Blog Post #1

In Search of Fatima turned out to be a very interesting read. I wasn't completely sure whether it was the one for me, but now that I'm reading it, I'm glad I chose it. At the beginning of the book (page 11), there is a lot of conflict between the two major political groups in Palestine: the Husseinis and the Nashashibis. The British, the annoying blokes that they are, give all of the Jews in Europe a special country to call their own. The only thing bad about that is that there were already people in that country -- the Palestinians! The two political groups have only one thing in common: they both share a mad desire for driving the Jews out of Palestine and getting Britain to BUTT OUT. Palestine is angry at England for giving the Jews their land, and so they start to fight the British for their land. But later, Palestine is being bombed by Israel, because Israel is taking advantage of their new land, which makes the Palestinians very angry at Israel, who they didn't even want in the first place. The Israelites want freedom, and to have their own country. At the moment they are sharing land with Palestine, who is just beginning to get used to them, but the war between them has been going on for a while. The wars started in the late 1930's, and are still going on. Ghada Karmi, the narrator, talks about how she is not biased towards Jews as other Palestinians are. She talks about all of the cultural additions the Jews are bringing to Palestine. Although, she admits she is irritated by the fact that apparently, falafel, hoummos, and other dishes are "authentic Israeli dishes" (page 39). I know that Israel deserves their own space, and Palestine was a successful country before Israel came, but honestly, it's been over fifty years since they've been fighting. Obviously that tactic is not working since they have not come to any sort of agreement. The Middle East used to be a thriving and flourishing empire, and now it is the exact opposite. Why can't they learn from their mistakes and forgive each other? They are being foolish and they think that blowing each other up is the only solution. It is effective, but not a good stratagem if they've been doing it for this long and still it's a mess.