GHOSTS OF A HOLY WAR

An award winning journalist presents an even handed thoroughly researched examination of the Arab Israeli conflict and illustrates how a shocking yet little known massacre one century ago in what was then Palestine became ground zero of a war that continues to devastate A compelling story If you are going to read one book to help you understand the current Middle East tragedy this is it Yossi Klein Halevi senior fellow Shalom Hartman Institute and author of the New York Times bestseller Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor In 1929 in the sacred city of Hebron then governed by the British Mandate of Palestine there was no occupation state of Israel or settlers Jews and Muslims lived peacefully near the burial place of Abraham patriarch of the Jewish and Arab nations until one Saturday morning when nearly 70 Jewish men women and children were slaughtered by their Arab neighbors The Hebron massacre was a seminal event in the Arab Israeli conflict key to understanding its complexities The echoes of 1929 in Hamas s massacre of October 7 2023 illustrate how little has changed and how much of our perspective must change if peace is ever to come to this tortured land and its people who are destined to share it Noted journalist Yardena Schwartz