Books (Jan 2024)
Palestinians and Israelis: A Short History of Conflict, Michael Scott-Baumann, 6th January
I confess that until the last month I was basically ignorant about the whole history of Israel-Palestine. I had a vague awareness of the establishment of the state of Israel, but very little understanding of how it came about. Since the last days of 2023, I listened to Daniel Bannoura do a podcast episode with Preston Sprinkle, and then listened to Daniel's own nascent podcast, and then started reading books. Honestly, ignorance can be culpable, and I think mine was. Even a cursory understanding of the history of Israel-Palestine from 1880 to the present provides a social-historical context for the present war. My position has shifted from a vague, "well, this is a complex issue with two sides and requires a carefully considered solution" to "well, this is a complex issue and requires a carefully considered solution, but also we need to recognise that Israel is a colonial state founded by dispossession and military occupation of Palestine, Palestinians have been living under military occupation and apartheid for decades upon decades, and the current war on Gaza is the result of dehumanizing aggression by the state of Israel".
Whatever else you think of Preston Sprinkle, he does manage to have a huge range of guests on his podcast. These other two episodes are worth listening to:
#1141 The War in Gaza, with Dr. Rev. Munther Isaac.
The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, Louise Perry, 26th Jan (Review)
Of Boys and Men, Richard V. Reeves, 26th Jan (Review shortly)
I'll have a review of these two books up in the next week. I think it was incredibly interesting to read them at the same time, as you’ll see.
I definitely have started the year well on reading less, though the above three books belies the fact that I am truth reading about 7 books simultaneously at the moment. I almost turned this post into “books I’ve abandoned reading in the last three years” but maybe we’ll save that for a rainy day. In the meantime, as the year gets underway in earnest I have a lot of pots on the boil, and cooking up some tasty treats for future posts.