The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine

This is an amazing, eye-opening book by Miko Peled (born 1961) the son of an Israeli general ,and he is
an Israeli-American activist, author,the book that chronicles the opening of his eyes to the injustices
endured by Palestinians, and his personal journey of abandoning the petty solidarity of group identify
for the struggle for justice. Incredibly riviting, and renews my faith in peaceful change. The General’s Son
has been translated into numerous other languages and Peled, a gripping public speaker, has lectured
around the world in his campaign to promote justice, democracy, and equal rights for Palestinians and
Israelis.

We will never be the same after reading this. Where do I even start?

Mine is the tale of an Israeli boy, a Zionist, who realized that his side of the story was not the only side
and chose to cultivate hope in a situation most call impossible. This is about Miko Peled’s journey. His
father’s influence. The death of his niece in a suicide bomb attack that only further strengthened his
resolve. It is enlightening, moving, at times, almost too much to read.

His father was the famous General Matti Peled. A hero for the Israelis for his military finesse and
ruthlessness. A man who went on to become a peace activist. Who received death threats and hate
from the very people he fought wars for. That right there should tell us everything about the Very toxic
Israeli mentality that goes with Zionism and Nationalism. Calling someone an “Arab lover” is an insult.
Fraternizing with the “dirty, stinking, Arabs” is frowned upon. Two groups of people who live that close,
and aren’t allowed to intermingle. It wasn’t long before friends stopped inviting him and my mother to
social events. He became a political and social pariah . And let me clarify, his father was NOT against the
Zionist state. He was ONLY against the continued oppression of the Palestinians and believed they
deserved equal rights. This was the man other Israelis sent death threats to, This is why he was accused
of treason.One point he came back to often was that the best thing America could do for Israel was to
stop selling it weapons and giving it free money. It amazes me, that an Entire population of Israelis, and
people around the world, choose to blindly believe the propaganda they are told by Any government, let
alone the Israeli govt. Israeli citizens were led to believe that the Arab armies were coming to rape and
murder them .

Miko Peled talks about the days he was proud to wear the red beret and serve “his country”, but how he
was often uncomfortable with the orders. That if anyone so much as looked at us, we were to beat
them, or as he put it, “Break every bone in their body.” {snip} But soldiers do not ask questions; they
follow orders.

I cannot say how much I admire Miko Peled and his sister, Nurit’s, minds. After Nurit’s daughter died in a
suicide bomb attack. She did not blame the oppressed and desperate Palestinians. As she saw it, every
Israeli politician who did not end the Israeli occupation and oppression of Palestinians was responsible
for the deaths of Israelis and Palestinians. She reasoned, and still does, that this is not a question of
policy or inability to reach an agreement but callousness, greed for land, a desire to rule, and a lack of
will to end the conflict.
The sheer amount of fact and history in this book is overwhelming. How he went around reading up on
Israeli historians and academics who corroborated not what he had been told his entire life by his
government, but the “other” side of the “conflict” .

It opened the door to a discussion most Israelis are fiercely protective about – which is, what did the
Zionist forces REALLY do in 1948?And you know what kinda people are fiercely protective of certain
topics? The ones they get defensive about? The ones they know deep down inside they won’t like the
answer to. And that makes it all SO much worse.

The new state did not allow any of the Palestinians who left to return to their homes and land. They
were to remain refugees forever. About halfway through the story, Peled talks about the first time he
actually Socialize with the dreaded Palestinians. Admits his fear, the fear that had been instilled in him
by his people. And overcomes it, slowly, but surely. And it was a wonderful thing to read in an otherwise
harrowing story.It just made me realise how dehumanized the Palestinians are to most Israelis. No
wonder they don’t care, no wonder they call for Palestinian blood, and cheer for it. For generations they
have been told that the Palestinians are no better than rabid dogs out for blood. They don’t see the
women, the children, the fathers, the grandparents. They Choose not to see them. They have built an
apartheid wall to separate them. They have no guilt.He has been arrested numerous times by the
Israelis, his own people, for things like making trips to the Occupied territories for peaceful protests,
charity, taking supplies to those in need. My own people had arrested me for doing something good. My
disillusion with Israel had sunk to a new low. The sheer cruelty of the Israelis was mind boggling.
Honestly, we could just had not imagined it could be that bad. And that’s saying something when you
see the pictures of devastation in Gaza. Miko Peled’s account is nowhere near as graphic, nor written
dramatically, but in it’s quiet earnestness, it is just as effective. Gaza has essentially turned into an
enormous concentration camp . Borders closed, no bomb shelter luxuries that the Israelis boast (for
those pesky Hamas rockets), nowhere to hide themselves or their children. And sitting there waiting.
While the Israelis sit at the border and view the bombing as if it were a display of beautiful fireworks.
The peled depicts the sad reality of poor Palestinian and cruelty of Israeli an . Book tells about ongoing
war, a war that aims to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. We would be shocked after hearing
the searing hypocrisy of the Israeli military and police . The mind set of Israel people is worst There is an
entire population of people. Who act like that. Think like that. Justify their heinous crimes like that. Do
exactly what was done to their ancestors.

The Holocaust lasted for 4 years (1941-45, the systematic genocide of the Jewish people), they had been
persecuted since 1933 before that. The world is still reeling from the atrocities committed. The
Palestinians have been enduring their holocaust for decades more. Will the future ring with the screams
of the dying innocents for centuries to come? Or will history turn a blind eye to this as the world is doing
now? Will we be telling our children that there once were Palestinians who lived on Palestinian land?
Who had their own culture and identity? But are no more? Will we all continue treating Israelis as equal
victims? As bizarre and ridiculous and illogical as that is? Miko Peled is way more hopeful than I about a
resolution to this. I see no light at the end of this dark and bloody tunnel. I see no way the world will
EVER be able to make up for ignoring the plight of the Palestinian people. I see no way that most Israelis,
who deliberately do not want to educate themselves on facts, will ever see the truth.

This book is a MUST read for anyone who wants a harsh, but real, look at the situation. Miko Peled, and
MANY Israelis after and before him who spoke of similar things, have NO reason to lie. And have always
backed up their information with facts. The blind to the truth Zionists can condemn them as traitors and
liars. But the truth is, they have NO reason to do so. And EVERY reason to share the truth with the
world. It made me cry more times than I can count. But I would read it all over again just to educate
myself. And to realize that this, unlike what our politicians tell us, is NOT a complicated issue. It is
simple. It is straightforward. And it comes down to the world condoning the massacre of innocents. That
is it. That is all.

I stand with Palestine. (even though I will probably never have the strength of heart that they do, to
continue going on and making a life for themselves from the rubble and debris and blood soaked streets
the Israeli occupiers leave behind .