Summary-+Andrew,+Jeslyn,+Jaquetta,+Kerianne

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Elias Chacour tells us the story of the early parts of his life in the book Blood Brothers. He was born into a family of four children in the city of Biram. He was a Palestinian, but one thing was different about his family, they were Christians as well. This book explores all the prejudices and bad experiences based on the stereotypes of what people thought of him just because he looks a certain way. These stereotypes and violent movements were all started by Zionists. (Zionism) is a movement of Jews who want all Jews to return back to their homeland in Israel and make it a homeland of only [|Jews]. The first 8 chapters begin out the story of his life and how he is pushed out of his city by Zionist soldiers as a boy around the age of 8. One of the greatest lessons of the book is taught in the very beginning when Chacour is taught by his father to love his enemies regardless of how they treat him and always to remember that the Jews and the Palestinians are brothers. His father says to him in page 42, “the Jews and the Palestinians are brothers- blood brothers. We share the same father, Abraham, and the same God. We must never forget that”. In his father, he saw Jesus who was first important in his life. Whenever his father was tricked or wronged, he reacted in a way that was peaceful and impressed Chacour. The Zionist soldiers stayed in their Christian Palestine city and tricked them into leaving. They took their men, and boomed their city. Even though the town of Biram had government papers to get their town back, the Zionist soldiers did not follow those orders and after much struggle by petitioning the Supreme Court again, they never got their town back. Chacour was sent off to an orphanage were he joined the church and gained an education. The tension still grew as the Zionists invaded Gaza and the Palestinians fought with the Jews. Zionists framed bombings on Palestinians, and due to that people looked down on the Palestinians. Chacour went to Paris were he experienced some people who were ashamed to introduce him for who he really was. These first 8 chapters show the violent actions of Zionism and how Chacour was affected by them. The chapters of 9-13 describe Chacour in his experiences in his teenage years and late 20’s. He starts to remember what his father had taught him when he was a child. One experience he had was at the Mount of Beatitudes. God showed him that the plan and calling for all of our lives, not just the Jews, is to help and love people like Jesus did. He practiced this when he was sent to a small town separated by strife and unforgiveness. He locked them all together in the church where they were forced to work out their difference. As a group we agreed that being locked in a room and being forced to talk about problems will always help solve issues between people, just like in childhood. God also spoke to him and told him this, “if you hate your brother you are guilty of murder”. In that moment he realized that all people are capable of violence and hurting others, not just the Nazis, the Jews, the Zionists or the Palestinians. Everyone has an equal share in the matter and he needed to forgive what the Zionists did to him in the past, because it compares to murder in God’s eyes. Chacour said, “How terribly sad that men could ignore God’s plan for peace between divided brothers, even supporting one group as it wielded its might to force out the other”. _//Jeslyn//

Many people looking from the outside in have came to the conclusion years ago that as long as present political facts and emotions continue, there will not be and cannot be Peace in the Holy Land. We are not on our way of establishing Israeli-Palestinian peace; a Palestinian state cannot come into being in the near future. Better yet, the focus should be on building organization that will allow for real Palestinian advancement in the medium or longer term. Indeed it has been true for decades that the most Israel can offer the Palestinians is rather clearly less than any Palestinian politician is prepared to accept. Those who say, "The outlines of an agreement are well known" are wrong because if they were truly "well known", then they would be acceptable to both sides. This way, the Israeli's and the Palestinians would have had a better chance at settling the issue a long time ago. Even the land of the West Bank, also known as "Land for Peace" has become the "Land of Terrorism". This land is also being occupied by the Israeli's. America has been supplying both nations with arms not knowing that this would only cause more war and tension between the two and not bring about peace to the Holy Land. So until there is far better security in the West Bank, few Israelis would risk withdrawing the Israel Defense Forces from working there. One of the major issues between the two nations is that they are so caught up on people choosing sides, and who to protect and defend, and who to reject and cast out. These nations, especially the Israeli's have shown their stubbornness, bitterness, and unforgiveness to what was done to them in the past. Both lands wanting to be selfish and greedy over what territory they should and should not get is just downright petty and full of ignorance. It's just too much jealousy, self hate, and no compassion of grace and mercy going on. This is definitely what's causing the two nations not only to be at peace with each other, but be at peace with themselves. This will continue to go on until the Messiah himself comes back to redeemed and bring peace to his people. So instead of America trying to figure out negotiations to decide if it would be a one or two-state solution, they should just focus instead on trying to making real life in the West Bank better and more secure. Besides, that's the only chance of even coming close to peace-- physically anyway. In the article //How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend,// evangelicals are often less than confident about the predictions for peace. Jimmy Carter in 1979 stated "In spite of the rosy and utterly unrealistic expectations by our government, this treaty will not be a lasting treaty.... You and I know that there's not going to be any real peace in the Middle East until the Lord Jesus sits down upon the throne of David in Jerusalem.” This means that no one really expects any human peace agreement to last a long time. Most of them are only temporary. However, this does not mean that they are of no use. The negative attitude of many other evangelicals toward peace in the Middle East does not give even a temporary peace much of a chance; it certainly does not honor Jesus' words "Blessed are the peacemakers." The article stresses that no peace is perfect; no peace lasts forever. Yet the people are not even sure how close we are to the end to determine if peacemaking is a waste of time or not. They have to know that the future is in God's hands because in the end, Jesus wins. But they also have to open their eyes to see that getting to that point may be more complicated and full of surprises than they think. This article helps us to see that it is definitely time for a strategy of humility and hope. _//Jocquetta//

The article Israel “Collectively Punishing” Gaza: Amnesty is written from the Palestinian perspective on how unjust the Israelites are in their actions. Israel is being accused of punishing all of Gaza by tightening the security on the borders in response to the violent takeover in 2007 by the Islamic Hamas. It states Israel is at fault because instead of targeting threats and armed groups, they targeted the entire population by putting a blockade on Gaza. The Hamas group are not innocent in the matter either, their regime in Gaza is brutal and they are more focused on violent jihad on Israel rather than on taking care of their Palestinian citizens in Gaza. This article is just another example of the tension and violence in the Middle East. Not only was there tension between the Israelites and the Palestinians, but there was also friction between different internal factions. Also, the religious idea of Jihad also poses a threat that causes a lot of tension and bloodshed. This article and the reasons listed are only a small fraction of the problems in the Middle East and is proof for how peace is unattainable. _Kerianne

In Netanyahu's book, a durable peace, he writes about multiple different issues concerning the people of israel. He has this to say when talking about Israel being the jewish homeland: " If there had been a Jewish state in the first half of the [20th] century, there would have been no Holocaust. And if there had not been a Jewish state after the Holocaust, there would have been no Jewish future." Netanyahu explains a key issue in these sentences; The jewish people have never had anywhere to call home except israel and without a specific area for them, their culture and heritage would be lost through the bloodlines of future generations due to cross cultural marriage. Netanyahu explains these complex issues in simple terms to educate and persuade the people of the world that a jewish state is the only way the jewish culture will survive. Netanyahu's valid accusations of Israel only receiving one third of the land promised to the jews by the U.N. is another key point in his book. But Benjamin's most centralized point was the argument of the issues in the middle east. He explains that if the world could solve the differences in the middle east the entire world would benift and maybe be able to solve all the big problems of the world once and for all. this idea was deemed "Palestinian centralization" and is still, today, a prevalent topic when discussions of the middle east are brought to world leaders.

In this interview with Netanyahu he answers some of the worlds questions about the middle east.



// _Andrew //



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