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An Improbable Friendship: The Remarkable Lives of Israeli Ruth Dayan and Palestinian Raymonda Tawil and Their Forty-Year Peace Mission
A True Story of Friendship and Faith in the Face of Insurmountable Hatred
An Improbable Friendship is the dual biography of Israeli Ruth Dayan, now over one hundred, who was Moshe Dayan's wife for thirty-seven years, and Palestinian journalist Raymonda Tawil, Yasser Arafat's mother-in-law, now seventy-eight. It reveals for the first time the two women’s surprising and secret forty-year friendship and delivers the story of their extraordinary and turbulent lives growing up in a war-torn country.
Based on personal interviews, diaries, and journals drawn from both women—Ruth lives today in Tel Aviv, Raymonda in Malta—author Anthony David delivers a fast-paced, fascinating narrative that is a beautiful story of reconciliation and hope in a climate of endless conflict. By experiencing their stories and following their budding relationship, which began after the Six-Day War in 1967, we learn the behind-the-scenes, undisclosed history of the Middle East's most influential leaders from two prominent women on either side of the ongoing conflict.
An award-winning biographer and historian, Anthony David brings us the story of unexpected friendship while he discovers the true pasts of two outstanding women. Their story gives voice to Israelis and Palestinians caught in the Middle East conflict and holds a persistent faith in a future of peace.
An Improbable Friendship is the dual biography of Israeli Ruth Dayan, now over one hundred, who was Moshe Dayan's wife for thirty-seven years, and Palestinian journalist Raymonda Tawil, Yasser Arafat's mother-in-law, now seventy-eight. It reveals for the first time the two women’s surprising and secret forty-year friendship and delivers the story of their extraordinary and turbulent lives growing up in a war-torn country.
Based on personal interviews, diaries, and journals drawn from both women—Ruth lives today in Tel Aviv, Raymonda in Malta—author Anthony David delivers a fast-paced, fascinating narrative that is a beautiful story of reconciliation and hope in a climate of endless conflict. By experiencing their stories and following their budding relationship, which began after the Six-Day War in 1967, we learn the behind-the-scenes, undisclosed history of the Middle East's most influential leaders from two prominent women on either side of the ongoing conflict.
An award-winning biographer and historian, Anthony David brings us the story of unexpected friendship while he discovers the true pasts of two outstanding women. Their story gives voice to Israelis and Palestinians caught in the Middle East conflict and holds a persistent faith in a future of peace.
- GenresNonfiction
312 pages, Paperback
Published March 19, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 28, 2019
An Improbable Friendship: The Remarkable Lives of Israeli Ruth Dayan and Palestinian Raymonda Tawil and Their Forty-Year Peace Mission is Anthony David's intertwined biographies of Moshe Dayan's ex-wife and Yasser Arafat's mother-in-law, two powerful women in their own right. The two women, one a liaison between local craftspeople and global markets, the other a journalist, were also activists working for peace – together and alone – for much of their lives.
Jews and Palestinians have fought over land and sovereignty for more than 100 years. Israelis proudly declaim that theirs is "history’s most ethical army," and yet, An Improbable Friendship outlines a series of assassinations of moderates and people working for peace, appearing to intentionally undermine peace. This is not my definition of ethical.
Although An Improbable Friendship comes down more on the side of Palestinians (at least moderate Palestinians), relative to conservative and hawkish Jews, it does not paint all Jews or all Palestinians with the same brush. Clearly some, like Dayan and Tawil, strive for peace and cooperate with and learn from "the other." Others fear, avoid, and attack people with different perspectives. Conservative Jews in Israel have a history of centuries of repression; yet have responded to this repression by oppressing Palestinians, people who we might expect they would feel empathy for. Political antipathies don't make much sense. An Improbable Friendship holds Palestinians accountable, while also quoting Sartre in saying that terrorism is a “terrible weapon but the oppressed poor have no others.”
In reading this book, I felt like I was watching my daughters on their worst days – poking and irritating each other, then blaming each other for the resulting chaos.
If Israeli Jews and Palestinians are like my daughters, Raymonda Tawil and Ruth Dayan are their compassionate and often passionate parents. They have a shared mission: to bring Palestinians and Israelis together, both physically and emotionally. They have used their considerable talents in rhetoric, networking, cajoling, and partnership building to meet that mission.
During some periods of their lives, Dayan and Tawil appeared close to accomplishing this mission. As Israel builds settlements in the West Bank and walls there and throughout Jerusalem, it has created a fragile peace; nonetheless,
the largest impediments to peace [Tawil and Dayan] both believe, more than terrorism, are laws and barriers preventing Jews and Palestinians from meeting. Right-wing Israelis and the holy warriors of Hamas share the same fear: empathy. (Loc. 3731-3733).
Remarkably, both women are still alive at this writing (Dayan is 102, Tawil is 79). May these two friends continue to work for and build peace.
Jews and Palestinians have fought over land and sovereignty for more than 100 years. Israelis proudly declaim that theirs is "history’s most ethical army," and yet, An Improbable Friendship outlines a series of assassinations of moderates and people working for peace, appearing to intentionally undermine peace. This is not my definition of ethical.
Although An Improbable Friendship comes down more on the side of Palestinians (at least moderate Palestinians), relative to conservative and hawkish Jews, it does not paint all Jews or all Palestinians with the same brush. Clearly some, like Dayan and Tawil, strive for peace and cooperate with and learn from "the other." Others fear, avoid, and attack people with different perspectives. Conservative Jews in Israel have a history of centuries of repression; yet have responded to this repression by oppressing Palestinians, people who we might expect they would feel empathy for. Political antipathies don't make much sense. An Improbable Friendship holds Palestinians accountable, while also quoting Sartre in saying that terrorism is a “terrible weapon but the oppressed poor have no others.”
In reading this book, I felt like I was watching my daughters on their worst days – poking and irritating each other, then blaming each other for the resulting chaos.
If Israeli Jews and Palestinians are like my daughters, Raymonda Tawil and Ruth Dayan are their compassionate and often passionate parents. They have a shared mission: to bring Palestinians and Israelis together, both physically and emotionally. They have used their considerable talents in rhetoric, networking, cajoling, and partnership building to meet that mission.
During some periods of their lives, Dayan and Tawil appeared close to accomplishing this mission. As Israel builds settlements in the West Bank and walls there and throughout Jerusalem, it has created a fragile peace; nonetheless,
the largest impediments to peace [Tawil and Dayan] both believe, more than terrorism, are laws and barriers preventing Jews and Palestinians from meeting. Right-wing Israelis and the holy warriors of Hamas share the same fear: empathy. (Loc. 3731-3733).
Remarkably, both women are still alive at this writing (Dayan is 102, Tawil is 79). May these two friends continue to work for and build peace.
March 31, 2021
The history of Israel’s early years post independence and focus on Moshe Dayan pointed interestingly to the domestic personality of the general. The latter half of the book focusing on the friendship between the general’s wife Ruth Dayan and Raymonda - a cosmopolitan Palestinian feminist (who just happened to become Arafat’s mother in law) devolves into the sorry tale of conservative extremists on both sides preferring their own hard-line superiority over any reconciliation - as envisaged by the erstwhile liberal elites
November 15, 2021
The story of these two women is an inspiration. The complex nature of homeland for Israelis and Palestinians driven by hard line politics might be different today if the leadership of these two women had been regarded as example for peaceful living.
October 10, 2019
An amazing book about two truly amazing women
My Full Review
My Full Review
April 24, 2020
Just too slow for my liking DNF.
September 28, 2023
Headt breaking, inspiring.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews