About 20 years ago I read a book called "From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Thomas Friedman. It was the best book I've ever read on the Arab-Israeli conflict -- until this weekend. Sitting in the airport going and returning home from the black hole that is Laguardia Airport, I read a book called "The Lemon Tree" by Sandy Tolan. To Americans who have the attention span of a gnat, I say: read this book. To Jews who should already understand the hardships of Palestinians but don't, I say: read this book. And to Arabs who think they're the only ones legitimately bound to their land, I say: read this book.
To those on either side of the conflict who feel like their hearts have been hardened to the plight of their enemy, read it. If you really feel the same way afterwards, then you are indeed a special kind of lost cause. There are no easy answers in this book. In fact, there are no answers at all, simply a razor-sharp insight into the minds and hearts of people we have learned to hate but who we ought to understand, because they're really us, looking back in a mirror. --z
