The Conflict

[woodelf]

Can anyone recommend a book which tries to explain, though not too academically please, the long long conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians? Ta Muchly.

[boxtops]

Woodelf - you are going back how far for this.....? I am reading a book about Jewish culture at the moment way back to the Middle Ages, bringing the history of a family from then to the present day, fascinating stuff and it covers all sorts of persecution and hounding. Maybe not quite what you are looking for, but when I read more I am sure that it will reach 1948 when Israel was founded as the "Jewish Homeland" and the Muslim Palestinians had to leave.

[woodelf]

That book you're reading sounds interesting enough as it is; what is the title and who is the author please?...and I guess I'm after a 'modern day' explanation of the crisis, from 1948 to present. Many Thanks Box.

[boxtops]

Woodelf, it's "The Story of Abraham", by Marek Halter - rather a lot to read here but here is the Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.o...i/The_Book_of_Abraham

It's for sale on Amazon at the moment but I can't see that they have an audio version. It's quite a fat paperback!

[woodelf]

Many Thanks Boxtops.

[beso]

Try "The Old Testament". It explains that the Hebrews had been enslaved by the Egyptians but their God helped them by doing horrible things to Egyptians (especially their children).

Eventually the Hebrews ran away. For some reason only known to their God, Yhwe, He led them all over a desert for forty years until they reached a place they called The Promised Land. It would have only taken them a few weeks to walk there from Egypt had Yhwe actually led them directly. As far as I can tell He did it so He could impress them with tricks like raining food out of the sky.

Then Yhwe demanded that they kill everyone who lived there even though they had done no harm to the Hebrews. I don't know why this was done rather than killing all the Egyptians for what they had done and taking over their land instead.

To this day the Hebrews teach their children that their success in the multiple genocides of the Promised Land is evidence of the glory of Yhwe and their status as the Chosen People. They get really cranky when other people try to live on that land.

This attitude really annoys their neighbours, some who are descended from the tribes they never got around to murdering but only enslaved instead. Unsurprisingly, these people have never trusted the Hebrews and eventually drove them out of the region.

But the Hebrews had a story that one day they would return. For some bizarre reason millions of people who were not Hebrews adopted this same belief. After winning a war they set up a new country shipped the Hewbrews back into the area to fulfill the story they believed in, despite the protests of those who lived there.

The people already living there actually subscribe to an interpretation of the pholosophy by a different guy who had a slightly more enlightened attitute. He allowed people to choose between being massacred or converting to his brand of fascism. But the Hebrews refused to conve

[woodelf]

Blimey Beso!...that's some paraphrase of the OT...but it aint necessarily so, the things that you're liable etc, etc...I aint figured out yet how Cain got a wife!...he was banished to the Land of Nod, leaving just A and E and then lo and behold, Cain turns up with a wife!...but then there's that nasty serpent slithering around the place, so....???

[boxtops]

Ah no, woodelf, it does speak in the Bible (but don't ask me to quote) about the other people, there were others around out there at the time of the Garden of Eden, so Cain probably found his wife from one of those other tribes. It all gets very complicated....

[woodelf]

Then how, if only A and E were created and they had Cain and Abel, where the heck did these other people come from then...but I've been told never discuss religion or summat else, but I can't remember what that summat else was...smile...Ta Box!