A Reminder

For those of you who still believe the boycott is only about the '67 "occupation", I give you the following quote of Hilary Rose, one of the founders of the boycott initiative, from an interview given in the Jerusalem Report:

"As a young woman I shared the general sentiment that Israel was a wonderful thing," Rose says in a telephone interview, in clipped English tones. "Now I believe that in a terrible sense Israel was Europe's last act of anti-Semitism. Europe's failure to deal with anti-Semitism after World War II meant they colluded with the Zionist dream to build a state on somebody else's land." (Emphasis mine)

BTW, British Jewish anti-Zionism is deep-rooted. Already in 1917, Edwin Montagu, an assimilated Jewish politician, watered down the Balfour Declaration and tried to have it rescinded. A book by Rory Miller covers the anti-Zionist movement among British Jewry in the years 1945-48 - Divided Against Zion. Although most Jews made their peace with the state after its establishment, it would seem that Jewish anti-Zionism is back in style. God help us all.

Tidbits - Historiography

1. Professor Yoav Gelber's (Haifa U) important article on the development of Israeli historiography is now online. You might want to check out his analysis of the current state of history teaching in the universities.
2. David Greenberg has an interesting 2-part article on the pitfalls of popular history.

That's all folks. AIWAC

Research Suggestions

This time round: Tell En-Nasbeh Pottery

The site of Tell En-Nasbeh is perhaps the best candidate for the title of site of Biblical Mizpah, where Shmuel Hanavi visited, and which lay on the border between the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Extensively excavated in the 30s, the analysis of the site was nevertheless restricted by the level of research back then, which has since improved by leaps and bounds.

Recently, Jeffrey Zorn has re-analyzed the strati (levels) of the site, showing that there were five "stages" in the development of Tell En-Nasbeh (Zorn has an impressive site dedicated to Tell En-Nasbeh, with a wide selection of sources). In effect, Zorn wrote what my teacher here called the Perush Rashi for the architectural report on the site, allowing researchers to better understand the site.

The time has long past for someone to take up the mantle and do the same for the extensive amount of pottery found at the site, which was only roughly catalogued. The documentary material exists, now someone has to take the descriptions and catalogue them accurately according to type, period, style (burnished/unburnished, painted etc) and so on.

Good Luck.

Tidbits

1. We now have our very own high school teacher-students sex scandal. Hurray.
2. Asaf Sagiv has a good, albeit long, critique of Slovaj Zizek in the most recent Techelet (Hebrew).
3. Efraim Karsh has fired the first round against Benny Morris, hitting him at his weakest point - his "transfer" thesis.

That's all for now. AIWAC

Why can't we just disappear in peace?

In other news this week, Amos Shocken has finally shown his true colors. Anyone who deluded themselves that Gideon Levy and Amira Hass were merely exceptions to a generally Zionist newspaper can now hang their heads in shame. Schoken is just as anti-Zionist, and anti-Jewish, as the rest of them.

At least one can take solace in the fact that the Maariv op-ed page, edited by Ben-Dror Yemini, dedicated its section to five op-eds rebutting Schoken's stupidity.

For Shame (Rav 'Amar and the JPost)

I'm sure you've heard by now that Rav Shlomo 'Amar, Sepharadic Chief Rabbi, will be questioned by the police on his knowledge of the beating of a young man who wooed his daughter. I can not think of anything more humiliating or degrading for Torah and Judaism.

The JPost, however, has gone too far in calling for the abolition of the rabbinate - drawing a straight line between Rav Kuk and Rav Metzger, to show how the mighty institution has fallen. In my opinion, the analogy is false - what about Rav Goren or Rav Ovadia Yosef (pre-politics)? Besides, do two poor candidates make the entire system rotten? Why is it that instead of thinking in terms of reform, people are so eager to destroy the whole building? I also suspect that the JPost's call is neither isolated nor sudden. Although their political line has veered rightwards, and is now somewhat centrist, their line on religion has always been akin to that of their sister publication, the Jerusalem Report. Put simply: anything goes. Any form of Judaism - even "Messianic Judaism ", i.e. missionaries, get the puff-piece treatment from these guys. It feels as though they have now joined up with Shinui on their secualr crusade to remove religon from public life.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this post is an intemperate reaction to an intemperate op-ed written by someone who is genuinely shocked by the depths to which the Rabbinate has sunk. I doubt it, though.

Tidbits - Perfidy

• The May 2005 issue of Commentary has an excellent online article about the French, Jews, Zionism and the Arabs. The more things change...
• In the same issue is a review of a book on the New York Times' deliberate downplaying of the Holocaust.
• You might want to check out the major study of French policy towards Zionism and the State of Israel during the years 1945-49 (Hebrew).

That's All for now, folks. AIWAC