Whenever a war breaks out, especially in the Middle East, everyone puts on their analytical hats and try to figure every reason why one side is evil and the other good; how one side is right and the other is wrong; how one side should do X and the other side should do Y, and only then will peace finally reign.

This is especially true in western culture. We who are so far removed from what’s happening, we believe we can see the biggest and most accurate picture. “If only they would listen to us…”

Two things are wrong with this.

One, we aren’t seeing the most accurate picture because we are too far removed from it. How can we know what’s in the dirt if all we see is a canopy of trees?

Two, we ignore its origins, because it’s a tale thousands of years in the making. How can we, whose history only goes back hundreds of years, understand something far, far older? Can a ten-year-old grasp the history of his/her eighty-year-old grandparents? It’s the height of hubris to think we have all the answers when we don’t even bother to study their long history.

So where does one find it?

One place we don’t look is today’s media or even the vast perspectives on any social media platform. Sure, you’ll find many truths there (if you search hard enough, and even then it takes a lot of discernment to tell truth from lie), but those are grains of sand, not the beach.

Before I go any further, I will admit I’m just as guilty of looking from too far above. Nor have I studied enough grains of sand to know the beach.

This, however, I do know: It all began with Abraham.

Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all origininate with Abraham. Islam ties in with Abraham’s first son, Ishmael (through Hagar, Sarah’s handmaiden), and Judaism starts with Isaac (Sarah’s only son). Christians consider themselves an offshoot of Judaism which makes them a part of the branch of Isaac—and is why so many Christians staunchly support Jews and Israel.

The first and largest contention between Jews and Muslims is they both claim God’s covenant giving Abraham and his descendants the land of Canaan and to make him a great nation (Genesis 12 & 15). Everyone agrees the location of the Abrahamic promised land is a part of what is disputed today.

Everything gets worse from there.

I won’t give you anymore details from then until now, because I am no expert. Plus, this is a blog entry, not a book. Many others have done the research, and I highly recommend them:

1. “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth” by Noa Tishby. This is Noa’s own journey into discovering her history and the history of Israel and Palestine.

2. “Mandate for Palestine” by Eli Hertz, Myth and Facts, Inc. (http://www.mythsandfacts.org/Conflict/mandate_for_palestine/Mandate_for_Palestine.pdf) This gives an overview of the history of how Israel became a state from 1860-1948, including all corresponding documents such as treaties and maps. Hertz also addresses some of the common myths about the particular mandates.

3. “Bibi” by Benjamin Netanyahu. Although this is Bibi’s personal history, he gives great insight into world leaders’ (including US Presidents) policies toward Israel, and how they sometimes caused more problems than they solved.

I know what you’re thinking. The authors of the above are all Jewish, so they can’t be unbiased in their accounts. What about the Palestinian perspective?

I haven’t read any books from their perspective. I did, however, look for the Palestinian charters, because the best way to determine someone’s point-of-view and end-goals is to let them speak for themselves:

1. Palestinian National Charter (1964) (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp)

2. Palestinian National Charter: Resolutions of the Palestinian Council July 1-17, 1968 (https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-203580/)

3. Hamas Covenant 1988: The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, 18 August 1988 (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp)

I will stop here, because it’s not up to me to convince you who to support and not to support. I just hope you’ll leave any pre-conceived notions behind before you read and study any of the above.