Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary

Chapter 8, entitled "The Alien, Superior Jew," presents the other side of Chapter 7's coin. It opens with the moderate Palestinian mayor of Bethlehem, Elias Freij, sitting at his home in Beit Jala, "a portrait of Middle Eastern antiquity." He sees growing on the crest of the hills a new Jewish neighborhood, Gilo, whose architecture is not at all rooted in the land. Freij tells Shipler that he does not hate Jews, just what they do: introduce foreign culture that contaminates the Arabs' ancient culture. Jews are aliens, outsiders and trespassers.

A fellow West Bank mayor, Muhammad Milhem, differentiates Jews like General Moshe Dayan, who feel close to the land and respect their Arab neighbors, from arrogant, alien immigrants like Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Shipler explains that Middle Easterners have always felt the need to pigeonhole new acquaintances by their religion, in...