History of Jerusalem

Like we discussed last week, prior to this class all I had heard of the conflict in the Middle East was what was being broadcasted throughout American media and what I could pick up from family dinner table conversations.  I knew it was complicated, and wasn't going to be easily solved, but I had no idea how deeply rooted this cultural, religious, and political battle over the holy land really was.  The bias towards Israel, the American ally, is quite evident in Western media sources, but through the international students in our class and the readings from all viewpoints I think everyone involved in the Living Jerusalem Project will come out with a better understanding and appreciation for the ongoing struggles of all people involved in the fight for a unified and peaceful Jerusalem.
This being said, the readings this week did a wonderful job of providing insight to the current day dilemma through reflecting back to Sunday School lessons, past political endeavors and ancient traditions. Not being much of a history buff, in Rubin's article I was a little bogged down by the historical context and biblical references, so some of the information may have been lost on me, but she did explain the history of conflict in the area prior to any major religious affiliations (something which I find extremely interesting). I really enjoyed Jeremy Pressman's article "A Brief History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict" because not only did he discuss the conflict, but he talked of the peace process (albeit it's multiple failed attempts) and the multicultural leaders involved in securing peace for the land including Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat, David Ben Gurion, etc.  The work done by these influential people from the creation of Israel in 1948 to present day has not gone unnoticed, and will someday pay off when peace is established throughout the Middle East.  The ancient and modern sides of the Jerusalem conflict were all represented through this weeks readings and hopefully in time the peace that they spoke of will become true.