Letters to my Palestinian Neighbor Free read ß 0 Are intruders into each other’s dream violators of each other’s sense of home We are incarnations of each other’s worst historical nightmares NeighborsLetters to My Palestinian Neighbor is one Israeli’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of the enemy In a series of letters Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible democratic state in the Middle EastThis is the first attempt To doubt the possibility of reconciliation is to limit God s power the possibility of miracle especially in this land The Torah commands me Seek peace and pursue it even when peace appears impossible perhaps especially then p 19 My family has lived in the US for fewer than 125 years yet Ireland where most of my father s family comes from and Germany my mother s family barely touch me My grandfather whose older sisters were born in Germany spoke only a wee bit of German around us and we never ate German foods I never saw Ireland from my other grandparents only a vague half serious yearning to see Ireland I saw it in their love of words their emotional cut offs when angryIn Yossi Klein Halevi s Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor there is a much greater sense of history than my family has than most of us in the US have Here an old house is 100 years old 911 touches us but not the Depression We talk about veterans of wars but not the wars and their impact on our country Halevi talks of the Holocaust but also wars and decisions throughout the 20th century and yearnings over the last two or three millennia His language is often passionate and poetic as he talks about the past which is alive and tightly intertwined with the present In that context Halevi can see the conflict between Jew and Arab and understand it Both Israelis at least Jewish Israelis and Palestinians feel that they have the high ground Halevi instead looks for the common ground He suggests that we need to separate the abstract justness of the entire claim for Israel for Palestine from the practical injustice of its fulfillment p 123 I have great sympathy for Israel but when I read about the politics of Israel and Palestine General s Son Journey of an Israeli in Palestine or My Promised Land The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel I end up flipping back and forth between Israel and the Palestinians There are no devils and heroes here just men and women making poor decisions in the name of righteousness and good decisions too Pushed into a corner we don t respond with flexibility or contrition we move into survival mode The war against Israel s legitimacy reinforces our obtuseness If the anti Israel criticism is so shrill then we absolve ourselves of the need to take any criticism seriously For a people that prides itself on its millennia old ethical code that believes in penitence and self examination this is a spiritual crisis p 186It s hard to read these books and Muslim writers too without wanting to sit both parties across the table from each other to engage in some family therapy and get past the mess both sides are enmeshed in Both sides have valid points that get lost in their argumentsOne of the main obstacles to peace is an inability to hear the other side s story Halevi wants to have this story heard and is offering Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor in Arabic translation for free downloading I hope it is downloaded and read thousands of times I hope that both Arabs and Jews listen to his words and take them seriously

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Letters to my Palestinian Neighbor Free read ß 0 New York Times bestseller A profound and original book the work of a gifted thinker Daphne Merkin The Wall Street JournalAttempting to break the agonizing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians the Israeli commentator and award winning author of Like Dreamers directly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyesI call you neighbor because I don’t know your name or anything personal about you Given our circumstances neighbor might be too casual a word to describe our relationship We This book consists of ten open letters addressed to anonymous Palestinian neighbors asking for empathy and understanding of the aspirations for Jewish peoplehood represented by the nation of Israel The author pauses from time to time in his writing to acknowledge similar aspirations on the part of the Palestinians Each of the ten chapters aka letters takes on a different aspect of the centuries long discord between Arabs and Jews The book s narrative moves from personal reflections and memories to larger existential issues and historical overviews One repeated theme is the need to challenge the stories we tell about each other which have taken hold in our societies The Israeli story of faith exile and redemption through Zion clashes with and the Arabic counter story of invasions occupation and expulsion To you we are colonialists Crusaders and to us you are the latest genocidal enemy seeking to destroy the Jewish peopleThe author calls for all sides to to listen to the dueling narratives of two traumatized peoples It s a call also directed to the Israeli side and to which he suggests they should feel compelled to understand because The insistence on empathy with the stranger appears with greater freuency in the Torah than any other verse including commandments to observe the Sabbath and keep kosher view spoilerFrom other sources I ve read that there are 52 references to being good to aliens in the Pentateuch I ve also been told that there are over 200 references in Pentateuch of because we were aliens in Egypt hide spoiler

Letters to my Palestinian Neighbor Free read ß 0 By an Israeli author to directly address his Palestinian neighbors and describe how the conflict appears through Israeli eyes Halevi untangles the ideological and emotional knot that has defined the conflict for nearly a century In lyrical evocative language he unravels the complex strands of faith pride anger and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel using history and personal experience as his guideHalevi’s letters speak not only to his Palestinian neighbor but to all concerned global citizens helping us understand the painful choices confronting Israelis and Palestinians that will ultimately help determine the fate of the region In Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor Yossi Klein Halevi intends to break the silence between Israelis and Palestinians The book details different viewpoints from both sides of the conflict as well as the author s own viewpoint and personal story all in an attempt to explain the Israeli side of the conflict to Palestinians while staying sympathetic to both sides The author being Jewish and living in Israel takes a stance that is in favor of Israel but in support of a two state solution The book was written as a letter to a supposed neighbor that represents those living in the West Bank More specifically the neighbor represents the houses that the author is able to see from his house that borders the West Bank In the writing the author directly addresses the reader as if they are the neighbor he is talking about making the book feel very personal This book makes an attempt to fully explain the author s perspective on the Israel Palestine conflict by explaining multiple views from the pro Israel side and by sympathizing with the Palestinian neighbor s vies Overall this book does a good job in explaining the conflict better and in offering those in support of a Palestinian state a wider range of knowledge to constitute their political ideology Personally as someone who identifies as a Zionist and is very strong in his stance in support of a Jewish state in Israel this book helped me further understand and sympathize with the Palestinian argument From reading I learned much about how Palestinians view the conflict yet from a standpoint that I feel comfortable listening to Still I believe that this book could have been stronger in explaining both sides if it included letters coming from the neighbor instead of just the author While the book is intended to be a message from an Israeli to a Palestinian in which the Israeli shows support for the Palestinian I believe the book would do better in spreading the message if it included letters from both sides Aside from this I believe that this is a fantastic book and a must read for anyone interested in this topic Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor captures the emotion felt on both sides of the conflict as well as gives a sympathetic view to both Israelis and Palestinians and sympathy is crucial in solving this issue