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This Burning Land: Lesson from the Front Lines of the Transformed Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
By, Greg Myre and Jennifer Griffin

This book did take me a bit to get through and I know the title can be a complete turn off at the start! My brother read this book and recommended it to my Mom and then she read it and recommended it to me.

I’ve never really understood what was going on between Israel, and the Palestinians. I didn’t even really know that the Palestinians lived in West Bank and The Gaza Strip. I had no idea where West Bank and The Gaza Strip were within Israel and I had no clue as to when their conflicts started or what started it! I really didn’t know much at all!

In fact I would routinely skip over any news of gunfire, spuds, missile strikes, or suicide bombers. relating to this area of the world. I was so clueless that the news didn’t mean a thing. Nor did I understand why it was always in the headlines. We don’t hear much about Russia or Indonesia or South Africa. So, why all the hype about Israeli Palestinian family fued?

Well, there are a lot of reasons for each of those questions. This book really helped me to not only understand what was going on, but read personal stories of lives effected by the conflict. Real people, real suffering, real hatred, real forgiveness and real life amid chaos.

The writing drew you in and was not overwhelmingly gorey or sad, nor did it enovoke a lot of anger, it is a well written documentary of both sides of the conflict. Error and mistakes on both sides and honor and compassion and forgiveness and hope demonstrated by both sides.

I can’t say this was an enjoyable read, but it wasn’t forced either. I really did want to understand more of what was going on in this country and now I feel like I can speak to a Palestinian or an Israeli with a little bit of intelegence instead of complete ignorance!

I definitely recommend this book!

And here is an extended trailer about the book and the authors that I found very interesting. Only a 5 minute view!