Rabbi MICHAEL LERNER

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A major modern conundrum is how the Arab/Israel conflict remains unresolved and, seemingly, unresolvable. In Embracing Israel/Palestine, Rabbi Michael Lerner examines how the mutual demonization and discounting of each sides’ legitimate needs drive the antagonism, and explores the underlying psychological dynamics that fuel the seeming intransigence on both sides. Lerner shows the importance of being both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, challenges the master narratives in both Israel and Palestine to the extent that they demean the other side, and exposes the false idea that “homeland security” (either for Israel or for the U.S.) can be achieved through military, political, economic, or cultural domination. Lerner argues that real security is best achieved through an ethos of caring and generosity toward “the other” and presents a Global Marshall Plan whose first location would be the Middle East.

Insisting that any agreement reached at the negotiating table will be worthless without a fundamental transformation of consciousness, Lerner shows how we in the West could play a central role in facilitating that change if we ourselves were to adopt a more rational approach to homeland security and foreign policy. Lerner’s approach, drawn from his own work as a psychotherapist with Israelis and Palestinians and addressing the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that politically cripples both societies, presents a vital and creative new direction that will provide hope and instruction to anyone who seeks a lasting peace for the Middle East and a healing of the U.S. as well.

Best-selling author Michael Lerner, PhD, is the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in San Francisco and Berkeley and the editor of Tikkun magazine. Lerner foundedTikkun in 1986 as “the voice of Jewish liberals and progressives” and as “the alternative to Commentary magazine and the voices of Jewish conservatism.” From the start, the magazine was dedicated to Jewish ethics and to healingand repair of the world, but it has evolved into one of the leading interfaith intellectual magazines in the West and the spur to a new movement: the Network of Spiritual Progressives. In 2001, he was awarded a special PEN Award for his stance in breaking the censorship that effectively exists around Israel-Palestinian matters in the U.S. media, and in 2005 the Martin Luther King, Jr./Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award from Morehouse College.

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http://www.booksmith.com/event/rabbi-michael-lerner-embracin...