Back to Square One?

Class,

We finally did it!  We have wrestled through Karen Armstrong's book and no longer have to struggle or complain about it again.  It is over!  Now what have we learned from it?

Usually when you read a book or watch a movie, you walk away from it carrying knowledge or the moral of the story.  Right now I feel that I am walking away from Armstrong's book with two things.

1) I was warned that Jerusalem's history is complex but boy did I underestimate how complex Jerusalem really was.  There were moments throughout the writing where I had to go back and reread multiple times just to be a little less confused.  I clearly remember Dr. Horowitz stating during the first week of class that she has read this book every time she taught the class and still learns something new every time.  And to add even more complexity and confusion...this book has not even covered the past 20 years.

2) Each chapter in this book could be the size of an encyclopedia...and that is even with the little historical information that we have today.  I really give credit to Karen Armstrong on her way of writing this book.  I understand that we all complain about it but seriously, even if you were given all the knowledge in the world about Jerusalem and its history how would you go about the daunting task of putting this into a readable version?  You simply could not.  Armstrong is a genius in this sense.

Specifically from Chapters 14-18 there was one thing that stood out.  Armstrong did not specifically point this out but it is more of something that I noticed.  The reason that the Jerusalem conflict has come to what it currently is, is due to anger.  The fact that one party, race, or ethnicity in control suddenly gets taken over builds anger over time.

This may be a bad example but imagine being an orphan at an orphanage.  Say that adults looking to give you a home come in and take you out one day out.  You have the most upbeat time of your downbeat life, they were your parents for a day and you are confident that they will be your legal guardians very soon.  What you don't know is that those same parents also spend a day with five other orphans.  Now imagine that a month later, the same parents come in and legally adopt an orphan that is not you.  In reaction you will be sad, but over time tears will turn into rage.

How do you think Arabs felt during the British Mandate when Jerusalem began to transform from an Arab to a Jewish city?

Jerusalem was the Arab's...it belonged to them for a period of time.  And now it's just being taken over by other "parents"?  They become angry and boom we have the Jerusalem conflict.

I will take away one last thing from Armstrong's book.  Because Jerusalem has belonged to so many peoples over time when reality kicks in and Jerusalem is no longer theirs, the emotional attachment they drew has turned into anger.  When a house burns down, you may lose all your belongings but the memories (that can never be replaced( will last a lifetime.