BuzzFlash Reviews
Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life (Hardcover)
Sari Nusseibeh
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS
BuzzFlash itself a few years back laid out its rather simple position on a tragically complex conflict: We support peace; We support a two-state solution. We support an end to Palestinian terrorism and we support an end to the concept of an Israeli military solution to the conflict, resulting in far too many unnecessary Palestinian deaths.
The majortiy of Israelis and Palestinians both want peace, but the leadership of the Palestinians is now dreadfully splintered for a number of reasons -- and the Israeli government has largely been run under the legacy of the Likud hardline thinking for years.
As with the assassination of the two Kennedys and Martin Luther King in the '60s here, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (by an Israeli) -- a warrior who evolved into an apostle of peace -- appeared to dampen the prospects of hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The recent Israeli governments have been of one mind with the Neo-Cons in the Bush Administration and that is not good for the future of Israel, nor the future of the Palestinians.
Unless the Palestinians emerge with a government that is willing to risk peace, and the Israelis likewise, the mutual stereotypes, extremist passions, and military strategists who are running each side now will rule the day. This would mean only one outcome: the continuation of ongoing bloodshed.
To achieve peace, we disagree with readers who keep condemning one side or the other. Peace will come from accenting the common dreams of both parties to solving the ongoing conflict. Peace will come from finding common ground, not reinforcing stereotypes and yielding to the radical constituencies in either camp.
That is, in large part, the current perspective of Sari Nusseibeh -- a Palestinian academic, activist and now peace advocate -- who has written a book filled with remarkable insights into the Palestinian perspective: "Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life."
Oxford and Harvard educated, Nusseibeh clearly understands all sides, while being an avid Palestinian nationalist who has evolved into advocating a two-state solution.
His nearly 550-page book is one from which one can learn much about the complexities of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through his personal lives and thoughts.
In the end, Nusseibeh has come to see that for the dream of peace to be achieved, both the Palestinians and the Israelis will have to give up some of their historical dreams.
The fundamentalist Orthodox settlers will have to give up their Biblical claim a "Greater Israel" on the West Bank; the Palestinians will have to give up their claim of the "right of return." To reach the larger dream of peace, each side much be bold enough to abandon constituencies who are major roadblacks to a two-state solution.
Nusseibeh has witnessed and been involved with so many figures in recent Palestinian and Israeli history that he offers an insider's view of the nuances of this seemingly intractable war, particularly from the Palestinian perspective.
But Nusseibeh is a secularist in a sea of primordial passions, which makes him a target to both sides. His survival and continued role in Palestinian academia is a remarkable story unto itself.
It is hard to be a reasonable when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but Nusseibeh certainly fills that role on the Palestinian side.
He's a man worth listening to.
You might not agree with all his reflections, but you will be the better for having read them.
Tommorrow, we will offer a book from an Israeli perspective.
(Book not available for shipment outside of U.S.)
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS