What Bernard regards as "certain uncomfortable facts" (see below), I see as facts taken out of historical context - I was taught these facts in Hebrew school along with the history of the area called Eretz Yisrael (Palestine). There are many publications including James Parkes "Whose Land?" which makes these facts become "comfortable". Our children, of course, should understand that all sides suffer in the time of war, but they should not be allowed to feel that the Israelis are at fault for Palestinian children suffering. Palestinian children suffer because of their internal problems, lack of the ability to compromise, the importance of "pride" in their culture, their readjustment of history (today when one speaks about Palestine or the Palestinians, one would think that Palestine was an independent nation and that the Palestinians were a homogeneous people for centuries), etc. When our children read books like "Three Wishes" are they aware of the fact that the Arabs rejected the Partition Plan, that they started three wars against Israel with the purpose of total destruction, that the Palestinians elected the Hamas (a terrorist organization) whose objective is the destruction Israel? I have not read "Three Wishes", but from what I know about it from Hasafran and considering limited library budgets, I would spend my money on more positive children literature.
For those who want to keep updated on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, I have an "interesting reading" weekly distribution service. The purpose is to help make those "uncomfortable facts" more "comfortable". It consists of abstracts of 4 - 6 selective articles with links to the full text and sometimes my own thoughts regarding a specific situation. To see a sample, click on the following: http://www.geocities.com/d_elazar/Elazar_Dist_Read.htm David Elazar Rishon LeZion, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.geocities.com/d_elazar (home page) eVoicemail (413) 581-4711 (USA) eFax (801) 672-2976 (USA) Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
