Defy­ing con­ven­tion­al views, Elan Journo clar­i­fies the essen­tial nature of the con­flict, and what has fueled it for so long. What jus­tice demands, he shows, is that we eval­u­ate both adver­saries – and Amer­i­ca’s approach to the con­flict – accord­ing to a uni­ver­sal moral ide­al: indi­vid­ual lib­er­ty. From that sec­u­lar moral frame­work, the book analy­ses the con­flict, includ­ing Israel’s char­ac­ter as a nation and major Pales­tin­ian grievances.

Journo explains what’s at stake in that con­flict for every­one who val­ues human life, free­dom, and progress. The fal­la­cy that the Pales­tini­ans have the moral high ground is per­sis­tent, espe­cial­ly on col­lege cam­pus­es where stu­dents are not tru­ly informed of the issues. Journo shows Israel to be a nation that val­ues free­dom and freedom-seekers.

This book shows that Amer­i­ca should be strong­ly sup­port­ive of free­dom and free­dom-seek­ers-but, in this con­flict and across the Mid­dle East, it has­n’t been, much to our detriment.