Friday, January 2, 2009

Reading Up on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

This month's book display centers on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including memoirs, opinion and history.

The Much-Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace by Aaron Miller. The former diplomat, who has 20 years of experience in Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, reviews the past attempts at peacemaking without taking sides.

The Case for Israel by the defense attorney Alan Dershowitz is written like a legal brief "for the court of public opinion," with each chapter addressing accusations against Israel.

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter. An overview of the conflict and a blueprint for peace, one that comes in on the side of the Palestinians.

Children of Israel, Children of Palestine: Our Own True Stories, edited by Laurel Holliday, is an anthology of the childhood memories of adults who grew up in Israel and Palestine, from 1948 to the present.

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan traces the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the personal histories of the Palestinian and Jewish families that have lived in one house over time.

The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace by Dennis Ross. The chief Middle East peace negotiator for the Bush and Clinton administrations shares an inside account of the Middle East peace process from 1988 to the breakdown of talks in early 2001.

Sharon and My Mother-in-Law : Ramallah Diaries by Suad Amiry. A "surprisingly good-humored" (according to Publisher's Weekly) account of the daily life of a Westernized Palestinian woman in the West Bank from 1981 to 2004.

Aliya: Three Generations of American-Jewish Immigration to Israel by Liel Leibovitz. The story of American individuals and families who moved to Israel, between 1947 and 2001.

No comments: