Aryeh Green, a policy expert with extensive experience in Middle East affairs and a former senior adviser to Natan Sharansky, presents a new approach to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict in his latest book, *Finding Peace in the Promised Land*. Drawing on Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and universal values, Green offers a practical and hopeful roadmap for peace in a region long marked by entrenched hostility.
Green’s work has garnered endorsements from notable figures including veteran Muslim-Arab Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, former ambassador Michael Oren, Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes, and Prof. Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, founder of the Wasatia moderate Islamic movement. Abu Toameh described it as essential reading for those seeking to understand and advance coexistence.
The genesis of Green’s peace framework stems from a transformative solo trek he undertook in 2014 along the 1,050-kilometer Israel Trail, stretching from the Egyptian border to the Lebanese border. In his previous book, *My Israel Trail*, Green recounts how this physically and spiritually demanding journey helped him overcome personal hardship and arrive at key insights about humility, acceptance, gratitude, forgiveness, and purpose. He believes these values are critical not only on an individual level, but also in addressing larger national and international conflicts, including the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
Green acknowledges the formidable obstacles that stand in the way of peace, citing the October 7 attacks by Hamas operatives and the broader hostility from some Arab and Muslim leaders and states committed to Israel's dissolution. He stresses that genuine peace will require a fundamental shift in attitudes among Arab and Muslim populations toward acceptance, forgiveness, and a renewed collective sense of purpose that embraces coexistence.
To support this perspective, the book draws extensively on historical, cultural, and religious sources across the Middle East. Green highlights statements from normative Muslim thinkers who advocate reconciliation and points to the Abraham Accords as a contemporary illustration of such potential. His framework is built around five core pillars, each accompanied by specific recommendations for policymakers and individuals on both sides of the conflict:
1. **Humility**—Recognizing one’s limitations and respecting the historical presence of the other party to avoid zero-sum thinking.
2. **Acceptance**—For Jews, acknowledgment of Palestinian national identity as a reality; for Arabs, unconditional recognition of Israel as a Jewish state in its ancestral land.
3. **Gratitude**—Fostering focus on shared achievements and progress rather than perpetuating narratives of grievance and resentment.
4. **Forgiveness**—Incorporating forgiveness into political discourse, drawing on both Judaism and Islam’s traditions, to heal wounds inflicted by decades of violence and displacement.
5. **Purpose**—Redirecting goals in the Arab and Muslim world away from hostility toward Israel and toward constructive aims like education, innovation, and societal development.
The book provides a detailed and well-documented analysis of these themes, citing religious texts, historical precedents, and voices from diverse ideological backgrounds to debunk myths and promote understanding. By focusing on these transformative elements, Green’s work seeks to chart a realistic yet optimistic path toward coexistence in one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.