In Chapter 6, we present examples from the four different kinds of personal narratives that we conceptualized that connect to genocide and war, with this chapter focusing on the Holocaust. Our four types of personal narratives are termed: distancing, victimhood, ambivalence/paradoxes, and embracing the other while remaining in one’s pain. In this chapter, we present and analyze long quotes from narratives of Jews and (non-Jewish) Germans who are descendants of Holocaust survivors and Nazi perpetrators. Our examples come from a variety of sources – interviews that we undertook over the years with members of the first, second, and third generations, internet sources, YouTube, research books that present narrative interviews, and memoirs and autobiographies that exemplify the different kinds of narratives. This chapter, then, presents concrete examples of the different kinds of personal stories that we find in the context of speaking and/or writing about the Holocaust, mainly among the second and third generations, the children and grandchildren of the war generation.

In Chapter 7, we present examples of the four different kinds of personal narratives – distancing, victimhood, ambivalence/paradoxes, and embracing the other while remaining in one’s pain – connected to the Jewish–Arab/Israeli–Palestinian conflicts that appear to have the potential either to promote peacebuilding or to obstruct peace. We address these two connected, yet not identical, conflicts together for two main reasons. While the conflicts have differences (Arabs in Israel have citizenship and Palestinians in the Palestinian Authority/Gaza Strip do not, leading to different conflictual aspects), the dilemma is the same: should Israel be a Jewish State or a state of all of its citizens? Furthermore, when people share narratives about these conflicts, they often combine the two contexts. Thus, it would be artificial to separate them. Our examples come from different sources – interviews that we undertook over the years with Jewish-Israelis and Arabs, and Israelis and Palestinians, internet sources, research books that present narrative interviews, and memoirs and autobiographies that exemplify the different kinds of narratives. This chapter, then, presents concrete examples of the different kinds of personal stories that we find in the context of speaking and/or writing about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

In Chapter 8, through the presentation and analysis of our four conceptualized kinds of personal narratives of intractable war – distancing, victimhood, ambivalence/paradoxes, and embracing the other while remaining in one’s pain – we address a major issue, which has always divided Jewish-Israeli society: Arab–Jewish/Israeli–Palestinian relations. This issue tends to divide the left wing from the right wing and the secular from the religious Jewish citizens. This schism exploded in late 2022, when a very right-wing coalition was formed in the Israeli Knesset and government, which led to numerous legislative proposals that have been perceived by many as endangering Israel’s fragile democracy. This political upheaval further led to massive demonstrations and strikes that threw the country into turmoil. While this specific ideological/religious divide is mainly between Jews and Jews, it ties into the Jewish–Arab/Israeli–Palestinian conflict, as its roots connect to the question of the desired nature of the state and to the often-hostile intergroup relationships that characterize Israeli society. In this chapter, we present personal narratives connected to Jewish–Jewish relations, a very “hot” topic in Israeli society today.

One can divide sources regarding Byzantine strategy into three main categories: sources dedicated to the exposition of strategy, tactics and logistics, i.e. military manuals and administrative documents;' Byzantine historical narratives; and non-Byzantine historical accounts written in various dialects such as Slavic, Arabic and Armenian. Still, there is an ongoing debate whether military manuals reflected current tactical and strategic practise. Equally uncertain is the extent to which Byzantine historians employed military manuals or idealised biographies as models in order to present favoured figures in an ideal light. The emperor was usually the one who set priorities and objectives, assisted by advisers as well as by treatises on strategy and logistics. Sometimes, however, high-ranking military officers, the strategoi, local commanders who executed military and political authority over their districts, also took the initiative to undertake operations. The Byzantines faced various peoples: Slavic and Turkish peoples and polities threatened and occupied its Balkan frontier; Arabs, Turks and Armenians dominated the eastern frontier (Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia and Armenia), and the Normans, Crusaders and various pirates threatened Greece, Thrace and the islands of the Aegean and the Ionian Gulf. The objectives of the Byzantines varied according to the period. Defence and survival were among the dominant ones; others included retaliation, devastation of the enemy’s potential through raiding and acquisition of booty, marching deep and showing the flag in order to achieve more favourable treaties, the reconquest of lost key cities and fortresses, and, rarely, the total elimination of enemy polities. The Byzantines relied greatly on money and diplomacy to achieve their goals. When these were not enough, they would mobilise their army and navy comprising indigenous professional and semi-professional troops, as well as foreign and allied troops. The main priority in terms of strategy was to conduct military operations, as far as possible, on only one front at a time. The latter was chosen with various goals in mind: the control of major cities, fortresses, routes and mountain passes; the establishment of a client ruler; acquiring of a quick victory in order to enhance the emperor’s image; and acquiring an acknowledgement of the emperor’s overlordship in order to adhere to Byzantine political ideology which saw the emperor as the supreme ruler of the world and the legitimate claimant to the Roman Empire. It is interesting to note that religion seems to have played a lesser role than realpolitik and political ideology. When fighting their wars, the Byzantines mostly adhered to the advice found in military treatises, but there were also occasions when the neglect of such matters brought devastating defeats.

Examines American relations with non-Protestant others within the Mediterranean, primarily Jews, Catholics, and Muslims. Pays particular attention to shipwrecks in Morocco.

The Persian invasion in the early seventh century weakened Roman rule in Egypt, particularly the wealthy governing class. Only a decade after the Roman recovery of Egypt it was again invaded, by a two-pronged Arab army that took control of the country and, after a siege, of Alexandria. In many ways Egypt after the Arab conquest continued as it had been, with local elites and administrations running things on behalf of the small occupying force. If anything, elite power and rural dependency were reinforced by the new taxation system. Coptic language and literature flourished, with the gradual erosion of Greek as an imperial language, and the anti-Chalcedonian church of Egypt developed a distinct Coptic cultural and religious identity. Over time, however, a series of pressures and developments led to a wider use of Arabic in administration and in daily life, a decline in Coptic, and eventually to widespread conversion to Islam.

Nabopolassar fought with an Assyrian-style army and took the throne of Babylon. Thirteen years later, Nineveh fell despite Egyptian help. Babylon took over much of the Assyrian empire. Later he defeated the last Assyrian king at Harran. His success was seen as Marduk’s revenge. Captured wealth from Assyrian royal cities allowed major building work at Babylon, which was continued by Nabopolassar’s son Nebuchadnezzar II. Neither king left statues of themselves, and cylinder seals represent gods by their symbols. Major subsidence in the citadel required frequent rebuilding on the Southern Palace. The names of temples and gates were compiled on to a clay tablet as a literary work. Colour-glazed bricks adorned the Processional Way leading to the temple of the New Year festival outside the citadel walls. That festival is described. Some of his creations Nebuchadnezzar described as a Wonder, but he made no mention of the Hanging Garden. In a separate part of the citadel, Nebuchadnezzar built a Summer Palace. His conquests included Tyre and Ashkelon but not Egypt or Lydia. He sacked the Temple in Jerusalem and deported its royal family to Babylon. Other captives settled on land nearby. Business archives of long duration continue into the Achaemenid period.

The Eastern Roman Empire represents a prototype of a Christian state both in terms of its political philosophy of Church–state relations and in terms of a political philosophy regarding legal recognition of other states – both Christian and non-Christian. The process through which Byzantium recognized emerging states in Europe and beyond became an important element of international legal order as this dominant Christian empire addressed the most critical question of political legitimacy: how can a political order established by Christ recognize other political communities that challenge its territory? As a political community established by Christ and driven by the rule of law, the Empire navigated its international relations following a very specific theological program that reflected its attitude toward its neighbors. This program held that any political project should be an imitation of the Byzantine Christ-given political community and through such process it would come closer in affinity to the Empire and become integrated into its Christian commonwealth.

Chapter 5 presents the results from a national survey experiment in which we manipulated racial/ethnic cues in an ambiguous news vignette depicting a potentially threatening situation at an airport. Compared to whites, African Americans and Latinos exhibited substantially higher levels of outgroup empathy and more favorable attitudes toward Arabs. In reaction to the experimental vignette, African Americans and Latinos were more likely to side with the Arab passenger and find the additional search and questioning by the airport security officer unreasonable than were white respondents. They were also more likely to support civil rights policies and commit to political action to protect the rights of targeted groups in this threat context. These reactions occurred even though African Americans and Latinos perceived themselves to be at greater personal risk from terrorism. Group empathy helps explain the racial/ethnic differences in attitudes and reactions we observed here.

It begins with preliminary matters: an opening section dealing with policy context and related guiding principles, then an outline of the governing legal framework, international and domestic legislation, courts and regulatory bodies, with some references to international reports. This leads into the first of two contemporary case law sections, which examines the state–religion relationship in relation to the most relevant fundamental human rights: the freedoms of religion, assembly/association and expression. The second and largest considers the church–state relationship as it intersects with equality rights in relation to: marriage, family life, divorce and death; healthcare; education; employment; service provision; and security.

A Latin monastic presence was part of the landscape of the Holy Land as early as the fourth century. Although the Latin presence waned after the Arab Conquest of the seventh century, interest and involvement in the monastic presence of the Holy Land continued, notably in the reign of Charlemagne in the early ninth century. The eleventh century saw increased knowledge of conditions for Christians in the Holy Land as pilgrimage from the West became more widespread. By the eve of the First Crusade in 1095, the Latin and Greek Orthodox Churches had drifted apart in observance of religious customs, but they remained in communion. The purpose of the Crusade was to revive and strengthen the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

The concluding chapter draws together the results of the research by giving an overview of the parallel ‘lives’ of Latin and Orthodox monasteries in the eastern regions that came under western control in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and drawing inferences about the nature of their intersection with each other and with the society of which they formed a part.

The Republic’s legitimacy rests in part on the French Revolution’s founding declaration of one nation inspired by the goal of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Construing fraternity as collective adherence to French culture, the country’s political and intellectual leaders harbor deep suspicion of other strong collective identities. In recent decades Islam has replaced the Catholic Church as the main object of anxiety. The country’s obsession with signs of Islamic identity such as burkas, niqabs, and burkinis has a second root, namely, an enduring sense of incompatibility between the norms and practices of North African Muslims, the primary constituent of its migrant-background population, and those of the legacy French defined to include assimilated Jewish, Spanish, and other non-Muslim migrants. Voiced early in the nineteenth century by Alexis de Tocqueville, it is expressed today by socialists like Manuel Valls, conservatives like Nicholas Sarkozy, and intellectuals like Alain Finkielkraut. Yet polling shows most Muslims feel French, albeit as objects of discrimination. The state shows some signs of accepting the need to battle that discrimination, but economic stagnation and the deteriorating condition of the lower middle class, along with outbursts of jihadi terrorism, obstruct implementation of a successful integration strategy.

This chapter builds upon the previous one by examining how the town’s residents reacted to the arrival of newcomers who behaved more aggressively and could resort to their own means of military support: first the representatives of the Zanzibari sultanate, who arrived in the 1840s to oversee the caravan trade, and then the French Catholics, who established their first mainland mission in Bagamoyo in 1868. Both case studies reveal struggles which demarcated the social boundary between insiders and outsiders, wenyeji and watu wa kuja. While people could develop their own sense of attachment to a place regardless of how earlier settlers might view them, it did not mean that the newcomers could behave in ways antagonistic to established convention. Power in Bagamoyo rested in local hands; to succeed in the town, one had to respect the interests and institutions of the community. Thus, newcomers to Bagamoyo had to become localized, meaning they had to adapt to local customs and become accepted by the local inhabitants. As we saw in Chapter 1, the Indians and upcountry Africans respected established customs, even as they introduced ones of their own. For those who flouted local interests, the repercussions were often violent