Chapters 16-18 Reading Response

    I, like many of my fellow classmates that have posted thus far, found the last three chapters of this book very insightful and the most useful sections of the book. These last few chapters gave a modern view on everything going on, and shed some new light on things for me. Before, I had always been considerably pro-Israeli considering my mother's family is Jewish and I have a few friends who have lived in Israel.
    I hate to admit this but I had always felt that Israelis had always been free the ones who were 100% good. Now I know how stupid of me that was. My freshman year here I met a Palestinian who was against any form of support to Israel; he despised American Government and any big corporation that supported Israel. We were acquaintances, but I could never quite understand why he had this intense passion over the fate of his people. It always slightly bothered me, but I never really grasped his views until reading these last few chapters.
     Looking at pre 1948 maps of the occupied lands by arabs/palestinians in Israel is phenomenal. They use to dominate the region, but now, they are a minority. The same goes true for their current presence in Jerusalem. I can now see where my friend from freshman year was coming from when he said "jews are doing to us what happened to them". It's sad, but this whole back and fourth disagreement for thousands of years has been ridiculous and it's sad that it has such a negative affect on people's lives even today. From these last few chapters I have read what exactly has happened in Jerusalem since then and I can now have sympathy for this guy. It reveals how little I knew about this conflict before.
    The book as a whole as been eye-opening to me. Since I grew up in a house with parents of two different religious backgrounds, we were raised with no religious ideologies or teachings. Yes, we celebrated some holidays, but I never really learned much about these religions. This book was really my first opportunity to do so. I was able to learn not only about the history of the Arab/Israeli conflict, of Jerusalem, and of the Abrahamic religions, but a little about myself as well. It was my first real foray into many of these ancient stories that many of my counterparts have known since bible or hebrew school. It's kind of cool to know what people are talking about now, and I'm so glad I read this book!