June 2007 Seed Sampler

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6 June 2007 Seed Sampler

Peace in the Middle East

Seed Smile

Shooting Love, photo by Eliacín Rosario‐Cruz

Seed Story The Modern Middle East: Can the Kingdom come in a world of realpolitik? By James Lee The Middle East has long been a politically tense region where tribalism, infighting, foreign occupa‐tion, and the machinations of world empires have weighed heavily on the region’s collective history and cultural memory. Though it has been much ob‐scured by the distance of time and culture, the world of the Gospels bears striking similarities to the one we still read about in the daily news. Jesus minis‐tered in a world of foreign military occupation and Empire (Roman), insurgents with their violent repri‐sals and asymmetric warfare (Zealots and Sicarii),

sellouts and collaborators (Herod, Sadducees, priests, and scribes), profiteering (Temple‐based re‐ligious exploitation and the debt‐land loss‐poverty system), terrorism of both the guerilla and state‐sponsored variety (Barabbas’ uprising and Herod’s response to Jesus’ birth respectively), and culture wars (Pharisees, Essenes, Sadducees, rural poor and urban elites). Truly, there is nothing new under the sun.

Believing God is changing the world through mustard seeds the seemingly insignificant MSA seeks to unleash the crea-tive potential of ordinary people to make a difference in their communities and a world of urgent need.


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Having said that however, we must immediately note that we have witnessed some rather startling developments in the Middle East in recent years. First and foremost is the ongoing disintegration of Iraq. These past five years have seen Iraq go from a stable but repressive and deeply troubling, though quite typical, dictatorship to a virtual anarchy. This is an anarchy whose existence is punctuated daily by car bombings, death squad murders, political assas‐sinations, thuggery, corruption and all the attendant signs of the destruction of the civil infrastructure, not to their mention its cultural life. This while the current U.S. administration is no longer bothering to offer explanations, new or old, for why we invaded in the first place and the opposition party, majority though it has, is consistently failing to oppose fur‐ther escalation on our part. Just the other day the House rejected a measure to prevent the president from attacking Iran without Congressional approval.

photo credit: Episcopal News Service Though it may sound like a tired mantra from the liberal left (of which, I would note, I do not consider myself a part), I think wise observers are right in keeping their eye on Iraq’s oil as the key to under‐standing the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq. Legislation being moved forward in the Iraqi par‐liament this year gives foreign (mostly American) oil companies the right to roughly 2/3 (possibly more) of Iraq’s yet to be developed oil reserves for the next 30+ years; that is until the projected end of the oil fields’ profitability. This barely concealed act of mass looting is passing without much notice or seri‐ous discussion in the Western media. Bear in mind that oil accounts for a full 95% of Iraq’s government

revenues. The administration’s goal is an Iraq stable enough to get the oil industry back in business. Sec‐ondarily they hope to gain a greater foothold in the Middle East where we can keep our permanent (yes, permanent) military bases. Expect future policy to reflect that. Elsewhere in the Middle East, pressure has been mounting for some time for Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign, particularly in light of a re‐cent and deeply critical government report on last year’s 34 day assault on Lebanon/Hezbollah. Hav‐ing used the abduction of two Israeli soldiers as a flimsy pretext for launching an already planned at‐tack on Lebanon/Hezbollah, Israel is finding that it not only failed to cripple Hezbollah but that it sig‐nificantly enhanced their perceived stature and turned its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, into an icon of anti‐Israeli resistance (much to the consternation of many conservative Sunni regimes and clerics). Not only that, but Hezbollah was on the ground in the aftermath reimbursing families in Southern Lebanon with cash for their damaged houses and humanitar‐ian aid before anyone else. By the time Fouad Sin‐iora’s governmental assistance arrived, it was too late to avoid appearing like a Johnny come lately. For Hezbollah it was a PR coup that even still is has‐tening the loss of public trust in the elected govern‐ment and what is left of its genuine political clout. Israel’s assault, which incidentally did not succeed in rescuing the abducted soldiers, may well prove to have significant, though unintended, long‐term con‐sequences in Lebanese national politics, not to men‐tion the drift of public opinion and regional stability in the broader Middle East. Palestine, for its part, is currently struggling under the weight of infighting between Hamas and Fatah that has already claimed dozens of lives. This being a somewhat unsurprising, if long in coming, result of the most recent elections there that saw Palestine vote overwhelmingly against Fatah and its notorious corruption rather than for Hamas, per se. Together, the infighting in Palestine and the tre‐mendous fragility of Olmert’s government are draw‐ing attention away from the recently revived Saudi‐sponsored peace plan. This plan, first proposed in 2002 offered Israel a normalization of its diplomatic


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and economic relations with the Arab nations in re‐turn for a return to pre‐1967 borders, the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the willingness to allow Palestinian refugees to return to Israel. While the plan initially received a very cool reception from Israel, there is apparently a new openness to the plan. If the plan is to have any substantial success, it will hinge on at least two crucial factors. First, whether the Arab nations are willing to negotiate the condi‐tions. As it stands, there is no Israeli ownership of the plan. It is merely a trade being offered on terms set entirely by the Arab world. Though relatively moderated compared to say Hamas’ official plat‐form, these terms cannot be the basis of a lasting peace apart from a two‐sided negotiation. Second, if genuine negotiation is allowed for by the Arab states and entered into in good faith by all sides, Israel will undoubtedly seek to remove the “right of return” demands. Were the Palestinian refugees permitted to return en masse to Israel, it would fundamentally alter Israel’s political and religious, not to mention economic and social, landscape in a way that would significantly undercut its uniquely Jewish character. It would mean the end of Israel as it is currently known. For Israel this will remain an unacceptable idea indefinitely. They have shown themselves will‐ing to give up land, but they will not give up their state. The Arab world knows this. Whether this is a genuine attempt at a just peace will become appar‐ent by way of their approach to this particular pre‐condition. At this point, however, the internal struggles of the Palestinians on the one hand and Israel on the other seem likely to keep them from serious and far reaching engagement with one an‐other. Nonetheless, perhaps these difficult times may cre‐ate an opening on both sides as they seek to end their internal battles. Further, it is within the Bush administration’s options to press hard diplomati‐cally upon the leadership of Israel and Palestine to come to the table. If Congress were to turn up the heat on the president, he may be more inclined to initiate the effort. On the ground level, a significant show of public support could be what is necessary to make that happen. To that end, I would encour‐age Americans to contact their Congressional repre‐

sentatives and express their support for increased diplomatic efforts to bring a more permanent end to the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict. Congress fears losing public support over issues like this and so a culture of inaction can easily develop. For them to know they have the support of the voting public to make their voices heard, will go a long way. Moving to the north of Israel, Turkey appears locked in a struggle for the future of its national soul with its controversial bid for E.U. membership on the one hand and the Islamism movement and Kurdish question on the other. Finally, there is Iran who is proving deeply defiant in the face of U.N. sanctions and U.S. threats. Emboldened by American troubles in Iraq and Israel’s ostensible defeat by Hezbollah, they move forward with their nuclear ambitions which almost certainly include nuclear weapons, their denials notwithstanding. Iran is well poised to become America’s next huge problem in the Middle East whether de facto or as a result of future U.S. intervention. Whatever the exact course events take with regard to Iran, there are a few things about which we can be reasonably confident. First, expect the Bush admini‐stration to increasingly conflate the Iraq war and the Iran problem. We have seen some of this already with the vague American accusations that Iran is training, funding, and otherwise assisting the Shiite insurgency in Iraq. There is also the ongoing press coverage of the detained Iranian‐American scholar Haleh Esfandiari, which stands in stark contrast to the scant attention given to the American detention of five Iranian government employees who were working at a government liaison’s office in Arbil, Iraq. They have been held in a U.S. prison camp in Iraq since January. Second, do not expect any meaningful coverage (or critical questioning) of any lead up or follow up to future military action taken against Iran from any of the corporate news outlets (e.g. FOX, ABC, NBC, etc.). There was little to no critical questioning or suspicion of motives by the corporate media in the lead up to Iraq or even now, four years hence. There is little reason to suspect it will be significantly dif‐ferent in relation to Iran. Even Hollywood is getting on board with the release of the thinly veiled anti‐


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Iran film 300 in which the noble, virtuous, and proud Spartans (read US) defend themselves and their way of life valiantly against the monstrous, violent, and gathering threat of the only partly hu‐man Persian (read Iran) forces. The church would do well to exercise a hermeneutic of suspicion that con‐sistently attempts to decode the signals we are re‐ceiving from the popular media, not to mention many of our nation’s leaders. Third, there is good reason for the church to plan its response to any future calls to attack or invade Iran (or any need to respond to a fait accompli). There are indications that far from moderating President Bush and his administration, their increased isolation and the Republican mid‐term election losses may be in‐creasing their brazenness. There is even speculation that there are plans to attach Iran once the 2008 elec‐tions are done and Bush is truly a lame duck presi‐dent. Whether this is the case remains to be seen. Either way, now is the time for the church to think critically about our support for violence and war, our culpable quietude regarding torture, our trust and consumption of the corporate media, and the fact that simply disagreeing with American foreign policy in private settings amounts to public silence. In all this, though, let despair not reign lest we fail to run the race. I must admit that even to talk nega‐tively like this grieves me, for I am an idealist by nature and recoil at realpolitik. Yet, naïve assump‐tions about the goodness of all intentions do not

serve the church or the world at these times. None‐theless, it is with joy that I note the largely hidden but important parables of the Kingdom that occa‐sionally appear to overcome the profanity of vio‐lence. In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shoot‐ings, for example, students at Baghdad Tech hung signs to express their solidarity with the victims. In a city where simply going to school is an act of faith over and against the daily violence, those students lived into the truth that our hope is in solidarity across dividing lines rather than in the empty prom‐ises of violent force. My great, Kingdom‐based hope is that we will find ways to build upon these types of connections which the Iraqi students created (rather than simply react to the horrors) and that the fruit of these con‐nections might be resistance to violence, solidarity with all who are poor and oppressed, and joyful community. As I said at the start, Jesus ministered in a world of violence, greed, empire, occupation, terrorism, insurgency, political tumult, and culture wars. Within His own creative, grassroots, actively non‐violent response to these things lies the hope of our witness today. If you see how we might do this, let me know, for assuredly the Kingdom is not far behind. The author holds an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary and maintains an active interest in the Middle Eastern affairs and the Kingdom of God.

Reflection The Peace of God By Christine Sine This last weekend we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives and into our world. I love this story as it is recounted in the second chapter of Acts. Having worked in many cross cul‐tural situations I know that there is nothing more frustrating than lack of understanding with a person from another culture who speaks another language. I can imagine the delight of this gathering literally from across the known world – Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judea, Cappadocians, Asians, Egyptians, Libyans visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. All of them heard the disciples in their own languages. I suspect that the understanding went far deeper than language, however. I think that through the power of the Holy Spirit all of those gathered on the day of Pentecost were able to understand the cultural traditions and nuances that so often cause misunderstanding and conflict.


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The story of Pentecost is a story of a wonderful international cross cultural gathering. God’s Holy Spirit draws us all into a new family in which we are able to understand and break down all the cultural barriers that separate us

and create conflict. In spite of our cultural differences we are, through the power of the Spirit, enabled to understand each other and treat each other as equals, with love and mutual care. Peace in the Middle East is not possible without cross cultural understand‐ing not just between Israelis and Arabs but also between Jews and Chris‐tians and Muslims. Perhaps this is part of the reason God asks us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. This holy city of God is special to people of so many traditions and cultures. Without understanding and without the power of the Holy Spirit working within it there will never be peace. Take Action 1. How could you help to break down barriers & foster understanding

between peoples of different cultures in the Middle East? 2. What does it mean for us to be drawn into community with the peoples

of Palestine? 3. What implications does the message of Pentecost have in relation to the

topics addressed in this newsletter? A Liturgy for Peace by Christine Sine God blesses those who work for peace, For they will be called the children of God. (Matt. 5:9) (Silence) God of peace you call us to peace. Peace within and peace without Peace before and peace behind Peace on right and peace on left Christ of peace you call us to peace. Peace with brother and with sister Peace with neighbour and with stranger Peace with friend and with foe Spirit of peace you call us to peace. Peace in work and in play Peace in thought and in deed Peace in word and in action Grant us peace O God of peace. Psalm 122 1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.” 2 And now here we are,

standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem. 3 Jerusalem is a well‐built city; its seamless walls cannot be breached. 4 All the tribes of Israel—the LORD’s people— make their pilgrimage here. They come to give thanks to the name of the LORD, as the law requires of Israel. 5 Here stand the thrones where judgment is given, the thrones of the dynasty of David. 6 Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper. 7 O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces. 8 For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “May you have peace.” 9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem.

(New Living Translation) John 14:23‐27(Contemporary English Version) Jesus replied: If anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father will love them, and we will come to them and live in them. But anyone who doesnʹt love me, wonʹt obey me. What they have heard me say


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doesnʹt really come from me, but from the Father who sent me. I have told you these things while I am still with you. But the Holy Spirit will come and help you, because the Father will send the Spirit to take my place. The Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of what I said while I was with you. I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give. It isnʹt like the peace that this world can give. So donʹt be worried or afraid. Our Father who is in heaven hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for yours is the kingdom the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. God all powerful and all knowing encircle us Keep love within and fear without Keep peace within and violence out Circle us with your presence God all loving and all embracing encircle us Keep wholeness in and disease without Keep care within and selfishness out Circle us with your love

God all mighty and all caring encircle us Keep truth within and injustice out Keep acceptance in and prejudice out Circle us with your peace God may we be instruments of your peace today In a world divided by war and strife May we be your reconcilers In a world of hurt and pain May we be those who care for our enemies In a world that kills and maims May we be those who heal and restore God lead us with your peace Through the pathway of your love To the promise of your kingdom, The blessing of God be upon you. The blessing of the God of life. The blessing of Christ be upon you. The blessing of the Christ of love. The blessing of the spirit upon you. The blessing of the spirit of peace. The blessing of the triune God be yours, now and evermore. Amen

Seed Share “Jerusalem Stories” Humanize the Other Reprinted with permission from Peacebuilder Magazine, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University. First printed in Peacebuilder, (Fall/Winter 2006), http://www.emu.edu/peacebuilder/fall06/jerusalem.html. In an interview published last December in The Je‐rusalem Post, CJP masters student Carol Grosman described an innovative project she has launched to increase understanding in the Middle East and abroad and to help transform conflict. Called “Jeru‐salem Stories,ʺ the project is built around personal stories and portrait photographs of Israeli and Pales‐tinian residents of Jerusalem. The stories focus on residents’ experiences living through recent years of conflict as well as their con‐nections to the extraordinary city of Jerusalem. “Seeing the other as human is something that’s im‐portant after you go through this kind of conflict. It’s

hard for people to deal with the other ‐ even nice, politically correct people,ʺ Grosman told The Jerusa‐lem Post. “Personal stories enable people to step into the shoes of the ‘other’.”


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Photos are Agents for Positive Social Change Grosman is a writer, storyteller and conflict resolu‐tion practitioner who has lived in Jerusalem since 2001 and pursued her masters degree at EMU mainly through summer study. She uses photo‐graphs and stories because she believes they move people deeply, making them agents for positive so‐cial change. The material that Grosman has collected will be used to create a book, educational programs, a per‐formance and photography exhibit, all of which will be presented in American, Israeli and Palestinian communities.

The striking portraits in “Jerusalem Storiesʺ have been taken by award‐winning photographer Lloyd Wolf of Fairfax, Va., who says he hopes that viewers will recognize their friends and neighbors, whether Muslim, Christian or Jew, in the photos. “I’m trying to help create empathy for the people portrayed, not judge them, either good or bad, but help to give a sense of an intimate experience of the humanity of a person,ʺ he says. To read sample stories and see more photos, visit www.jerusalemstories.org.

Seed Share Home Is Where the Heart Is: Israel and Palestine—Whose Promised Land? Book review by Lindsay Lackey

There is a saying many might be familiar with: “Home is where the heart is.” For many of us in the Western world, the concept of ‘home’ has more to do with comfort, good schools, and property taxes than anything else. We wander from place to place, settling down in quiet neighborhoods so that we can live in comfort and security. We hold a sense of pride in our homelands—at least as far as sports teams are concerned. There are, of course, problems, complaints about governments and taxes, neighborhood squabbles over paint colors and cars parked on the wrong curb. Generally, however, we are comfortable, we are safe, we are home.

‘Home’ is not so easily categorized in the Middle East. For centuries the Palestinian and Israeli people have wres‐tled with their own concept of home in a contest that has held incredible political, religious, and social ramifica‐tions. The world has watched as these two nations have warred over a small, deeply historical area of land that is the center of three major religions, not to mention the homeland of both peoples for generations. How does the rest of the world view this escalating crisis? With whom do we, should we side? What is justice? Where, in all of this, is God? Whose promised land? These are some of the questions Colin Chapman addresses in his book, Whose Promised Land? The Continuing Crisis Over Israel and Palestine (Baker Books, 2002). Chapman argues that many people tend to reduce the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict down to simple issues, ignoring the long‐standing history of conflict that goes much deeper than who has been there longer, or to whom the land was divinely promised. In his introduction, Chapman states: “If the heart of the problem we are dealing with is that two peoples are claiming the same piece of land for differ‐ent reasons, how do we begin to answer the question ‘Whose Promised Land?’ Because we are not dealing with a single issue, but with a number of issues which are inter‐related, we need to resist the temptation to reduce every‐thing to a single dimension—‘the conflict is nothing but…’ or ‘the problem is nothing more than…’ If we can do this, we are then free to recognize the wide variety of major ingredients…which contribute to the conflict.”


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Whose Promised Land? is a presentation of both sides of the struggle and of the major issues fueling the crisis. Chapman does not present a “they’re right, they’re wrong” mentality, but instead offers readers a thoroughly researched history from both inside and outside the religious viewpoint. “It is important,” Chapman says, “to have at least a basic understanding of history before we turn to the Bible to attempt to find meaning in historical events.” The issues addressed in Chapman’s book are questions that cannot be ignored by the world, and should not be ignored by Christians. The Israeli‐Palestinian conflict is not easy to solve, nor is it limited to those living in this controversial land. As Christians, we must learn to recognize the suffering and injustices on both sides, and we must acknowledge our responsibility of global awareness. Whose Promised Land? is a reminder that Christians play a part in the conflict in the Middle East; Chapman offers us a crucial step in understanding our responsibili‐ties as the body of Christ: he offers us some crucial education. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:27: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (New International Version). The body of Christ is not limited to our own homes, neighborhoods and problems. The body of Christ, of which we are all a part, is universal. Paul also reminds us that “there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (1 Cor. 12: 25‐26, NIV). Home is where the heart is, as the saying goes, and for Christians, God’s heart is urging us to pray and to engage in the sufferings and injustices of the world. Seed Share The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew and the Heart of the Middle East Book review by Don Holsinger, Professor of History at Seattle Pacific University

If the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict could be distilled into a brief conversation between an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Arab, it might take the form of the follow‐ing unscripted exchange in an old “60 Minutes” televi‐sion report.

The Israeli being interviewed, a Jewish woman from the United States who had immigrated to Israel, ex‐claimed, “I’ve solved my problem!” It was a per‐sonal statement, but she was clearly speaking for millions of Israeli Jews who viewed the establish‐ment of Israel as the answer to their centuries‐old problem of persecution and statelessness. Nearby was a young Palestinian man serving as an Arabic interpreter. Spontaneously, he interjected, “But you gave me yours!” Also a personal statement, he was just as clearly speaking for millions of Palestinian

Arabs who felt that the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine left them persecuted and stateless. What if an entire book could be crafted around the core dilemma expressed in that exchange? What if the reader could be drawn fully into the lives of two peoples who share so much linguistically, religiously, geographically, ethnically, and historically—and who, most importantly, share the experience of great suffering? What if the two stories could be told, not as separate and irreconcilable, but as one tale, gener‐ating symmetry of understanding, empathy, and hope? Sandy Tolan’s The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006) is the book I have long been waiting for. It is a stunning achievement, a book entirely of nonfiction that grabs and holds the reader like a great novel, a book that is both educational and inspirational.


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Every house has its own history. In the Israeli town of Ramla is a house with two tales to tell. When Pal‐estinian Arab Ahmad Khair built the modest stone structure in 1936, he also planted a lemon tree to grow along with his young family. Khair’s son Bashir was only six years old when the entire family fled their home during the 1948 Arab‐Israeli war, becoming refugees on what we now refer to as the West Bank. Shortly after al‐Ramla (the town’s Pales‐tinian name) was incorporated into the newly estab‐lished state of Israel, the Eshkenazis — a family of Bulgarian Jews who had barely escaped the Nazi Holocaust — came into possession of the Khair house. Dalia Eshkenazi, one year old at the time, grew up in the shade of the lemon tree and as a girl wondered about the house’s former occupants. The personal connection between the two central characters, Dalia and Bashir, began on a hot July day in 1967. Bashir and his two cousins approached his childhood home in Ramla/al‐Ramla with trepida‐tion, not knowing what kind of reception they would receive. “I was wary,” remembers Bashir. “Should I knock forcefully and risk intimidating the people inside? Or knock softly and risk that the people would not hear me?” Alone at home, Dalia, a 19‐year‐old student, an‐swered the door and had every reason to be suspi‐cious of the three Palestinian strangers when they asked if they could visit her house. “I felt, wow, it’s them. It was as if I’d always been waiting for them.” If she allowed them in, what would she be inviting? Dalia chose to ask the strangers in, and in doing so, opened the door to a friendship and an unforgetta‐ble story. The Lemon Tree grew out of a radio documentary that Sandy Tolan produced for National Public Radio’s Fresh Air in 1998 on the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration of the state of Israel. The radio documen‐tary wove together the voices of Bashir and Dalia speaking to each other. Tolan’s challenge as an au‐thor was, in his own words, “to retain the simplicity and tone of the documentary while simultaneously writing a history book in disguise — and making it feel, all the while, like a novel.”

The result is a prose masterpiece based on exhaus‐tive research in primary and secondary historical accounts, newspaper clippings, published and un‐published memoirs, nearly a dozen archival collec‐tions around the world, and, above all, personal in‐terviews. Chapter 5 alone is based on interviews with more than fifty people. Tolan provides 65 pages of source notes meticu‐lously documenting every detail of the book. The extraordinary nature of this accomplishment gradu‐ally grows on the reader. This is a book that can be trusted, an important consideration when dealing with subject matter complicated by so much emo‐tion and exaggeration on all sides. The Arab‐Israeli conflict touches everyone deeply; whether you are Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, it goes to the heart of your identity. After opening with the initial encounter between Bashir and Dalia, the book then moves back to the year 1936 — the beginning of the Palestinian Revolt against the British, which coincided with the build‐ing of the Khair home—and traces the evolving Middle Eastern context during the early 1940s. The scene shifts to the nightmare of Nazi‐occupied Europe, where Bulgarian Jews, including the family of Dalia Eshkenazi, narrowly escaped being de‐ported to the death camps in the north and then prepared to immigrate to British‐controlled Palestine following World War II. The author next moves us back to al‐Ramla during those same years, skillfully connecting the family histories of the Khairs and the Eshkanazis to the historical forces that were buffet‐ing Europe and the Middle East during and after World War II. Tolan tells the stories of both families during the all‐important year 1948 in which the “miracle” of the Zionist War of Independence corresponds to the “nightmare” of the Palestinian Nakba, meaning “ca‐tastrophe.” The chapters continue to work in tan‐dem, brilliantly illuminating the family stories and national stories of Israelis and Palestinians during the decades leading up to the first meeting between Dalia and Bashir.


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Beginning with their meeting at the door of the house with the lemon tree, the personal relationship between Dalia and Bashir evolved over the course of four decades and is woven into the narrative. The twists and turns in this relationship are full of sur‐prises better left for the reader to discover. Suffice it to say that Tolan carries the reader effortlessly through the epic events of war and peace, despair and hope, that have captured the world’s attention for more than half a century. The book brings to life the complex relationship be‐tween Bashir and Dalia in all its confusion, frustra‐

tion, and pain. There is no cheap sentimentality or shallow wishful thinking. The hard realities are faced head‐on, both by the main characters and by the author, which makes reading this book a truly educational experience. When all the suffering, de‐spair, violence, and mutually incompatible demands have been confronted, Dalia and Bashir remain two human beings who treat each other with respect, who refuse to give up on the future, and who culti‐vate the seeds of hope in their own hearts while planting new ones in ours.

Middle East Resources Middle East Window: http://middleeastwindow.com/faithmatters An expanded bibliography on the Middle East: http://www.elca.org/middleeast/bibliography.html Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding Bulletin: http://emeu.net Peacebuilder Magazine from Eastern Mennonite University: http://www.emu.edu/cjp Mennonite Central Committee: http://www.mcc.org/palestine/ Peaceful Ends Through Peaceful Means: http://www.pepm.org/ Churches for Middle East Peace: http://www.cmep.org/

News & Politics

June 2007 Seed Sampler