In The Question of Palestine Robert Said presents the conflict by humanizing Palestinians who are often painted as barbaric terrorists, a common stereotype of Arab countries. He goes about debunking many myths about the history of the conflict and how these false narratives have tried to delegitimize the reality of Plaestinians. This book reminds me of C.S Lewis Screwtape Letters because it presents what the enemy tries to do to undermine believers in the same way Said is trying to show how these myths undermined the Palestinian identity and movement. In Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by Bennis a paper that attempts to answer common questions associated with this conflict in a straightforward and simple way. I don’t think these two papers have anything in common other than the topics they discuss, I believe that Said did a more analytical and in-depth understanding of the conflict than Bennis. In my opinion, the taking of some of the sections or questions were inappropriate in Bennis’s essay specifically “Are Palestinians terrorists or are they supporters of terrorists?”, this specific questions is framed to continuously tie Palestinains to terrorism in some way instead of tying them away from them, even after reading the section the answer did not fit with titling because they could have said “or neither” at the end but instead they created a framing that perpetuates a lot of stereotypes. Said paper filled a gap in knowledge on this topic because most information about this conflict is from people who are in support of Israel in some way but rely on information from a Palestinian perspective because that would humanize the other side and that makes it harder to continue the abuse they are currently experiencing. Bennis’ perspective and information was nothing new or different but rather tried to present himself or the information he gave as “neutral” to both sides but in reality if you read the titles and the answers he is trying to paint a subliminal image that Palestinians can’t help themselves and Israel has to help them even if that means defending itself. His piece reminds me of this lyric in Hamilton where king George is singing to his objects and says “I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love” because that is what the white savior complex is trying to do in this conflict.
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