I’m Jewish and am looking for a book to help me understand what’s happening there. Unbiased. Preferably one with hopeful path forward. Half the media sources I visit paint Israel as the devil. The other half pour the same paint on Palestine. Help?
Thanks
by anaccountofnoaccount
9 Comments
War Is A Racket by Smedley Butler
Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman is a great window into the history, dynamic, tactics, and anxieties that drive Israeli policy. Author just presents them as is without much moral commentary.
A Peace to End All Peace
Non fiction books will give you historical information, reportage, opinions and analysis.
Sure, there’s a lot of nuance that needs to be accounted for to chart the path to everlasting peace.
What gave me the most awareness of how urgent this is came from a lovely work of fiction – Apeirogon by Collum McCann
If you’re open, do check it out to understand what an average person on either side of the conflict endures. This book touched me deeply and reinforced how reading can be an empathy generating machine.
Lawrence in Arabia is a non-fiction historical biography about T.E. Lawrence who was the inspiration for the movie Lawrence of Arabia, but, due to putting his life in context with the powerful actors in the region at that time, it winds up giving a lot of detail about the origins of Israel from WWI through WWII. Plus it is a fantastic and adventuresome read. Since it’s not about Israel or Palestine per se, I consider it neutral on that issue, but would be interested to hear if anyone else who read it disagrees
Edit to clarify this is a history book!
The Hundred Years’ War On Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
Every author is biased so you won’t find a perfect book for this.
Both sides are the devil
Lords of the Desert, and A Line in the Sand by James Barr; and The Great War for Civilisation by Robert Fisk are all interesting books and while they do go beyond just Israel and Palestine I think they give some good history of the politics and conflicts that have shaped the region.
I do expect that it’s pretty much impossible to get a book on this subject entirely free from bias one way or another though.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict : a very short introduction (oxford series)