Blessed Are The Peacemakers

I just finished this book (that was recommended and given to me by a friend.) While it was an interesting book it did have a very biased, one-sided viewpoint (as most books about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict tend to.)  It is about a Palestinian Christian and his life first in British-Mandate Palestine, then in the Jordan-occupied West Bank and then the Israeli-ruled West Bank. The man, Audeh Rantisi, was forced out of Lydda (present-day Lod) by the Israeli military (or as he always refers to them - the Zionist military) in 1948 when he was 11 years old and lived in a refugee camp in Ramallah, West Bank. While 90% of Palestinians are Muslim he and his family are Christian and he worked to help the needy and the poor in Ramallah. Unlike most Palestinians (Muslim or Christian) he was able to study in both Wales and the US and those contacts (along with his British-born wife) helped his school continue despite war and "military occupation.) During the 1967 Six Day War Israel took control of East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and effectively made all the people living there Permanent Residents of Israel and subjected them to countless rules and laws that ordinary Israelis did not have to follow. I have read countless books on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and, as I stated above, each side writes with a bias. The Israeli Jews show only themselves as the victims while the Palestinian Muslims and Christians do the same in their accounts. The only truly unbiased accounts tend to come from outside Israel and the Middle East.

Both sides have done things to one another that have hurt and killed. It is understandable for Israeli Jews to feel a constant sense of danger as every Middle Eastern nation (save Turkey) has called on the complete destruction of Israel and the Jews since 1948 and have started numerous wars to try and achieve their goal. Today only Egypt and Jordan (and again Turkey) have peace treaties with Israel while the rest of the Middle East would still like to see the Jews gone. Any group of people/country that has suffered numerous wars, suicide bombings, missile attacks since it was founded over 60 years ago would feel the same way. The Palestinians have helped spread the paranoia by accepting terrorism (ie electing Arafat and then Hezbollah - both known terrorists) and so the Israelis have done what they thought they needed to in order to protect themselves. The current situation is a little different. Arafat is dead and Hezbollah only governs the Gaza Strip. The West Bank seems ready to finally achieve their goal of a separate country through non-violence. If that trend continues Israel will have to give it to them. I support a two-state Israel (or Palestine depending on which side you are on) as long as the suicide bombers and missile attacks stop from the Gaza Stripe - or at least the two-state includes only the West Bank because it has rejected terrorism.

Rantisi continuously states (in his account) that he is for the Israeli Jews while at the same time he calls them a "Zionist military" or "a Zionist occupation." That is like someone saying they aren't racist because they know a black person. He is trying to say he doesn't hate Jews because he knows at least one. Also Rantisi uses references to the Bible (the Christian Bible) throughout the book which has an unsettling feeling as the Muslims tend to quote the Koran and the Jews the Torah to prove they are right in this Conflict. I am not saying that he and his family haven't suffered under the Israeli state, but his views on history aren't always correct. He talks about how things were peaceful until right after World War 2 and how it took the Holocaust to bring the Zionists to Palestine. He forgets the 1936-39 Arab riots when Muslim and Christian Arabs  attacked and murdered innocent Jews and forced the British to stop all, but a handful of legal immigration to Palestine. He also doesn't mention how the main Palestinian leaders at the time (mostly Muslim) openly supported Hitler and his goal of exterminating the Jews (the Grand Mufti even lived in Nazi Germany.) This happened at a time that the few Jews in Palestine lived side-by-side, peacefully with the Palestinians - Rantisi's words. How can you live peacefully with people who call for your destruction knowing full-well that you aren't a threat?  Had the Jews from Europe been allowed to go to Palestine legally and been welcomed by the Arabs then the Holocaust wouldn't have killed over 6 million of them and I don't think the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict would have been as severe as it has come to. While things wouldn't have been perfect for both sides it would have led to a two-state Israel/Palestine and more peace than there currently is. .

After finishing the book I still do not understand the title. Who, does Rantisi believe, are the peacemakers? Are they Israeli Jews, Palestinian Muslims and Christians or outside countries/organizations?

Like I wrote above, this book was an interesting account of one man's story in the wide Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, but does not give any new insights or means to a peaceful co-existence between the Jews, the Muslims and the Christians. I do, however, appreciate reading such books that make me see a different side  -whether I agree with that side or their "facts" or not. People (including me sometimes) tend to not question things and simply believe things because that is how they are taught. Learning about how all the sides have been affected helps see the bigger picture and hopefully will lead to something better for everyone.