Healing Israel / Palestine: A Path to Peace and Reconciliation

One thing one always notices about this conflict is that whose side one is on depends upon how far back in history one goes before starting the narrative. The author goes back and writes the history with understanding for both sides. Some of this is not exactly as I remember it, but I was reading news back here in the US, not participating in it. As I remember it, the people in the area, with the help of the UN wrested a sliver of a nation from the British occupiers and were immediately attacked by the Arabs. See what I mean? This is why we MUST convince the warring parties to IGNORE the past. Each side has wronged the other too often to make any progress if they look backward. Each must present a vision for the future and negotiate only on that. Rabbi Lerner seems to think that protests can be done nonviolently. A big problem is how often non violence is met with violence. But this is a direction the parties must try to go. Cross your fingers and, if you are inclined that way, pray for George Mitchell.

A thoughtful analysis of the Israeli/Palestinian situation, with some concrete suggestions and affirmations about the way to achieve peace in that land. From the first, Lerher strongly affirms that he is not anti-Palestinian, nor anti-Israeli; the purpose of the book, and indeed of the Tikkun Community which he represents, is to show how it is possible to be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine.The main recommendation that Lerner has is one which really strikes the reader as illogical at first, though on thinking it through it becomes obvious that it is, in my opinion, the only possible real resolution to the situation. That recommendation ~ stronger than a recommendation really, an urging, a plea ~ is for non-violence; not just the absence of violence, but as an active means for change, as Mahatma Gandhi used it, or Martin Luther King, Jr. Lerner envisions this non-violence being used, first, by the Palestinians; this will have several results, all good. First,and most important, it will, eventually, work to convince the majority of Israelis who are open to conviction that they do not have anything to fear from the Palestinians, despite the Occupation of their land and the violence practised against them by the Israeli state. Second, it will have the effect of ostracising the minority of Palestinians who are wedded to violence as a way of life ~ or death ~ and make it clear again that they, and their trainers, are nothing more than common criminals, to be punished as such. A third result, stemming from the first, and Lerner's plea for the Israelis, is that Israel will be freed to pull back from the Occupation, the holding of the territories taken from the Palestinians during and since the Six Day War, in 1967.This pulled-back position is what Tikkun envisions as the final, peaceful solution: Israel no longer occupying any of the land left to the Palestinians in 1948; Palestine as a fully functioning nation; neither permitting nor sponsoring violence against the other; both committed to living in peace and, perhaps even, harmony. Lerner is certainly not naïve enough to think that this result can occur with anything less than full commitment from both sides, and from others in the world too, most especially the United States of America. To aid in the attempt at rousing people to that full commitment to peace necessary for success, he includes a final section to the book, a series of questions that may well be asked ~ have been asked ~ by those unsure about the process, or the result, or the commitment. These questions and answers are perhaps the most valuable part of the book, in that they take away a lot of possible reasons for not acting; if you are not going to support the peace process with Tikkun you are going to have to come up with some other reasons why than the usual: The usual have been answered.The other fascinating section is the first part of the book. In it, Lerner retells the story of Zionism and the settling of Palestine b