I was hoping that Goddess of Battle by Gwendolyn Rachel Ackerman, would be inspiring. I wanted to read a book that could make me believe that peace between Jews and Arabs in the nation known as Israel is attainable. That's why I downloaded it from Net Galley for review. It was released by the indie publisher, Black Rose Writing.





Tyra, the American Jewish protagonist, is the idealistic daughter of two progressive political activists. Tyra also seemed easily influenced until her values were seriously challenged by events in Israel. She then began to make her own decisions, but it was within the framework of wanting either her parents or her grandparents to be proud of her. So she was never completely independent minded. From an Israeli perspective, she seemed quite extraordinary. Yet she came from a family where dissent was normal.


Noureen, the Palestinian protagonist, found herself standing in opposition to her religiously conservative Islamic family at significant moments in the narrative. So it seemed to me that she was more independent than Tyra who often ended up following her upbringing.


Goddess of Battle tended to associate traditional religious approaches with intolerance and inflexibility. The Jewish characters who were most open to cooperation with Arabs were secular in their orientation. The Haredi characters are West Bank settlers who were strongly opposed to the two state solution. (For an extended discussion of the Haredi see this review.)


American readers who are viewing this situation from the outside, may imagine that the two state solution will necessarily bring peace. I considered this a facile attitude before I read this novel. Goddess of Battle clarified the immensity of the challenges involved in carving two states out of the territory that is now Israel.


I believe that the official encouragement of Jewish West Bank settlement has rendered the two state solution impossible. The current Israeli government has already deliberately blown past the tipping point. Even if that weren't so, there would still be bitter land disputes over drawing the borders of each state. As someone with relatives in Haifa, I was horrified by the character in this novel whose map of Palestine included Haifa. Did that character believe in the right of Israel to exist? I was not entirely convinced that all the Arab characters in Goddess of Battle who advocated the two state solution were sincere. Given the human rights violations that Israel has perpetrated which are poignantly illustrated in this book, I understand the deep resentment against Israel. Yet bad faith negotiation will not fix the situation.


The biggest obstacle to peace will always be Jerusalem/Al Quds, a sacred place in three religions. It seems to me that the Haredi are settling on the West Bank to prevent Jewish loss of access to Jerusalem. This is not a fantasy based on religious extremism. Jews had no access to Jerusalem when the West Bank was part of Jordan. There are many Jewish Israelis alive today who remember being denied access to Jerusalem.


Isaac and Ishmael were brothers, the sons of Abraham. In the Bible God promised Abraham and his descendants the Land of Canaan. This common heritage could be a basis for peace and cooperation within a shared territory, but instead the descendants of these two brothers seem destined to destroy one another trying to establish which ones are Abraham's true heirs.


I believe that Gwendolyn Rachel Ackerman intended Goddess of Battle to be a beacon of hope for its readers. It saddened me because I truly don't see how we get to peace from here.

I came across this novel on Netgalley when I was on my self-imposed ban last month, but I couldn’t resist the synopsis and cover. Having been on holiday to the Middle East many years ago, and having seen the disparity between the lives of Palestinian refugees and other residents of the region, I knew I had to read this.

Tyra is an American Jew living in New York with political activist parents. She’s grown up going along to Civil Rights demonstrations all her life and is now in a abusive relationship with her boyfriend, who is also a political activist.

Noureen is a Palestinian Muslim living in Bethlehem and is about to be married off to a respected doctor and widower 10 years older than herself. Her soon to be in-laws have connections with the Palestinian authority, so there is a lot of pressure for her to marry.

I won’t tell you any more about the plot because I don’t want to spoil it, except to say that these two women eventually meet in a chain of events that make them reach out and become friends.

I loved this book, especially the main characters Tyra and Noureen, who really did feel like real people, living real lives. I was so caught up in their worlds, that at one point I had to stop myself from looking up the websites and Facebook pages mentioned. I felt like that I was a fly on the wall reading about these women wanting to make a positive difference in a impossible situation.

I highly recommend this novel, especially if you are looking for a more diverse read, as it really does deserve to be read far and wide.

This book gives tremendous hope to those of us who may feel despairing of the world we see around us. It shows how human beings, no matter the differences in their beliefs, life experiences and expectations, can come together in peace and greater understanding. This was a tremendously moving experience for me. It was also an entertaining one -well-written and engrossing. I highly recommend this book to all!
I received an ARC courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher for my honest review.

Meet Tyra. She's American, Jewish, the daughter of college professors, whom she calls Nancy and Paul, and who spend most of their free time protesting in favor of making the world a better place. Tyra's boyfriend, Lamar, is Black, and is a revolutionary at heart. She is living [in New York]. Studying at the Parsons School of Design, wondering what it would be like to live in Israel.

Meet Noureen. A Palestinian woman who wanted to finish studying to be an English teacher, but whose parents have arranged a marriage for her with a man 10 years her senior. She has pleaded with her parents and has now returned to Bethlehem after spending a few months in California with her brother, [studying English at Berkeley]. She is conflicted, analyzing the old ways and the modern ways.

This is their story. The story of the unexpected and wonderful things that can happen when two women with divergent religions, philosophies and homelands decide to join forces for a common cause and find they are not so different after all.

I read this Ebook courtesy of NetGalley and Black Rose Writing. pub date 08/10/17