Summary-+Jennifer,+Lauren,+Ron


 * Summary**


 * Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour**

Chapters 1-8 of Chacour’s book Blood Brothers focus on the problem happening in the Holy Land. Throughout the first half of the book Chacour is growing up and experiencing what it means to be a Palestinian in an Israeli run country. He goes into great detail to describe all of the injustice that was occurring in the name of Zionism, whether it be the destruction of Palestinian towns and the discovery of dead bodies, or the stealing of Palestinian lands for Israeli plantation owners who hired back the very people they stole the land from. The injustices done to the Palestinian people seemed overwhelming. Elias seems to me to be someone God blessed for a purpose. He got the ability to have higher education in a Western Seminary in Europe and became a Palestinian scholar, in other words someone who could make a difference in the Palestinian peace effort. If anything the first section of this book is his preparation for the second half which is how he helps solve the problem. Simple things like his dad telling him not to use violence impacted him greatly on his journey.

The second half of Blood Brothers, or chapters 9-17, focuses on the solution of the problem in the Holy Land between Palestinians and Israelis. Chapter nine begins with Elias returning to Palestine and not being allowed in without a strip search, he protested this by waiting for eight hours. Another event occurred at his church where the church was divided by hate and truly was dying inside. He locked the doors and forced them to think about forgiveness, and forgiveness happened! All throughout the rest of the book Elias’ main goal is not creating more division but healing the wounds caused b division. He works towards reuniting the brothers who were brothers in blood, both the Palestinians and Israelis, so that true peace would be possible. Ultimately Elias calls us, his readers, to push for justice and righteousness which will bring about peace in the world. Of all the people to not have a reason to believe in peace, it would be him, yet he is one of the strongest supporters for this peace. Chacour compels others to practice what they believe.




 * A Durable Peace by Benjamin Netanyahu**

Netanyahu begins his book A Durable Peace (the Introduction and chapter 1) by discussing the concept of Zionism and the Jewish history that brought this concept into fruition in the land of Israel in the late nineteen forties. Zionism is the movement to bring the Jewish people back to their homeland and to establish a place for the people who had no place to live, specifically to provide them a place to live in Israel. This was caused because for roughly two thousand years the Jewish people have been without a homeland and have had to live in countries where they were not welcome. One of the major hopes of Zionism was that it would give people the hope of land where they would not be persecuted. A major part of Zionism came about because even after two thousand years of diaspora across continents, the Jewish culture largely remained intact and the same from a Ethiopian Jew to a Russian Jew, to an American Jew. Culturally the Jewish people have always been persecuted and Netanyahu wanted this stage set to show how the persecution has continued and in many ways intensified over since the 1947 mandate.

In the second section of Netanyahu’s book, or chapters 2 through 4, the Prime Minister begins to describe some of the problems with the typical solutions that the West commonly considers in regards to the Palestinian problem. The first major problem is the problem of the Western insistence upon non-violence. This effectively destroys Israel's right to self-defense and furthermore Israel's ability to truly defend itself from future attacks. Then Netanyahu discusses the problem of Palestinian Centrality which in Netanyahu’s mind is the belief that Palestinians receive far more publicity showing Israel as an aggressor as other nations with class struggles do. The amount of attention this issue receives to him is unjust as statistically the numbers are not there to justify it in comparison to the problems happening elsewhere in the world. Finally is the problem of the Two State solution. Netanyahu compares the Two State solution or freeing the West Bank to essentially opening the doors for Israel’s enemies to walk on in as Hitler did in Czechoslovakia in the beginning of WWII. Israel needs the Palestinian territory because it gives Israel natural defenses of mountains as well as providing response time to engage a military force.

The final section of Netanyahu’s book, or chapters 5 through 9, discusses the strategies and the reasons behind those strategies that Israel currently uses to defend itself. Netanyahu wants peace in Israel, however because the environment is hostile to Israel around, and in many cases inside Israel’s boarders (specifically in the Palestinian regions) Israel cannot be demilitarized. The whole form of peace that Israel seeks is a peace through deterrence. To successfully attain this peace it is necessary to have a large enough land mass that (building upon the Czechoslovakian incident) can provide the defending army an appropriate amount of time to counter attack. That is why the West bank is so important. It helps build the wall that makes peace by deterrence possible. Without the mountains, or the West bank, an enemy army could split Israel in half at certain points, just by driving a little over ten miles. Much of the book also holds to explaining the history of Israel in detailing the Six Day’s War and how that effectively changed Israel from a UN experiment to a successful nation. The essence of A Durable Peace is summed up in his statement: “If the central aim of the Jewish people during its exile was to retrieve what had been lost, the purpose now is to secure what has been retrieved.” (398 Netanyahu)




 * Article: Obama celebrates fifth Sedar at the White House**

The article "Obama celebrates fifth Sedar at the White House" talks about how President Obama and his wife, Michelle celebrated their fifth Passover eve Sedar dinner in the family dining room of the White House on Monday with family, friends, and staff. It has been a tradition for the President and his family. Obama says, "Passover is a celebration of the freedom of our ancestors dreamed of, fought for, and ultimately won." Obama recently just visited Israel where he had the chance to talk to young Israelis about freedom. = =

This article was about how to solve the conflict between the Israeli and Palestine people. Harvard held a conference, where students were able to discuss this topic. The problem is, is that one solution that has been discussed is a one-state solution. There are no benefits with the one-state solution; this will only create more bloodshed between the people. The Jews will be a minority group, and so they are afraid that they will be pushed out by the Arab people. Although there has not been a peaceful settlement, the idea has still been passed around the table. The next step is a two-state solution, which would end better because they would be creating a new state, instead of destroying the existing one.
 * Article: The One-State Problem**

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