Tag: Israel

PALESTINE 1936: the great revolt and the roots of the Middle East conflict by Oren Kessler

- Jill 2 Comments

“Exceptional…opens new vistas on troubles past and present.” – The Wall Street Journal

“Key to understanding the current situation between Israelis and Palestinians.” – Booklist (starred review)

When Oren Kessler’s first book, Palestine 1936: the great revolt and the roots of the Middle East conflict,was published earlier this year, while lauded, its true significance would not be felt until now. With the recent surprise attacks on Israel by Hamas on October 7, and the following response including a declaration of war on Hamas by Israel, this book is more important than ever in understanding the complex history which has shaped the present state of affairs. Kessler addresses this complicated topic by utilizing only recently declassified documents as well as memoirs and other sources to draw a thorough examination of this formative and often overlooked period.

In his book, Kessler relates key events from the period of 1936 to 1939 that laid the foundation for the establishment of Israel as a state in 1948 and for the current Arab-Israeli conflict. That period itself is a complicated time in world history, as political tensions were already heightened and ultimately ignited World War II. Kessler believes that events almost 90 years ago, and just prior to the second World War, have so shaped the attitudes and posture of the conflict that it will ultimately lead to tragedy for both Jews and Arabs. Primarily, Kessler suggests that many Arabs in the region are unwilling to accept Jewish equality, political or social, let along their right to an ancestral homeland. He believes that this is the true core of the conflict and not one easily resolved.

“Oren Kessler is a journalist and political analyst based in Tel Aviv. He has served as deputy director for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, Middle East research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society in London, Arab affairs correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, and an editor and translator at Haaretz English edition.” –  orenkessler.com

If you want to more fully understand the current state of affairs in Palestine and the war that is now commencing, Palestine 1936 is a must read. In addition, the Davenport Library has a number of other books that you might find informative and enlightening on this topic and as well as closely related topics.

                         

A Lethal Obsession : antisemitism from antiquity to the global Jihad by Robert S. Wistrich

Master of the game : Henry Kissinger and the art of Middle East diplomacy by Martin Indyk

RAF : the birth of the world’s first air force by Richard Overy

Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco

1917 : war, peace, and revolution by D.(David) Steveson

Decolonizing Palestine : the land, the people, the bible by Mitri Raheb

Tehran children : a Holocaust refugee odyssey by Mikhal Dekel

Remember Us : my journey from the shtetl through the Holocaust by Martin Small

I Am Not Your Enemy : stories to transform a divided world by Michael T. McRay

Bethlehem : biography of a town by Nicholas Blincoe

The Lemon Tree : an Arab, a Jew, and the heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan

19 varieties of gazelle : poems of the Middle East by Naomi Shihab Nye

Things you may find hidden in my ear : poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha

Chronicle of the Old Testament kings : the reign-by-reign record of the rulers of ancient Israel by J.W. (John William) Rogerson

New moons : contemporary writing by North American Muslims by Ali Kazim

 

The Seven Good Years: A Memoir by Etgar Keret

- Stephanie Leave a comment

the seven good yearsEtgar Keret is an Israeli writer who has had his work translated into thirty-seven languages. He is a lecturer at a university and a short story writer. Keret has also appeared in many newspaper publications and reviews and contributes on This American Life. I was first introduced to Keret through his short stories and the work that he has done on two films, Jellyfish and Wristcutters: A Love Story.

The Seven Good Years: A Memoir chronicles in a year-to-year story the seven years between the birth of Etgar’s son and the death of his father. Each section is broken up into a different year and while Etgar does manage to incorporate flashbacks to help readers realize how he became the person he is today, how he met the people important to him, and how his relationships with his family have grown and changed, the majority of the story is on pivotal moments that happened within those seven years of grandpa, dad, and son relationships.

Lev, Etgar’s son, was born in the middle of a terrorist attack. When they finally get to the hospital, there are no doctors in the maternity ward because there are so many trauma people needing help. The journalist who goes to interview Etgar makes this attack seem commonplace and Etgar soon references Tel Aviv. Readers are thrust into a Keret’s world, a world where he travels the world doing book talks, meets with different people, and does readings from his previous works. The flashbacks provided me with much needed background to understand the reluctance and focus on family behavior through certain circumstances. Although Lev and Etgar experienced their childhood at different time periods, the overarching base emotions prove to be the same. I found this book by Keret to be an engaging and emotional read, one that while being marketed as a memoir, also read to me as a story about more than just his family life. Sure, on the surface the family dynamics are there, but I found myself digging deeper into the book to really flesh out the happenings that molded Etgar and his family to behave the way they do.

I found this book to be an introduction to a culture and an area of the world that I basically grew up knowing little to nothing about. This memoir could have been exceptionally heavy and depressing, in fact at points it is, but Keret was able to show readers that while sad moments are present, there are always ways to find good moments as well.

The Property by Rutu Modan

- Ann Leave a comment

thepropertyIn Rutu Modan’s The Property, Mica and her grandmother, Regina are traveling from Israel to Warsaw, Poland. Just before World War II Regina had married and moved to Israel. Years later, as the only surviving member of her family, she was contacted and inform that she was entitled to reclaim her family’s property.  For twenty years she left the property unclaimed, but following the death of her son and Mica’s father, Reuben, she decided to make the trip.

Returning to Warsaw, Regina is overwhelmed with the guilt and shame of a long hidden family secrets. Modan beautifully illustrates how our perceptions of ourselves and our world are shaped by cultural and personal histories, and The Property successfully (and subtly) exposes the generational divide in a family and in a city.  With charming illustrations reminiscent of Hergé’s Tintin and a witty sense of humor, The Property is a graphic novel sure to win over some skeptics of the genre.  I would recommend to fans of Maus by Art Spiegelman, Unterzakhn by Leela Corman, or Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi.

Armchair Traveler – Novels of Jerusalem and Palestine

- Lynn Leave a comment

jerusalem

Many readers are trying to get context for what’s going on in Jerusalem and Palestine. Novels can give social and cultural insight into ancient (and modern) disputes beyond the strife of war and conflict.

The Walls of Jericho by Jon Land

This is a thriller that proves that  the stereotypical “strife in the Middle East” can be woven into highly entertaining crime fiction. The first in the series about a pair of detectives (one Israeli and one Palestinian American) who are assigned to work together to catch a serial killer. Danielle Barnea is an Israel Security Agency officer, and works with Ben Kamal to unravel the plot that may threaten the Arab-Israeli peace process.

The Samaritan’s Secret by Matt Beynon Rees

Rees keeps the “military maneuvers in the background and [focusses] on ordinary people struggling to live ordinary lives,” according to the New York Times. The hero is a Palestinian teacher, who helps with the investigation of  the theft of a priceless scroll.

Damascus Gate by Robert Stone

This is a mystery that “transcends its genre” and is a “novel of place, securely grounded in the stones of Jerusalem.” Religious radicals (Christian and Jewish) plan to blow up Mosques in Jerusalem, for their own convoluted reasons. Stone ‘s “meditation on belief”….and “suspense all come together is a stunning finale that satisfies on all levels.” Booklist

Martyr’s Crossing by Amy Wilentz

An incident at a Jerusalem checkpoint sparks riots and the soldier and young Palestinian mother are reluctantly pulled into the ensuing chaos. The author is the Jerusalem correspondent for the New Yorker and is “masterful at turning the Israeli/Palestinian predicament like a prism to expose multifaceted viewpoints, leaving the reader with insight into the politics and an overwhelming empathetic vision of the human pain that is part of daily living in this region of the world,” according to Booklist.