Something Different and Something Frightening from the Middle East

Many readers of this blog know of my interest in Palestinian-Israeli affairs, given our firm's 3-year-long work with private school leaders in the West Bank and Gaza. Two items from or about the Middle East caught my attention this week. The first, coming by way of my friend Munther Fahmi, owner of the Jerusalem Book Shop, is a book by Arthur Neslen, In Your Eyes a Sandstorm. Neslen's book chronicles the Palestinian (Gaza and the West Bank) experience under occupation through interviews and stories. Given the preponderance of the Israeli viewpoint in most Western media, Neslen's work is important reading for anyone trying to understand even the surface of the issues in this region.

The second is this NY Times op-ed on what the author, Nathan Thrall, calls the inevitability of a Third Intifada. I cannot dispute his analysis of the current political situation on both sides, but hope fervently that another round of mutual violence can be averted. A Third Intifada will be catastrophic for both Palestinians and Israelis.