By: Adam Harris on August 29, 2024
Well, summer is officially over, and we’re diving into a simple topic: the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I’m just going to answer these in the order Dr. Jason Clark gave them to us. What did you know about Israel before 7th October, and what was that based upon? Being an enthusiast for ancient religion, most of my…
By: Shela Sullivan on August 29, 2024
Introduction The book, The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict provides an in-depth analysis of one of the most enduring and intricate conflicts in modern history. Martin Bunton, a historian with expertise in Middle Eastern studies, approaches the subject with balance, exploring its historical, political, and social dimensions.[1] What did you know about Israel before 7th October, and what…
By: Elysse Burns on August 29, 2024
What did I know before? Israel has been an oft-addressed topic in my family and church community for as long as I can remember. It was and remains the focus of many eschatological discussions. My father, a pastor, usually has stacks of Zion’s Fire magazines and Chosen People Ministries’ updates scattered throughout his office. In…
By: Christy on August 29, 2024
Prior to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, my understanding of the Israel-Middle east conflict was limited to casual and sporadic bits of information spread throughout my life. I have vague composite memories of car bombings and other attacks playing on the evening news throughout my childhood. Growing up in a conservative Christian…
By: Pam Lau on August 28, 2024
“Mythic violence is blood-violence over mere life for the sake of violence itself; divine violence is pure violence over all of life for the sake of the living.”[1] – Walter Benjamin What I Knew Before October 7th, 2023 Golda[2] is the 2023 biographical film dramatizing the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir during the 1973…
By: Debbie Owen on August 28, 2024
Large-scale human conflicts (and many small-scale conflicts) inevitably arise around concepts of ownership: “This is mine…” This desire for ownership could be about land, or water, or antiquities, or a variety of other tangible objects. But what is at the heart of the concept of “Mine!”? It’s a fear of loss. But when we dig…
By: Adam Cheney on August 28, 2024
Previous knowledge of the Israel conflict I grew up in a church that held to a traditional Zionist perspective when it came to Israel. Essentially, the return of the modern nation-state of Israel was the fulfillment of a prophecy that was going to usher in the Apocalypse. This might be overstated and simplified a bit.…
By: Ryan Thorson on August 28, 2024
“I can’t believe I am here again!” I stared across the Holy City of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. This special and remarkable place that I had visited now three times, forever etched in my mind, and a place I think of longingly almost every day I’m away. Below me the white sepulchers of…
By: Graham English on August 28, 2024
In The Palestine-Israeli Conflict- A Very Short Introduction, Martin Bunton traces the tumultuous recent history between Israel and Palestine. Bunton reduces this conflict to a struggle between two nations over land.[1] In my journey to this region, the conflict was palpable, and I was struck by the irony of the prevalence of conflict in “The…
By: Kally Elliott on August 28, 2024
In this blog post I will answer three questions. “What did you know about Israel before October 7th 2023, and what was that based upon? What does this book help you understand that you didn’t know before? How do you navigate the Israel-Middle East conflict? What did you know about Israel before October 7th 2023…
By: Joel Zantingh on August 28, 2024
By breaking down the history into four historical periods, The Ottoman, The British, The Palestinian (partition), and the American eras of war and international involvement, Martin Bunton helps us see a snapshot of these important periods in an even-longer conflicting story spanning millennia. And even though this was published over a decade ago, I still…
By: Scott Dickie on August 27, 2024
What did you know about Israel before 7th October, and what was that based upon? I knew some of the long-term history of Israel due to my theological and historical studies in my undergrad and graduate degrees. I was relatively familiar with the creation of the modern state of Israel and the WWII context that…
By: Jennifer Vernam on August 27, 2024
Israel and Palestine’s Origin Story What I have known about the conflict between Israel and Palestine begins with Israel’s origin story in Genesis and God informing Abram about his plans to make him into a great nation: Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make…
By: Kim Sanford on August 26, 2024
Looking Back Reading about life in Israel and Palestine over the past 100+ years evoked some diverse emotions. Firstly, nostalgia as I was taken back to my college Hebrew classroom where we began each class by singing, “Hineh ma tov uma na’im Shevet achim gam Yachad.” How good it is for brethren to dwell in…
By: Cathy Glei on August 26, 2024
A Peek Into My Limited Understanding Admittedly, I have a limited understanding of the conflict that is taking place in Israel. John, I think I need the 5-year-old explanation of the conflict too. For several years I taught in an Arabic/Muslim in Michigan and not much was said about the historical conflict of the region,…
By: Diane Tuttle on August 26, 2024
Canadian History Professor, Martin Bunton chronicled the last 120 years of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in his book The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, A Very Short Introduction.[1] While far from exhaustive of the thousands of years that the conflict has been raging, the book gave me a better understanding of many of the struggles in the area and…
By: John Fehlen on August 26, 2024
I read this entire book, and I still don’t fully understand the situation in the Middle East. I didn’t prior to October 7th, and I still don’t fully after October 7th. Honestly, I just don’t get it. Reading The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by Martin Bunton only seemed to confuse me more, and the material only covered up…
By: Tim Clark on August 26, 2024
One of the features of the home I grew up in was sitting down in front of the TV to watch the nightly news. Some of my earliest memories are of news anchor Walter Cronkite signing off the end of his program with “And that’s the way it is…” (and then he would give the…
By: Jeff Styer on August 26, 2024
Without really knowing why I remember growing up hearing people say that there will never be peace in the Middle East. I knew that Israel as a nation was re-established after WWII and that there had been conflict over the years that resulted from the Promised Land being given back to Israel. I heard terms…
By: Jenny Dooley on August 26, 2024
My Understanding of Israel The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, by Martin Bunton was a timely and informative read. As the Israeli-Hamas war continues, this short volume helped me understand the complexity of how two peoples came to be at violent odds with one another. Before reading this book, I knew Israel became a nation in 1948, continues…
