Arab and Jew Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • “A rich, penetrating, and moving portrayal of Arab-Jewish hostility, told in human terms.”—Newsday

Now expanded and updated • “The best and most comprehensive work there is in the English language on this subject.”—The New York Times

In this monumental work, extensively researched and more relevant than ever, David Shipler delves into the origins of the prejudices that exist between Jews and Arabs that have been intensified by war, terrorism, and nationalism.

Focusing on the diverse cultures that exist side by side in Israel and Palestine, Shipler examines the process of indoctrination that begins in schools; he discusses the effects of socioeconomic differences, the clashes of Israeli and Palestinian historical narratives, religious conflicts between Islam and Judaism, views of the Holocaust, and much more. And he writes of the people: the Arab woman in love with a Jew, the retired Israeli military officer now disillusioned, the Palestinian militant devoted to violent means, the Israeli and Palestinian schoolchildren who reach across the divides in search of reconciliation. 
 
Their stories, and the hundreds of others, reflect not only the reality of “wounded spirits” but also the healing inside minds necessary for eventual coexistence in the promised land.

DAVID K. SHIPLER reported for the New York Times from 1966 to 1988 in New York, Saigon, Moscow, and Jerusalem before serving as chief diplomatic correspondent in Washington, D.C. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for Arab and Jew. He shared a George Polk Award for his coverage of the 1982 war in Lebanon and was executive producer, writer, and narrator of two PBS documentaries on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is the author of six other books, including the bestsellers Russia and The Working Poor. Shipler, who has been a chair of the nonfiction Pulitzer committee, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, and a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has taught at Princeton University; at American University; and at Dartmouth College. He writes online at The Shipler Report.