![From Mormon Idaho, Through Youngstown, to Everyone in Palestine and Israel [Book Review]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/educated-tara-westover.jpg)
by Sam Bahour | May 3, 2020 | Books, Writings
#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home. (Publisher’s Description)
![Perpetual Turmoil: A man-made holy pandemic that never ends [Book Review]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BookCover252832529-768545-1.png)
by Sam Bahour | April 17, 2020 | Books
Before Israel prohibited me from having free access to Jerusalem, I would meet up for lunch in East Jerusalem with Avner, a Jewish Israeli friend of mine, at the Ambassador Hotel, owned by a mutual friend of ours. Our political arguments always ended on the same note. I would claim that Israel has, and always had, a master plan and acts with full intention. Avner would counter that claim saying I’m giving the Israeli side too much credit and that much of what we are facing are a hodgepodge of haphazard missteps that have created an unfortunate reality on the ground. Enter Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Hebron by Menachem Klein, another Jewish Israeli friend of mine. The book unintentionally offers Avner and myself an answer to our ongoing debate. It turns out we are both correct. How so? Read on.
!["Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture" by Smadar Lavie [Recommended]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Wrapped-in-the-Flag-of-Israel-Mizrahi-Single-Mothers-and-Bureaucratic-Torture.jpg)