(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Arabs, Jews and the Promised Land


            David Shipler, author of Arab and Jew: Wounded Sprits in a Promised Land, wrote his book in 1986 after serving as the bureau chief of The New York Times in Jerusalem from 1979-84. The biggest and most important them of the book reflected the struggle between the Jews and Palestinian people in their search for their own homeland. The author references the Law of Physics, saying that "two objects may not occupy the same space"; this is two say that the people there are not a unified nation but rather two distinctive peoples and political entities laying claim to the same place to call their own. It personifies the constant uphill battle between Palestinian Nationalism and Jewish Zionism and the effects of this long term conflict on both people and future generations. This concept is reflected by both sides and the unique dynamic present in Jerusalem in the early 1980s. The two sides have a skewed perception of the other as well as misguided racial stereotypes, and some have very little interest in the reasoning behind the conflict.
             The Jewish people around the globe view Jerusalem as a sacred place that is owned solely by the Jews. It represents a place where a historically oppressed people may call a safe haven and home. It is in a sense a type of entitlement that the Israels feel they have earned through a long history of discrimination from Babylonians during the Babylonian Captivity, Roman and Egyptian enslavement, and intense Western European anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. Shipler repeatedly emphasizes that the Israeli Jewish public exists completely unaware of the day-to-day occurrences in the West Bank, Gaza, and in Arab communities within Israel itself; People who have been stripped of their homes and farm lands by the Jews immigrating to Israel. This isolation from the Arabs under Israeli rule, combined with the fear and hatred created by decades of war and violence, has led to the racist stereotypes.


Essays Related to Arabs, Jews and the Promised Land


Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question