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| Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life | 
 enlarge | Author: Sari Nusseibeh
Creator: Anthony David
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $8.76
You Save: $7.24 (45%)
Buy New/Used from $6.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  (15 reviews)
Sales Rank: 160300
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 584
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0312427107
Dewey Decimal Number: 915
EAN: 9780312427108
ASIN: 0312427107
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A genuine peacemaker and a pleasure and privilege to read July 24, 2007
4 out of 10 found this review helpful
In the Palestinian struggle against an apartheid, territorially hungry (manifest-Zioinst-destiny) Israel, there has been a shortage of local leaders of wisdom, character, and good fortune. This shortage has been partially circumstantial and partially managed by Israel who has been "sowing the wind" for decades by imprisoning moderates and secretly cultivating Islamist extremists. That Nusseibeh has managed to be spared assasination by Israel or others is fortunate for everyone. We may hope that just as modern Israel has risen from the ashes left in the ovens of the shoah, a viable modern Palestine will emerge from the ordeal of Israeli presecution and imprisonment, and Nusseibeh's voice might be revered as both prophetic and instrumental. Otherwise, we might well see a second shoah (of the sort for which, unfortunately, many end-times enthusiasts seem to hanker). We must hope, indeed we should pray, that Nusseibeh's humanitarian good will and good sense are not too late and that his voice, now seemingly crying in the wilderness, will not have been a waste of breath.
 Interesting and enlightening, but ... July 5, 2007
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Well written history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from somewhat of a unique perspective. The author had a very different experience with some of the primary events of the conflict - not up close and personal a la Arafat, but certainly not man-on-the-street. Dr. Nusseibeh has been a broken record set on "peace," but events have conspired to not let his message get across. An interesting look at a mostly unfortunate series of events.
A Unique Perspective on Unfinished Business June 6, 2007
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Dr. Nusseibeh tells an intricate, compelling and important story. It is his story, a story of running from and back to the political necessity that is part and parcel of his families life. It is a tale of woe, painfully presented in a manner that peels back the layers of Israeli and Palestinian ambition and governance to portray leaders, students, cabbies and colleagues struggling to find light in a world in which both options and walls continue to collapse all around him. It is about creativity in the face of oppression and about thumbing ones nose at a murderous system and staying alive. Its about inventing a process of comings and goings to preserve independence while developing a secondary channel of existence to enable the continuing expression of freedom. In freedom hope for a better future lives on.
Neither black nor white . . . May 20, 2007
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
Written by Palestinian peace activist Sari Nusseibeh, this book is an immensely readable personal and political memoir - an account of a life lived in a "broken and violated land." Descendant of a patrician family in Jerusalem, tracing its history back to the seventh century, the author was educated in England and, following in his father's footsteps, devoted his years to advocating reason and nonviolence in the resolution of Arab-Israeli conflicts. A student and later a professor of philosophy, he first believed that Arabs and Israelis could live together as citizens of a single nation. Then, after the 1967 war, he came to the conclusion that a two-nation solution was in the best interests of both peoples.
Over the years, in his account, he has watched both of those objectives resisted and undermined by the objectives of those with political power - the Israelis through a campaign of seizing territory in the West Bank for Jewish settlements, and the PLO by demanding the return of all occupied lands. Meanwhile, moderates such as himself are cast as "dangerous," and his efforts at building bridges between Arabs and Jews are often frustrated. When the intifada of the 1980s flares up, Nusseibeh plays a strategic role in secretly writing and publishing materials that provide it with a voice and direction, channeling the energy of street demonstrations away from violence. And he is instrumental in building a nation-building organization to set the stage for Arafat's return from exile in Tunis to govern the West Bank and Gaza. At the same time, he is reaching out to peace activists among Israelis, even while the second intifada surges to life and Arab extremists begin to have a deadly impact with suicide bombs.
The entire story - which brings us to the present with the building of Sharon's walls and the victory of Hamas in Palestinian elections - is a continuing account of hopes raised and then crushed. While it can be read as an indictment of Israeli policies against the Palestinians, it portrays the PLO as ridden with corruption and the Islamist Hamas organization as blindly and dangerously irrational. Moved deeply by visions of Jeffersonian democracy, Nusseibeh is confronted over and again with the extreme difficulty of seeing reason prevail in the service of government, diplomacy, and building social institutions. What he falls back on at the end is a belief that the fundamental decency of humans - as reflected in sacred scriptures - will eventually lead people to see the folly of their ways. This is a fine book for portraying a moderate and measured history of the Arab-Israeli conflict from 1948 to the present. Readers may also enjoy Jeffrey Goldberg's "Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide."
A magnificent telling May 17, 2007
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
In a work so compelling that I could hardly put it down, Nusseibeh describes in personal terms the struggles for freedom of the Palestinian
people. His personal courage, that of the many people whose generosity
he cites, and the example of his father's service to his people is most inspiring. If you did not know it before, after reading this book you will understand why the Palestinian people need their own state and
freedom to act as the People they are.
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