The Lemon Tree

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The problem is this; it was no longer their land. Intransigence will prevent any peace. Both sides have to move to a middle ground, but Israel has no choice, if it wishes to maintain its Jewish identity, but to behave they way it did and will have to continue to do so. Those that do not understand this will wish to doom Israel to extinction. They may even hope for it, as their ultimate goal. It seems to me that books I'm reading or have read may provide some of that context, or maybe everything I'm reading these days is ~related~. Although those connections aren't really part of my review, maybe I can assemble them here, for future reference. Or maybe add them to the review.

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle

Bashir and his fellow student activists in Cairo believed Arab unity was the key to return, and they watched this maneuvering closely. Some students began guerrilla training in secret "special forces" camps in Egypt and elsewhere. They learned how to plant mines and fire antitank weapons. They jumped from airplanes, waded through swamps, slept on hard ground, ate snakes, and went without food for days.d. Chapters Four (pp 66-69) and Five (pp. 80-85) describe the experience of leaving home, from the Khairis’ and Eshkanazis’ perspective. How were these departures, in the things that they carried and the things that they left behind, similar? How were they different? Can you imagine what must have been going on in the minds of Ahmad and Moshe, the fathers of each family, as they looked forward into the unknown?

Book A Room - The Lemon Tree Book A Room - The Lemon Tree

The cballenge of this book -- is that it revolves around two extraordinary individuals who choose to care and hear each other stories, and maintain a deep and respectful friendship spanning decades despite deep political differences - that go to the very core of their beings -- differences that each conscientiously acts upon through their lives. The conflict is a bad situation; I feel for the people living in camps with little control over their lives. There are refugees in every war and it's sad. But only blaming Israel over-simplifies a complex problem. Israelis have to be a hard people to exist surrounded by so many nations who want them destroyed. While Dalia is shown in a sympathetic light, and Bashir is depicted as someone who is the product of years of Israeli abuse, there is little true causation presented that connects the deeds of each enemy toward each other. Therefore, The brutality of Israeli actions often appear to be occurring in a vacuum rather than in reaction to Arab provocation. Israel would probably not exist today had they not taken swift action against their enemies, even preemptively. Did the means justify the ends? Since the Arabs were intransigent and would not accept Israel’s right to exist, after the state was created, I, personally, believe they did.

This is an exposition of the Israel-Palestine conflict via the stories of two people, Dalia, a Jewish woman whose family immigrated when she was a baby in 1948 and Bashir, a Palestinian Arab whose family was driven out and became refugees. Dalia's family live in what had been Bashir's family's home. The lemon tree grew in the yard. The book uses their stories to tell the story of the conflict. The book does a good job of showing the personal experiences and views of all concerned. With this kind of book (another example of which is The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration) there is more emphasis on those personal experiences and rather less on explication. But there is enough to give the picture. Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal, to the anger of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Israel, was a source of deep pride for Bashir and millions of others on the Arab streets. Nasser had become a leader, with Nehru of India and Tito of Yugoslavia, of the "non-aligned movement" that sought an independent, third path between the superpowers. Most important for Palestinians, Nasser's recent championing of their cause had stirred hopes in the diaspora for a great Arab rebirth to avenge the defeat of 1948. Unlike the U.N. and its resolutions on paper, Bashir believed, Nasser could end the long exile of the Palestinians by force of arms. I read in the paper the other day about how it is against the law to spread Christianity in Libya, and doubtless in many other countries. Ramallah had changed completely since the day in late 1948 when Ahmad and Zakia had taken Bashir and the other children to Gaza. Gone was the desperation of a refugee population sleeping under the trees. Gone, too, were thousands of well-to-do Ramallans, mostly Christians, who had fled the West Bank into the United States in the years following the Nakba. At the edges of town stood the concrete dwellings and narrow, refuse-strewn lanes of the UNRWA refugee camps. Each year, the U.N. refugee agency was required to submit a budget for renewed funding. Receiving long-term funds or building more permanent-looking housing would imply a U.N. admission that the refugees were not going home. This position was still unacceptable for the "host" governments, the grassroots political factions that were based in the camps, and most of all the refugees themselves. Tolan skillfully weaves significant historical and political events, from the first intifada to Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, into the personal context of Dalia and Bashir’s families. This makes for compelling reading throughout.

The Lemon Tree Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary

Situated in the centre of Wrexham town centre, The Lemon Tree offers 18 fully equipped rooms, some of which retain the neo-gothic character of the original Grade II listed building. With the beautiful North Wales countryside on our doorstop and the Historic city of Chester a stones through away, The Lemon Tree is the perfect base for both business and adventures big and small I think it would be called a "revisionist" book. That is, it doesn't tell the story of Israel in a mythic, heroic manner, but contains all the warts--i.e, not all the Arabs fled of their own accord in 1948 but some were driven out; bad treatment on the part of Israel happened. Torture has occurred. Some may see that as delegitimizing the state of Israel, but to me it means that, like other countries, Israel hasn't had an immaculate conception. (In my opinion, it is not criticism of Israel that is the problem, but the problem consists in removing it from time and history and holding it up as the paradigmatic evil.)I loved/hated this book. The Washington Post nailed it tagging it "an extraordinary book...A sweeping history of the Palestinian-Israeli conundrum...highly readable and evocative."

The Lemon Tree Summary | GradeSaver The Lemon Tree Summary | GradeSaver

Humane and literate—and rather daring in suggesting that the future of the Middle East need not be violent. I think this book has boring dialog. Do people really talk that way? Maybe Dalia and Bashir should just chill out and become a bit more fun. The history in this book was so dry and boring! But history presented in a textbook format has always bored me to tears.By late on June 6, Dalia knew that the war was won. She experienced it not with elation -- not yet, since the fighting was still going on -- but rather with a sense that a miracle was taking place in Israel. How could this have happened? she thought again and again. Did God save us? How can this be?