In 

In the Skin of The Palestinians

Obama arrived in Jerusalem and shared, before a packed auditorium of young people, a concern that no president in the White House had dared to publicly mention before: "No peace until you get in the skin of the Palestinians to you to try see the world contemplating their eyes. " This could happen as a comment in a speech paternal protocol, is a step for humanity greater than the one who gave Armstrong on the moon. It's a sincere invitation to review the history and see that the Palestinians were there before the official creation of Israel. Enjoying a legitimate right. They can not sit down and negotiate a land swap, when the proposal was 9-1 in favor of the other. Details in Israel rarely mentioned and, in America, are unknown. And it is precisely here lies the courage of Obama's speech, for the American president, like any other president, when hiking out in front of national journalists and talk to home.

America is the most pro-Israel nation on Earth. Even more than Israel itself. And Israel is the country that more money would put the United States in aid for development: 3,053 million annually. Three billion U.S. for a country with a per capita income similar to Spanish. An amount greater than the sum of all U.S. aid destined to the rest of humanity. And in better condition. The U.S. administration gives the Jewish state the total sum in the first month of the fiscal year. Unlike the other nations, whose aid reaches them in installments, quarterly, and almost always leaving for last the pinch largest two thirds.

How do they manage to get so much help? The first reason is religion. Does the Jewish religion? No, the Christian. United States is deeply Christian and has large pockets of fundamentalist population.Anyone who has walked a Baptist church in Georgia or Texas know what I mean. Millions of people accept on faith that God gave the land to the chosen people of Israel and nobody has the right to take it away. Or, what comes to the same thing, that while the U.S. is a staunch ally of Israel, the nation will remain blessed by divine grace.

The second reason is the Israel lobby in the U.S. has: AIPAC. The Public Affairs Committee powerful Americo-has convinced Israeli politicians, media and ordinary citizens, that the interests of Israel and the U.S. are exactly the same. A masterfully cultivated distortion due to the ignorance of the people about the history of Palestine. AIPAC preaches on this side of the Atlantic that the Palestinians will never be peace, because they do not want it. So AIPAC takes a threat. And Hamas is declared a terrorist organization so that when Americans see CNN live on the bombing of Gaza not feel sorry. And feeds the winds of war with Iran because, while staff at the borders are fixed, there is no time to analyze what happens inside.

Many U.S. politicians continue to eat from the hand of AIPAC and while their constituents do not demand a change agenda, are unlikely to change position by choice. Not that AIPAC directly fund their campaigns, but important influences Jewish fortunes to do so. It relies on a large core of American Jewish population, which curiously notable for having a very liberal political orientation in all areas, is reluctant to shed the slightest criticism of Israeli policy. There are historical reasons well known and very respectful to understand this conspiracy of silence.Emotional blackmail also splashed a large section of the press; tending to forget that conflicts are usually always two versions. And in fact, you can read much more critical items Bibi Netanyahu in the Israeli daily Haaretz , in U.S. newspapers.

And so we will be until the Americans are not offered, as suggested by its president, on the skin of the Palestinians. Until we understand that the legitimate aspirations of these people are not going in a different direction than that of peace and that their wishes are not far from those of any other human being who just wants their children to bed at night knowing that will not lack education, no food, no shelter, no ceiling.

And we will continue until U.S. voters not lobby their congressmen and senators to demand that the government of Israel to stop the occupation of territories that do not belong. To sit down and negotiate with the Palestinians on equal terms. For while Israel gets from the U.S. public a green card to do what he wants in Palestine, we will use the aid flowing annually from Washington for this purpose. Suffice it to recall the example of South Africa. For Reagan administration officially Mandela was a dangerous terrorist. And the separatist government of South Africa knew that, while the United States was on their side, which told the world cared three peppers.

The bad news is that, for Americans to get in the skin of the Palestinians, it will take a miracle. The good: the miracle that is already happening. And not from any political negotiation table. Neither of Madrid, and Oslo. The miracle is happening thanks to a fiction book that I predict will become one of the biggest bestsellers of the decade. This is the first novel of a Jewish New Yorker, Michelle Cohen Corasanti, and is entitled The Almond Tree. For the time being only in English, The Almond Tree, which is available on Amazon . It is an epic novel, a drama of the proportions of Kite Runner , but set in Palestine. A beauty. A story that grabs you from the first page and putting you soul to the Palestinians without lifting the finger at anyone, without transmitting hatred. A proposal to live in peace. An adventure that brings you into the magical world that travelers used to cross on horseback or camel towards Beirut, Amman or Cairo. A land where Christians, Muslims and Jews shared their traditions for centuries. Where the children inherited the land, generation after generation, to keep the clan together. Where modesty was a way of life and a man was worthless if not defending his family. Where the courage not consider the absence of fear, but the abundance of generosity. Where children learned the fundamental principle of life: decency.

The Almond Tree is the saga of a boy who, when arriving obstacles must look inward and understand that soldiers are only human beings and that war is merely politics. From a young man who must discover that success is not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall. Because it is impossible to go back in time and change the beginning, but you can always start over to change the ending.

This book can get, after reading it, Americans check  out  the screens of CBS, FOX, NBC or CNN, instead of anonymous terrorists, identify the faces of women with children, grandparents with grandchildren, parents with brothers ... Way to work, back to school, shopping in the market ... People who can not pick their own oranges from trees because they have surrounded the Israeli military. Youth who can not accept their scholarships in Harvard or Yale because Israeli authorities do not allow them to leave Gaza. And then, those same Americans who today are silent through ignorance, questions will be asked. Change their voting intentions, demand to know the fate of their donations ... Because Americans do not get a lot of world news, but read books. And watching movies. And listen to songs. And through art can go, without trying to advance, to step into the shoes of the Palestinians. Then we begin to glimpse the hope in solving a conflict that weighs us all too.