Essay on Palestine by Joe Sacco; a Book Review

Looking for Palestine by Najla Said is a coming of age story with a twist. Set mainly in New York City, Said tells us about growing up Palestinian-Lebanese American in a time when difference was not necessarily celebrated, and dealing with the demons in her own mind so that she could fully accept herself. Born to the world renown Dr. Edward Said and his wife, Mariam, Said spends her summers traveling to her mother’s home in Lebanon to visit family, learning to value the culture she was born into. Unfortunately, this love of her culture begins to fade as Said enters a primarily Caucasian elementary school. There she is faced with the idea that her culture is different and that she

For the last and final essay of the semester, I decided to pick a couple themes that are included in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Themes are a very important part of any story, play, poem, or any writing for that matter. It is important to understand what themes are involved in a story because it helps the reader better understand what is going on throughout it all. This novel has two main characters named Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. In essence, this story is about both of these characters coming together to solve the disappearance of Harriet Vanger that is over forty years in the making. Throughout their journey to solve the mystery, I came across a couple key themes. Regarding The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, there are a few themes I chose to write about including: violence against women, the topic of revenge, and isolation.

The Israel-Palestine Conflict The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a part of the greater Arab-Israeli long-running conflict in the Middle East. The main point of this conflict is the existence of the state of Israel and its relations with Arab states and with the Palestinian population in the area. The idea and concept of Israel was born in the mid 19th century. Jews of Europe and America wanted a place for their homeland, where they could go and be with others of the same race and religion. Palestine was chosen because of its religious routs from The Bible as the “promised land” from God, and the motherland of Jews fled, known as the Diaspora.

In the ‘Determining Themes’ assignment, I analyzed the theme of suffering based on the given website. However, after reading and annotating the novel, I felt the theme of ‘fate and free will’ was the most prevalent theme throughout the novel, despite it not being listed on the website. Therefore, I have found my sources based on this theme instead.

There are two very important themes in this book. One theme we do not want to acknowledge although we may need to enjoy the book to acknowledge, were as the other theme is an integral piece of the novel. The theme we do not want to acknowledge is that violence may be necessary and even the best option in certain situations. The theme we need to acknowledge is that no matter what we are, we are all living creatures and should treat each other as equals. This book is a very good read due to its deep messages, its impact on the series, and its incredible characters.

Movement in Palestine has been becoming increasingly restricted. These restrictions have occurred through the creation of countless checkpoints, installments of roadblocks, construction of isolating walls, and ever-growing settlement connecting roads. Dividing land and decelerating movement among Palestinians has ultimately resulted in debilitating the Palestinian economy and compelling Palestinians to flee or turn to resistance methods. (Bornstein, 106) While these

The nation of Israel has played a critical role in the formation of Western and Eastern ideologies and has had an unmistakably profound impact upon the theological and cultural evolution of mankind. Former U.S. President John Adams, commenting on the historical importance of the Hebrews, once said the following:

In his book, A History of Modern Palestine, Ilan Pappe attempts to add to the discussion of the struggle between Jews and their counterparts over the idea of Israeli state. Using documents that have been released by the Israeli secret service that one of his graduate students had found, Pappe attempts to paint a “new history of the conflict” in the Middle East. His books adds a new element to the argument. The documents, released in the late 1980s, but the US, UN, and Israeli government show that the state of Israel was not completely innocent in the 1940s conflict. While history usually is written by the victors, Pappe, known for being critical of Israel and it policies, writes an alternate history. The questions becomes, does he do the

The region of the Middle East frequently referred to as Palestine has long been the site of much conflict. In recent years, a major effort on the part of the International community has been employed in an attempt to bring peace to the troubled region, yet every time peace accords seem to be at hand, everything falls apart. In order to fully understand the enmity that keeps causing peace talks to break down, one must look at the roots from which the conflict stems. If the root of the issue can be clearly devised, then movements towards peace in the region will be much more succinct.

Some studies on the Israel-Palestinian conflict postulate that the nature of the conflict has always been about land, meaning the partition of the holy land (e.g., Newman, 2002; Klieman, 2000; Alpher, 1995). But a tectonic shift occurred with the swift Israeli victory in the 6 day war of 1967, when Israel occupied the territories. Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories bar Gaza strip ( territorially miniscule) has morphed into a sort of colonialism as Israel has buil a number of settlements on the territories it found in control of after 1967, which practically amounts to an annexation of the land. Therefore, the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essentially a conflict over Israeli colonization, the only remaining settler colonialism in the world. Early Israeli political thinkers were aware of the need to have overwhelming military superiority over the Arabs, the need for an Iron wall of Jewish Bayonets to drive the Palestinians into despair. The idea was to create a situation that in any subsequent negotiations, Israel would be able to negotiate from the position of strength.

     In 1993, in Oslo, Norway a historic peace agreement was secretly drawn up with the

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has raged on since Israel 's founding in the 1940s, the solution to this problem is not always straight forward or clear. It seems like everyone has formed their opinions and are stuck in their ways. The United Nations has even seem to accept the conflict as a certainty and for a large part does not wish to address it (Baker). However just because this problem is complex doesn 't mean there is no hope for a solution. This conflict is generally seen as a war over where the border between these two states should lay, and due to the increase of extremism on both sides, whether both states should even exist or one state should prevail alone. However there is more complexities to the conflict then finding a mutual place for the border be drawn. There is the conflict over who will control the Holy City, Jerusalem. In addition there are concerns on both sides over security and the internal economy of each state. Finally is the problem that even if an agreement to form the two states were met and agreed upon, would these two vastly different and deeply opinionated states even be able to peaceful co-exist in the future. With all the history and politics considered, for me the answer becomes clear; Palestine has the right to be a state and that state should in large part reflect their position they have presented to the international community.

The Israel-Palestine conflict has afflicted the middle east for over 90 years, acting as a breeding ground for violence and terrorism as well as costing countless of lives throughout the conflict. Israel-Palestine is an 80 mile wide area of land situated in the western Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Egypt to the south, Jordan and Syria to the east, and Lebanon to the north. Today, the crux conflict in Israel-Palestine most publicly materializes in the form of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. The original conflict, though, spans back long before the inception of Hamas. Beginning in Israel-Palestine, this conflict has spread into Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. The Israel-Palestine conflict spawns from the British’s negligent policies which caused Zionists and Palestinian Nationalists to manifest separate national identities and propagated enmity and hostility between the divergent identities; Furthermore, the failure of the outside world and the competing nationalists to understand both or either of the Israeli or Palestinian narratives catalyzed the spread of violence and intolerance and precluded any resolutions.

Before hearing this lecture, I’d never heard of the Palestinian refugee camps in the Middle East or thought much about the Palestinian people. This lecture helped me understand the truly sad nature of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

After years of being ruled by many different people Palestine is in many ways independent. They are also struggling to be recognized as a country in the world. Recently there have been some problems between Palestine and Israel, and it has gotten out of hand. Many people have been killed there where some outbreaks occurred between the IOF and the citizens of Palestine.