This Burning Land

Jennifer Griffin, Greg Myre

Description

A profoundly different way of looking the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Reporting from Jerusalem for The New York Times and Fox News respectively, Greg Myre and Jennifer Griffin, witnessed a decades-old conflict transformed into a completely new war. The West has learned a lot about asymmetrical war in the past decade. At the same time, many strategists have missed that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become one of them. This book shows the importance of applying these hard-won lessons to the longest running, most closely watched occupation and uprising in the world.

The entire conflict can seem irrational -- and many commentators see it that way. While raising their own family in Jerusalem at the height of the violence, Myre and Griffin look at the lives of individuals caught up in the struggles to reveal how these actions make perfect sense to the participants. Extremism can become a virtue; moderation a vice. Factions develop within factions. Propaganda becomes an important weapon, and perseverance an essential defense. While the Israelis and the Palestinians have failed to achieve their goals after years of fighting, people on both sides are prepared to make continued sacrifices in the belief that they will eventually emerge triumphant.

• This book goes straight to the heart of the conflict: into the minds of suicide bombers and inside Israeli tanks. We hear from Palestinian informants who help the Israeli military track down and kill Palestinian militants. Israeli settlers in isolated outposts explain why they are there, and we hear the frustrations of a Palestinian farmer who has had his olive grove cut in half by Israel's security barrier
• Shows the important lessons that can be learned by viewing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an example of modern, asymmetrical war
• Authored by long-time reporters on the Middle East, the book provides a balanced and detailed look at the fighting based on first-hand experience and hundreds of interviews
• Explains how the landscape of the conflict changed and why the traditional approach to peacemaking is no longer valid

With a new perspective on what's really going on in Israel and the Palestinian territories, The Familiar War is a book that will inform the debate on the Middle East and the future of the peace process, as well as our understanding of other conflicts around the world.
Authors’ Note.

Chronology.

Introduction.

1. ”Go to the Temple Mount”.

2. Preparing for War.

3. There Will Be a Bomb.

4. “Hamas Doesn’t Need to Recruit”.

5. The Chase.

6. The Invisible Hand.

7. Double Jeopardy.

8. Versions of the Truth.

9. A Battle in Jenin.

10. “We’ll Take the Ambulance, It’s Free”.

11. Soldiers to the Left of Us, Militants to the Right.

12. The First Man at the Scene.

13. Men of Goodwill.

14. A Revolution or a State: What Do the Palestinians Want?

15. Arafat’s Final Days.

16. After Arafat.

17. Unintended Consequences.

18. Hamas Rising.

19. “We Failed Entirely”.

20. Soul Searching.

21. The New Jerusalem.

22. The Big Squeeze.

23. The Fence in Johnny Atik’s Backyard.

24. Americans in the Holy Land.

25. Follow the Money.

26. Misery by the Sea.

27. Into the Abyss.

28. Alone on a Hill.

29. The Traitor.

30. Grapes of Wrath.

31. Rainbow of Rockets.

32. What to Do When Friends Are Kidnapped.

33. Is There a Solution?

Afterword.

Acknowledgments.

Notes.

Index.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• Israel
• Biography
• Palestinian political violence
• Israeli?Palestinian conflict
• Israel Defense Forces
• Jerusalem
• Israeli settlement
• Palestine
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 08 mars 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780470928981
• Langue: English

Extrait

Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Authors’ Note
Chronology
Introduction
1: “Go to the Temple Mount”
2: Preparing for War
3: There Will Be a Bomb
4: “Hamas Doesn’t Need to Recruit”
5: The Chase
6: The Invisible Hand
7: Double Jeopardy
8: Versions of the Truth
9: A Battle in Jenin
10: “We’ll Take the Ambulance, It’s Free”
11: Soldiers to the Left of Us, Militants to the Right
12: The First Man at the Scene
13: Men of Goodwill
14: A Revolution or a State: What Do the Palestinians Want?
15: Arafat’s Final Days
16: After Arafat
17: Unintended Consequences
18: Hamas Rising
19: “We Failed Entirely”
20: Soul Searching
21: The New Jerusalem
22: The Big Squeeze
23: The Fence in Johnny Atik’s Backyard
24: Americans in the Holy Land
25: Follow the Money
26: Misery by the Sea
27: Into the Abyss
28: Alone on a Hill
29: The Traitor
30: Grapes of Wrath
31: Rainbow of Rockets
32: What to Do When Friends Are Kidnapped
33: Is There a Solution?
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Notes
1 “Go to the Temple Mount”
3 There Will Be a Bomb
4 “Hamas Doesn’t Need to Recruit”
6 The Invisible Hand
7 Double Jeopardy
8 Versions of the Truth
10 “We’ll Take the Ambulance, It’s Free”
11 Soldiers to the Left of Us, Militants to the Right
16 After Arafat
19 “We Failed Entirely”
20 Soul Searching
21 The New Jerusalem
27 Into the Abyss
Index
Color Plate

Copyright © 2010 by Greg Myre and Jennifer Griffin. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Myre, Greg, date. This burning land : lessons from the front lines of the transformed Israeli-Palestinian conflict/Greg Myre and Jennifer Griffin. p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-470-55090-8 1. Arab-Israeli conflict, 1993—Personal narratives. 2. Arab-Israeli conflict, 1993 —Social aspects. 3. Interviews–Israel. 4. Interviews–Palestine. 5. Myre, Greg, 1960 6. Griffin, Jennifer, 1969- 7. Asymmetric warfare–Israel. 8. Asymmetric warfare–Palestine. 9. Asymmetric warfare–Case Studies. I. Griffin, Jennifer, 1969- II. Title. DS119.76.M97 2011 956.9405′4—dc22 2010048270
To our parents, John and Carole, Griff and Carolyn
“In this burning country, words have to be shade.” —Yehuda Amichai, Israeli poet
“To our land, and it is a prize of war, the freedom to die from longing and burning.” —Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet
Authors’ Note
This book is based on our reporting and personal experiences during the time we were based in Jerusalem, from 1999 until 2007. During this period, Jennifer filed well over one thousand stories for Fox News, and Greg wrote roughly fifteen hundred stories for the Associated Press and the New York Times . This book was a joint effort. Jennifer wrote the introduction and the afterword. Her first-person accounts throughout the book are in italics. Greg’s accounts are in regular type.
Chronology
December 1987: The first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, begins. Hamas is founded. The fighting lasts nearly six years.
October 1991: With the Cold War over, Israel, the Palestinians, and Arab states meet at the groundbreaking Madrid Conference. It marks the first such gathering to discuss solutions to decades of hostilities.
September 1993: Israeli and Palestinian leaders sign an interim peace agreement on the White House lawn with the goal of reaching a full peace accord within five years.
April 1996: The frequent low-level fighting between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah heats up. After seventeen days of heavy shooting, the United States helps broker a truce, but larger issues go unresolved.
May 2000: Israel unilaterally withdraws troops from southern Lebanon, ending nearly two decades of occupation.
July 2000: Israel and Palestinians hold two weeks of peace talks at Camp David, hosted by President Bill Clinton, but do not reach a deal. In September, Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visits the Temple Mount–Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem, angering Palestinians. The second Palestinian uprising begins the following day with riots at the Jerusalem holy site.
January 2001: Israelis and Palestinians negotiate in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba. They say they are closer than ever to a deal, but come up short. Days later, Sharon is elected prime minister in a landslide as Israelis turn to him to end the Palestinian uprising. The peace talks collapse.
September 2001: Al Qaida carries out terror attacks on 9/11 in the U.S. Israel aligns itself with the U.S. war on terrorism.
March 2002: Palestinian suicide bombings peak. Sharon orders a massive invasion of the West Bank, known as Operation Defensive Shield. Israel establishes hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints to limit Palestinian movements.
June 2002: Israel begins building its West Bank separation barrier.
March 2003: The United States invades Iraq, deposing Saddam Hussein.
June 2003: President George W. Bush introduces the Road Map peace plan, but Israeli-Palestinian fighting continues.
2005: After five years of daily violence, the Palestinian uprising winds down. Sharon withdraws all Israeli soldiers and settlers from Gaza, ending 38 years of Israeli presence in the territory. Hamas claims victory, and fires rockets into southern Israel just days after the Israeli pullout. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military is increasingly bogged down by insurgencies.
January 2006: Hamas wins the Palestinian election, setting the stage for a showdown with the rival Fatah movement.
July 2006: The Lebanese group Hezbollah stages a cross-border raid against Israeli troops, provoking a thirty-four-day war. The fighting ends in a standoff, similar to their battle a decade earlier. Hezbollah celebrates what it considers a moral victory, while Israelis view the war as a psychological defeat.
June 2007: Hamas defeats Fatah in Gaza, taking full control of the territory. Fatah retains control in the West Bank.
2008: Israel unleashes a major offensive, Operation Cast Lead, on December 27 to halt Palestinian rocket fire coming out of Gaza. The campaign lasts three weeks, leaving 1,400 Palestinians dead and inflicting major destruction.
May 2010: Israeli commandos kill nine Turkish citizens during a raid on a flotilla in the Mediterranean attempting to break an Israeli blockade and deliver aid to Gaza. The episode causes an international outcry. Israel responds by easing, but not lifting, the blockade.
September 2010: President Barack Obama sponsors a new round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks despite widespread skepticism about the chances for a breakthrough.
Introduction
Jennifer Griffin
The phone rang with urgent news from the Gaza Strip, and I immediately grabbed my two most essential items: my flak jacket and my breast pump. For years, my husband, Greg Myre, and I had covered wars across several continents, but now we were trying to do it while juggling the demands of our two young daughters. On this sticky morning of June 10, 2003, we both went scrambling into action. Israeli attack helicopters had just fired several missiles at a silver Mitsubishi SUV carrying Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, one of the most prominent leaders of the radical Islamist group Hamas. Dr. Rantisi was a pediatrician but was much better known for his fiery calls for Israel’s destruction than for making house calls to check for strep throat. The first missile narrowly missed the vehicle being driven by his son, Ahmad. The second struck the hood just as they passed through a busy intersection in Gaza City not far from the Mediterranean Sea. Shrapnel hit the doctor’s chest and left leg, yet he managed to flee on foot before the next round of missiles turned his car into a fireball, killing three Palestinian bystanders, paralyzing his son, and sending a thick plum