Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land

Focusing on the diverse cultures that exist side by side in Israel and Israeli-controlled territories, Shipler examines the process of indoctrination that begins in schools; he discusses the far-ranging effects of socioeconomic differences, historical conflicts between Islam and Judaism, attitudes about the Holocaust, and much more. And he writes of the people: the Arab woman in love with a Jew, the retired Israeli military officer, the Palestinian guerrilla, the handsome actor whose father is Arab and whose mother is Jewish.

For Shipler, and for all who read this book, their stories and hundreds of others reflect not only the reality of “wounded spirits” but also a glimmer of hope for eventual coexistence in the Promised Land.

About the Author:
DAVID K. SHIPLER reported for the New York Times from 1966 to 1988 in New York, Saigon, Moscow, and Jerusalem before serving as chief diplomatic correspondent in Washington, D.C. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for Arab and Jew. He shared a George Polk Award for his coverage of the 1982 war in Lebanon and was executive producer, writer, and narrator of two PBS documentaries on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is the author of six other books, including the bestsellers Russia and The Working Poor. Shipler, who has been a chair of the nonfiction Pulitzer committee, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, and a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has taught at Princeton University; at American University; and at Dartmouth College. He writes online at The Shipler Report.