Israeli And Palestinian Terrorism: The 'Unintentional' Agents
Geoffrey Victor Whitfield

Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-0981958231  Retail: $30.00

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In this enthralling book, Geoffrey Whitfield examines how religious enthusiasts, both Christian and Jewish, have contributed to the disastrous mess that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today. A book everyone concerned with the misapplication of religious values, and with the role of faith in today's world, should read and ponder.

-Gabriel Josipovici, a retired Professor of English at the University of Sussex, novelist, playwright and survivor of the Holocaust (Shoah) as a child in wartime France

Geoffrey Whitfield is an authority on the convoluted and violent reality that is Palestine/Israel. In this important and informative book, he traces the set of beliefs that has influenced Jewish and Christian perceptions of the struggle; namely the Abrahamic Covenant by which it is believed Palestine was given to the Jewish peoples and which has to be reclaimed before God's plan for history is fulfilled. This is something of which all those in any way are having to wrestle with the present reality should be fully aware because it is subtly intertwined in each action and policy.

-Paul Ballard, Emeritus Professor in Religious and Theological Studies, Cardiff University, Wales, UK

The Rev Geoffrey Whitfield, who has a personal record of engagement in conflict prevention projects in the Middle East, goes beyond the frustrations affecting the present-day peacemaker to examine two of the off-shoots of the Abrahamic Covenant, which he regards as one of the keys to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He looks at the history of the settler movement Gush Emunim, first conceived in the 1930s; then goes further back to the establishment in England in the early nineteenth century of what was to become the Christian Mission to the Jews. The mixture of genuine charitable instincts with Anglican selfconfidence and the transmission of the Gospel to "these depopulated regions" (Lord Shaftesbury in 1840) is all too resonant of Golda Meir's assertion that there was "no such thing as Palestinians" (1969) and of American exceptionalism under President George W Bush. This is living history.

-Sir Harold Walker, former British ambassador in several Middle Eastern countries

If we are to be liberated from the curse of violent politics driven by religious fundamentalism, especially in the Middle East, it will not be by secularist attacks on religion as such but by more profound analysis and self-criticism from within the religious communities themselves. This book exemplifies how it can and must be done, through a rare combination of historical rigour, political analysis and theological insight. Through his writing, I hope Geoffrey Whitfield recruits many others - Muslims, Jews and Christians alike - to his own tenacious search for a peace in the name of the God who wills and promises peace for all.

-Keith Clements, Former General Secretary, Conference of European Churches, Geneva

The writer asks, "What kind of God is it who allows his people to commit acts of such terrorist violence in his name?", and a book needs to be written on this sentence alone. He then writes an extraordinary and provocative sentence, "As important as Jewish teenagers with guns or Arab teenage suicide bombers is the role of the international community, which, by its passivity, gives silent license for the acting out of violence against a weaker Palestinian people, with inevitable reciprocity." In writing the book, the author has tried to do what he can, which is not to remain passive and he challenges the rest of us to join with him, one way or the other. Now it is up to us to respond.

-Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, London

About the Author:

Geoffrey Whitfield (MBE, MPhil) is a British Baptist minister and therapist. On June 12, 2004, Queen Elizabeth II presented Whitfield with the following award and words of commendation at Buckingham Palace: "The Queen has been graciously pleased, on the occasion of the celebration of Her Majesty's Birthday...the appointment to be Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) to Reverend Geoffrey Victor Whitfield for services to the promotion of inter-communal youth activities in Israel."