My book group just finished Blood Brothers, an autobiography by Elias Chacour, a Palestinian Christian. Chacour is an amazing man, able to preach peace despite what he has suffered at the hands of the Israeli military and government. Israel looks quite oppressive in its dealings with the Palestinians. My opinion, though, is that Chacour is reasonably unbiased in the telling of his history.
That’s one side, however. Is there a comparable book written from the Israeli viewpoint but is equally compassionate towards the Palestinians?
It’s a bit outdated now, but I remember reading the aptly-titled “Why Blame Israel?” and finding it interesting. It was convincing, even if it didn’t convince me
What I’m hoping for is a Israeli perspective that doesn’t gloss over the atrocities on either side. Other than that I’m not sure.
One of the things that I really respected about Chacour is that he constantly reminds people that Jews are themselves victims of horrific persecution. He is Pro-Palestinian in that he works for Palestinian justice but requires students in his school to watch Diary of Anne Frank. It is, however, just his experiences and doesn’t have much of an Israeli perspective.
From my brief look at Why Blame Israel? it looks like it has an axe to grind. The Amazon blurb says “Israel is too often seen as the guilty party in the Middle East conflict. Neill Lochery argues that this interpretation, led by the liberal media, is unfair.” Alarm bells go off when the liberal or (conservative) media is used a scapegoat.
I’m not sure it’s exactly what you’re looking for (it’s about the history of Israel and it’s current state, not specifically the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but obviously that’s a huge part of it), but I’ve heard good things about My Promised Land by Ari Shavit. It’s on my (lengthly) to-read list.