The Mirage of Peace [HC]

Understanding the Never-Ending Conflict in the Middle East

The current conflict between Israel and Palestine is uppermost in most Christian minds and conversation.  Renewed violence… fresh calls for peace negotiations… broken cease fires…  Between perplexing contradictions and inflammatory rhetoric, it is often difficult to find out what is really going on in the Middle East.

Like it or not, the problems of the Middle East are here to stay.  Like it or not, what is happening in the Middle East is going to impact the lives of all of us.  What happens in the Middle East affects our lives in some way or another.  Understanding the region and its conflicts is no longer a luxury and no longer the concern of only academics and dilettante travelers, it is vital for all of us.

Former TIME magazine Jerusalem bureau chief, David Aikman, has spent decades reporting on Middle-East issues.  Aikman takes a sober, balanced look at a region aflame and brings a journalist’s mind and a believer’s heart to his exploration of the political and religious factors in play.  He goes beyond the media’s chronic over-simplification to carefully examine recent history and the leaders who have made that history.

Aikman turns a critical eye on the policies of the region’s prime players.  He resorts neither to blind pro-Israeli sentiment nor to reactionary pro-Palestinian bias.  He challenges fellow Christians to a similar approach to the Middle East: respect, reason and love.