I'm back (belatedly)

I would like to apologize for the relatively "light" amount of blogging. It's just very hard to commit random thoughts to this blog. I also don't usually have anything particularly brilliant or witty to say about the political situation.

Anyway, for your perusement:

1) I'm sure that many of you have heard about the revolutionary study which demonstrates that there are far fewer Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza than we originally thought there were. Though the study is likely to cause quite an uproar in academic studies, I would like to point out that it does not change the essential situation: There are now 2.4 million Arabs that do not want our civilian control, and who do not have any sort of citizenship. This is intolerable, and the "solutions" proposed by the Ariel Center, for instance, are so impracticable or out of date (or both) so as to be dismissed. I'm not happy w/disengagement, but so far the alternatives suggested (such as "Jordan is Palestine", a solution that stopped being practical at least since 1988) are even dumber.

2) I am currently reading a book on the Harel brigade, a review of which I hope to post here. While I am at it, I would like to warn the uninitiated who are interested in getting acquainted w/the history of the Israeli War of Independence. There is NO "authoritative" history of that war a la James McPherson of the American Civil War. Sefer HaPalmach and Sefer Toledot HaHaganah are most certainly NOT objective history. The Palestinian studies are for the most part so openly biased and distorted so as not to merit serious consideration.

Indeed, there are actually only a few studies that can even be called "academic" (i.e. reliant on archives, critical approach to source material etc.). Only recently are academic theses coming out on such basic subjects as the Palestinian communities in Jerusalem and Jaffa during '48, or the ALA (Arab Liberation Army). Only this year did a comprehensive study of one aspect of the fight in the Jerusalem area - the battle for the Jewish Quarter - appear in book form (Moshe Ehrenwald, Matsor Betoch Matsor).

I intend to write more on this subject later, but remember, when it comes to the Israeli War of Independence - caveat emptor.