s a strange but striking reminder that culture and politics are never really separate. If you’re curious about how personal stories intersect with global ones, or if you like work that mixes confession with political critique, Operation Cast Lead – The Case is worth your time.
Pages: 139 | ISBN : 978-1-83418-380-0
LITERARY TITAN 