Posted by Benjamin on: 01.17.2008 /
There’s an odd couple =).
A couple stories that caught my eye this week which were kind of hopeful.
Jessica Wilbanks of Faithful Security wrote this week about the hope of a world free of nuclear weapons, including a plan put forward by a group which includes, of all people, Henry Kissinger.
And Rose Marie Berger writes about George W. Bush undergoing the tutelage of the brilliant peacemaker Elias Chacour, whose book, Blood Brothers, was a real eye opener for me in terms of perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Both of these stories were from the God’s Politics Blog. You can sign up for their regular email newsletter at www.sojo.net
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Comment by: joe
1 01/17/08 11:39 AM | Comment Link |Interesting. I wonder what George W thought of Elias Chacour.
Comment by: Elaine
2 01/23/08 8:47 PM | Comment Link |Benjamin,
As I have not read this book:
could you tell me more about the “eye opener”?
Comment by: Benjamin
3 01/23/08 10:05 PM | Comment Link |Elaine,
Yes, I’d love to. Thank you for asking!
Elias is a Palestinian who grew up in Palestine on land his people had farmed for many hundreds of years. In the book, he describes his experience when he and his family were expelled from their land as the Jews took over after world war two. Elias has gone on to devote his life to being a peace-monger between Jews and Palestinians, while attempting to relieve some of the ongoing astounding high levels of suffering of the Palestinian people.
The book was such an eye-opener for me because I was raised in a brand of Christianity which was *very* pro-Israel. We were taught that of *course* Israel should own the land that the Old Testament delineates as being theirs. And as for the Palestinians, well, too damn bad for them. “Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated” and other such scripture etc. bullshit ad nauseum (oh dear, I suppose I shouldn’t say “bullshit”)
So I read the book way back in 1997 as part of my assigned reading list during the application process to join a big international missions organization. All of a sudden here I was presented with the real story of a real Palestinian, a very coherent, highly intelligent, peace-monger of a Palestinian, in fact. It sort of seriously tweaked my understanding of things. I realized that there was another whole side to the story which I had never heard, and an entire group of people which in many ways the west had forced to suffer for the sins of the west. Ok wait a minute. Some of this came later.
I’m getting off on a tangent here about the culpability of the west for the rise of Hitler (as in … what was done to Germany after WW1), and then how the suffering of the Jews in world war II was in some ways displaced onto the Palestinians, instead of onto the powers which had helped create the whole situation. But I digress, for much of this understanding came much later.
Anyway, it helped me see a people who had been invisible to me before in my extremely pro-Israel pro-America confused Christianity.
Does that answer your question?
Comment by: Elaine
4 01/24/08 8:59 AM | Comment Link |Thank you. Yes, it does help. Knowing you are close to my son’s age, I wondered what you had been taught of the history of the establishment of Israel and what it did to the Palestinians.
It is sad that in the USA’s effort to be so pro-Israel that our history books gloss over things which might present the other side. :(
If you are not familiar with Naomi Shihab Nye - I encourage you to check out her writing. Her mother was German-Amercian and her father, Palestinian. She spent part of her childhood in Palestine. Her story is fascinating. I had the privilege of hearing her speak a few years ago. Amazing woman and such an honorable person.
Naomi Shihab Nye
The thing that keeps us apart from each other - is not taking the time to get to know each other. It is hard to kill/hate someone you call friend.
This is part of what I love about Off The Map’s space for conversations with “the other” :) And Peter Block’s work with A Small Group in Cincinnati. It provides a venue for us to talk to each other and disspell “sterotypes” and lies.
P. S. I do agree with you about our culpability and our failure to accept responsibility for our part in WWII, Vietnam, 9-11, etc.