Understanding Conflicts and Current Events

As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict enters its darkest chapter in decades, both sides are evoking the same foundational moment in their past: the events of 1948.

David K. Shipler, a former Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times and the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the conflict, discusses the meaning and reality of what happened that year.

Guest: David K. Shipler, author of “Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land.”

Background reading: 

• Recent violence in an Israeli town carries bitter echoes of the past for Palestinians.
• From the archive: Israel declares independence on May 14, 1948.

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