What Happens when a Jewish-American Humanitarian and a Muslim Palestinian Poet Decide to Write a Book Together — in the Middle of a War?

Rotarian Allan J. "Alonzo" Wind spent two years leading medical missions in Gaza. Mohammed Arafat grew up there, surviving blockade after blockade before fleeing to the United States. They could have been enemies. Instead, they chose to listen.

One Conversation, Two Identities, Four Faiths is the unforgettable dialogue between these two unlikely friends — one a retired USAID diplomat with a Jewish background who embraced the Bahá'í Faith, the other a Gazan poet whose family remains trapped in the rubble. Their voices alternate page by page, marked AJW and MA, creating an intimate back-and-forth that is by turns heartbreaking, funny, furious, and full of hope. 

Through memoir, poetry, and brutally honest conversation, they take you inside the Gaza most Americans never see — the fish markets and fig groves before October 7th, the staff meetings under rocket fire, the twelve-kilometer walk along the shore under a sky full of stars — and into the moral questions that haunt everyone watching from afar.

This is not a policy book. This is a human book. If you have ever wanted to understand what it actually feels like on both sides of this conflict — and what it costs to choose compassion over hatred — start here.  Includes original poetry, color photographs from Gaza before and during the war, and practical steps every reader can take toward interfaith understanding.