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ePalestine.ps - Sam Bahour

News & opinions from a Palestinian-American
living & working in Ramallah/Al-Bireh, Palestine

BY TOPIC: Ehud Barak

3 post/s found with this tag.



Perpetual Turmoil: A man-made holy pandemic that never ends [Book Review]

Perpetual Turmoil: A man-made holy pandemic that never ends [Book Review]

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.


Zionism’s Invented State [Book Review]

Zionism’s Invented State [Book Review]

This was not the first time I have read the word “exceptionalism” in relation to Israel.  New York Times columnist Roger Cohen recently wrote that Israel “lives in a perpetual state of exceptionalism.” (New York Times, Oct. 16, 2009).  However, Professor Alam explored this Israeli phenomenon on a deeper level of its underlying ideology to shed light on why this abnormal state seems to be unable to come to terms with modern day realities.