The explorer

I have been away for two days... doing nothing? Not at all, on the contrary I think I was doing a very useful thing.... I was reading about the "other", the "different", about the "enemy"... Who is that? Of course Israel, but not what so ever Israel (what we call in Arabic 7ayalah) no not 7ayala Israel.

I spent two days reading about the Israeli population or the people in Israel. All my knowledge about Israel is through their politicians (Olmert, Peretz, Sharon, Netanyahu, Peres, Rabin, Golda Meir, Ben Gurion....) their generals, tanks, intelligent missiles, merkavas, patriots...
However what do I know about the people inside the country?
Not all Lebanon is Hezbollah and for sure not all Israel is Olmert-Peretz-Halutz.

I read a very interesting book that I advice those interested in knowing about the Israeli people to read.

"The People on the Street: A writer's view of Israel" by Linda Grant

The writer exposes the thoughts and feelings of the people of Israel in all their variety; of those that fled the Holocaust, of those not interested in politics and do not care what is happening beyond the Green Line, of those that served with the IDF in Lebanon, of those who served with the IDF in the occupied territories, of those who were forced to leave the Gaza settlements, of those who hated the Arabs, of those who hated Israelis, of those Arabs coming back for the first time to the land of their grandparents….

It is a very enriching book full of colourful personalities and full of information about the “Israeli personality”.

Linda Grant did not want her book to be an activist’s book, did not want it a politics book however, she ends the book with a certitude that the solution for the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis is through a two state solution.

I will try in the coming days to put on these pages some of the things that Grant put in her book that I found interesting to share with everybody.

I advise you to read the book