On a hot summer night in 2016, I found myself sitting enjoying coffee and fruit at the home of one of the activists in “The Home” organization, in a refugee camp in the Palestinian Authority, and having a lively conversation with his cousin Ismail, a released Hamas terrorist. We moved from topic to topic, and among other things we talked openly about our religious conflict:

Me: Do you know what the word 'Hamas' means in Hebrew? It's a very well-known word that is repeated many times in the Torah, and it is very different from its meaning in Arabic. 'Hamas' in Hebrew means to rob, to usurp, to take something that is not yours from someone else. It reminds me quite a bit of what you want to do to us here — to take away our rule over the land.

Ismail: So you should really learn something from us. We have patience ('Saber' in Arabic), and much more than you do. Your rule over Palestine will not last much longer. Even if you returned here as a result of Allah's will, in the end Islam will rule here, as it will rule the whole world—and that is Allah's promise.

The conversation was sharp, but we continued. It was undoubtedly one of the most fascinating conversations I have ever had. It is not every day that I get to sit across from a close friend's family member, who is currently my enemy and I am his enemy, and speak so directly and honestly. My enemy may be perceived as completely righteous by his own people, but his faith and vision mean that on another day and in another situation, we would be "talking" through the barrels of an M-16 and a Kalashnikov. The conversation with him left me with a sense of strong conflict. I discovered that although he is my enemy and I will never agree to his demand to give up the things that are sacred to me, I appreciate the strength of his faith. This moving conversation with Ismail, as well as many other encounters that I had during my years of activity in “The Home”, were part of my long journey to find an answer to the question of how to bridge what seems to be a dead end path to conflict between us, not to mention a path that leads straight to hell.

Hear O’ Ishmael, This book before you, is the fruit of the search for in-depth answers that will clarify the roots of the long-standing conflict, and perhaps even give hope for the possibility that other days will indeed come. It paints a broad picture of experiences, stories, dialogues, my own conclusions and inspiration from others, which came as a result of direct connection with reality on the ground as an activist and social entrepreneur who seeks to find a way for real discourse, a discourse that does not sweep the difficult issues under the rug, but is also unwilling to fold and give up on the fundamental values and vital interests of the Jewish people and the belief in the great destiny of all the inhabitants of this land.

I assume that the place where I grew up and came from is common to many Jews in Israel, although of course each of us has our own unique characteristics. This is one of the reasons why I believe that what I will write later in the book may touch and inspire many readers. I do not pretend to be objective, nor do I want to be. I am Jewish, and my identity dictates my worldview and the way I examine the events around me. I am sure that there will be readers who will agree with some of the ideas presented in the book, and perhaps even with most of them. It is possible that during the reading you will come across a word, a sentence, or a conclusion that will make your blood boil, but I still recommend that you continue reading, and try to understand the broader meaning of things. I believe that as you read, you will discover new insights that are not usually heard — not in politics, not in the media, not in academia, and especially not within the organizations that I usually call the "peace industry," as you will discover as you read on.

This book begins about a decade ago, in 2014. Tragic events struck our land and its residents — the kidnapping and murder of the three teenagers Gil-Ad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach, and Naftali Frankel, the kidnapping and murder of the teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir, and fifty days of war in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. At the end of that war, I met by chance John, a Palestinian from Ramallah, through social media, a meeting that completely changed my worldview and the direction of my life. Following it, we founded “The Home" organization together with the aim of creating activities and content that raise awareness to promote a common future for Jews and Palestinians in the Land of Israel. About a decade after that encounter, I am finishing writing my first book while the thunders of war can still be heard outside, and with even greater intensity, in the background.

This encounter, and many others that followed, led me to learn about the world of the Palestinians I met, and through them to get to know myself as a Jew more deeply. Slowly, a worldview was built within me that completely breaks all the basic assumptions of the traditional approach of peace activists of all kinds, regarding the nature of peace and the way to achieve it. Unlike many other books dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, whether they are by foreigners who came to Israel for a few days, academics, media people, business people or politicians, my book was born as a result of an unplanned move, from direct acquaintance with the area and from bonds of trust, friendships and camaraderie formed with real people. Meetings with Palestinians over the years have given me a rare opportunity to get to know the Palestinian society through ordinary people from all walks of life.

But more than having the opportunity to get to know the authentic story of the other side — I have had the rare privilege of bringing the authentic Jewish story to them, and forming a growing movement of activists on both sides who seek to find a way to combine the two stories. I met and spoke with almost all the people who make up the 'big picture' of life in our land — Palestinians and settlers, people of the left and right, Fatah and Hamas, Jews who are cut off from their identity and Jews who have a strong sense of faith. I learned from all of them. As a non-religious person, at least not according to the prevailing definition, I underwent a revolutionary change in relation to my initial starting point during the journey I made. I came to know that it is impossible to avoid the fact that the roots of the conflict over our land are religious, and not just political-national-territorial, and that any attempt to evade and ignore this fact only deepens the conflict and complicates it. The main players in this historical conflict are the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael, and as long as we do not understand that the sons of Ishmael have a fundamental role that has not yet been clarified during the return to Zion of the children of Israel, the grandson of Abraham, and as long as we do not discover what the deep conflict with them seeks to teach us on ourselves, we cannot move forward.

During this journey, I discovered that I love the Bible with all my heart. I have a strong connection, probably preserved in my DNA, to the Jewish tradition that has been devoutly preserved for more than 3,000 years. This connection to the tradition of my people also leads me to respect and appreciate the strong connection of the Palestinians to the traditions of Islam, which are based on 1,400 years of faith. I am at a complex crossroads: I am a Jew who comes from a secular background who connected

to the Palestinians, and it is precisely this connection to the Palestinians, which took me out of my place in the Israeli 'Tel Aviv bubble', that opened me up to getting to know and connecting with settlers in Judea and Samaria and to deepening my Jewish identity. The desire to learn about Islam in order to understand the Palestinians in depth, led me to study the roots of Judaism and how it views Islam, and to develop a comprehensive worldview regarding biblical political Judaism, in an attempt to understand how it can include the Palestinians in the future Jewish story.

I see a complementary interpretation between Judaism and Islam as one of the necessary cornerstones for peace, and therefore I have chosen to base many of my arguments in the book before you on content from the Bible and the Quran. Here is the place to note that in my quotations from the Quran, which I read in its entirety, I used the Hebrew translation by Subhi Ali Adowi (Binat Center), the Hebrew translation by the late Yoel Yosef Rivlin (father of the tenth president of the State of Israel), and I even verified them with the English translation that appears on the website www.quran.com.

One of the main things I learned from my friction with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that it is not possible to discuss a solution to the conflict with our enemies without prior clarification of the harsh Jewish identity crisis that is taking place before our eyes, and is expressed in the intra-Jewish conflict. In the years since the return to Zion and the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in Israel, we have not yet found the answers to the many questions related to our Jewish identity, Zionism, the future of Israel, and the future between us and our neighbors. The reasons for this are many, and foremost among them are the echo chambers with which each of us surrounds himself, which prevent the development of a necessary worldview that is needed to resolve such complex issues. We may have avoided addressing them and answering them out of a lack of purpose or hope that a common solution will be found,

or perhaps we simply preferred to live our lives in “peace” without asking ourselves

the essential questions. But now, when we are in the midst of a difficult battle against our enemies, and when social cohesion in Israel is on the verge of dissolution,

the questions are knocking on our doors and will not let up, and we must not postpone

dealing with them.

I believe that in order to see the 'big picture' and the whole, the various pieces of the puzzle must be brought together, and therefore, alongside my own innovations, conclusions, and personal clarification, I saw fit to bring together in this book both the worldviews of leading thinkers and those who have not yet entered the consciousness of Israeli society, who dealt with similar questions and inspired me, whom you will meet during the reading. I hope that, like me, at the end of the journey I am taking you on, you will come to the inevitable conclusion that the enemies we face are people of faith acting out of religious belief, and the great challenge before us is to find a political-religious answer that we can firmly confront with their own faith. Sometimes it is precisely our enemies who teach us the most important lessons about ourselves, the hard way. And now, it is inevitable that we must get to know ourselves again through our enemies, and the more we strive to do so, the better. I chose to call this book “Shema Ishmael - Hear O Ishmael”, because I believe that the path to peace lies through the willingness to truly and sincerely listen to other, and to recognize our role, uniqueness, and destiny, and that of the other. If we honor our past, we will clarify our identity and clarify our aspirations for both ourselves and our enemies, among the rest by learning about ourselves and them through friction with them - It is also inevitable that we will also succeed in opening their hearts to hear our deep truth and teach them something about ourselves and themselves. Then, perhaps, perhaps, we will succeed in creating a shared story together, a shared life in our land, and a blessing for all the inhabitants of the earth.