Brueggemann's thesis
is that it is necessary to deal with the human rights issues before
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be resolved. He uses the Bible
to trace the history of the claims to the land Israel now occupies
and tries to draw conclusions about the legitimacy of Israel's claim
and the counter claim of the Palestinians.
Although he
discusses the conflict in terms of the oppression of the Palestinians
and the idea that the Israelis are the chosen people of God, I didn't
think he did enough in depth discussion to prove his points beyond a
superficial level that most people are familiar with.
The topic is
relevant to the political situation today. I was interested to see
how Brueggemann would address the fact that Israel is placed in an
extremely dangerous situation and that the Palestinians have
religious and secular ties to Israel's neighbors.
Although the book
makes some good points, I was disappointed in the shallowness of the
presentation. For me, the more relevant discussion today is the
terrible human suffering wrecked upon the region by ISIS. The book
was interesting, but I thought it was naive in the context of the
situation in the Middle East today.
I reviewed this book
for Net Galley.
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