Replacing old myths with new ones

I will let my few readers here on a little secret - "myth-busting" is one of the most cherished and sought-after prizes among would-be and actual historians. Alongside lifetime prizes and collegial respect, nothing makes our mouth water more than the prospect of making a conference presentation or writing an article - stating that everything historians believed up until now is baloney - and watch them squirm.

It goes without saying that I have nothing against "myth-busting" efforts per say. "Myth-busters", however, must be very knowledgeable people - they must know what they are talking about. Otherwise, instead of squirming, the prospective buster will be laughed out of the room as an ignoramus and never heard from again.

It is with some regret and much satisfaction that I must place the recent "Hannukah Myth-Buster" written in Slate, for the most part, in the latter category. Although a number of facts presented in this openly anti-Zionist piece are correct, the article overall contains factual holes large enough to drive a train through, or even an Hellenic army. The fact that I can say this even though my specialty is the Modern Period makes Ponet's effort even more laughable (The fact that he is the Jewish chaplain for Yale is disturbing). While I invite others more knowledgeable to punch more holes, I will point out some of the main problems:

• Ponet makes no mention of other sources such as Josephus, who is our only source for the period post-Shimon.
• Ponet neglects to mention that of all the ethnic groups that were in Hellensitic Palestine - only two have survived - the Jews, and a small sect of Samaritans. Everyone else, the Edomites, the yeturim and the Nabateans, all disappeared. This does not bode well for the "it's possible to survive and maintain one's identity under foreign rule" thesis.
• Ponet "conveniently" forgets that the decrees by Antiouchus Epiphanes - attested to in the Macabees books - may very well have been recommended by said Hellenic Jews (Bickerman's argument).
• The fact - attested to by archaeology - that almost all of Eretz Israel aside from Samaria became Jewish under the Hasmoneans is forgotten. Before that we were geographically confined to the Jerusalem-Lydda area and likely would have suffered the fate of the Edomites.
• The "civil war" between the Perushim and the Zedukim during the Hasmonean and Roman periods (as opposed to the hellenists) is well documented in Jewish sources.
• The claim that the "Maccabean dream" was the main reason for the Great revolt and the Bar Kokhba revolt (as opposed to, I don't know, say Roman oppression, ethnic conflict between Jews and non-Jews, social conflict between the elite and the dispossessed, the establishment of the destroyed Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina etc) is a load of BS.
• As for whether an ethnic group needs a nation-state, in light of the ever-shrinking Jewish population in the diaspora, my answer would be an emphatic yes.

  So remember - "myth-busting" is only for those who have a command of history - AIWAC

Tidbits - Misc.

• Yeesh, what a grouch.
• I always though the Romans had something to do with it...

To Love the Nothing

I recently watched a movie called Closer, which details the rotten moral world inhabited by four characters - two male, and two female. The film can best be described as utterly heartless, even cheerfully so. The characters are blunt in their statements about their infidelities and feelings, and 'humanity' or morality is a currency that has no value.

Several years ago, I read Lord of the Flies as part of the required reading for the literature bagrut. That work, although it ultimately described the victory of animalistic and immoral tendencies over humanity, was meant more as a warning about the dangers of this happening to us if we are not careful. Closer, by contrast, is a celebration of its own moral vaccousness. It is but a symptom of a broader tendency in the Western world to celebrate the nothing, to praise the id. What was once called "criticism" is often not meant to help change things for the better but rather to bask in the putrid state it claims society is currently in. It makes me sick to my stomach that we've come to this. This is the civilization that brought democracy, human rights and mutual tolerance?

The same reasons that made me resist the message of Lord of the Flies make me feel disgusted by this movie. Humankind has shown itself capable not only of horrible things, but also great ones. Contrary to the director's narcissistic view, many of the people I've "bumped into" over the years have been quite decent folk. Not saints, to be sure, but certainly not the bastards described in this movie. We are taught in Judaism that we have a good inclination alongside the evil one. To look only at bad deeds and people, but to ignore the good ones, is no less of a deception than to do the opposite.

Some of you may very well want to walk down that road of self-negation. To those of you who decide to do so, I bid you farewell - I will have no part in it. AIWAC

The Definition of Progress

Seen in the Efrat Pharmacy:

"Doctor, I have an earache"

2000 BC: "Eat this root"

1000 AD: "Roots are for unbelievers. Pray for your health"

1850 AD: "Prayer is silly superstition. Take this pill"

1940 AD: "The pill's no good, drink this liquid"

1985 AD: "The liquid's no good, take this antibiotic"

2000 AD: "Antibiotics are artifical, eat this root"

Tidbits - Academic

• Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig, Head of the PoliSci department at Bar-Ilan, writes a .pdf-blog, where he discusses various issues regarding Israeli academia (in Hebrew). His latest post is a discussion of a sad fact - in the land of Hebrew, only publications in English are considered worthwhile.
• The new Azure is out, with an essay by David Hazony on the sad state of Israeli education today, including universities, and an interesting piece on the concept of borders and sovereignty in Zionist thought (free reg. required).
• Israel Affairs has also come out with an issue dedicated to Israel and Islam. (Sadly, Israel Affairs is a perfect example of what Wilzig laments - that is, an excellent, informative, scholarly journal about trends in Israel that is only available in English, which no-one here will willingly read).

An Israeli Shabbes

Israel is a hectic place. Political and economic problems are ever-present in print and visual media, as well as discussions between people here. Too often, the obsession with everyday problems spills into Shabbat, and the atmosphere of the day is punctured with heated debates about Sharon, the economy, the elections and what not.

For many years, I too would read the Friday newspapers for much of Shabbat. Then, slowly but surely, I came to the realization that it just wasn't worth it. The newspapers rarely had anything interesting, and the news was usually depressing and made me feel miserable. So, for the past few months, I have forced myself into a change of habit - I read the papers early on Friday, and either completely avoid or minimize my newspaper reading on Shabbat.

I can not begin to describe how much more pleasurable Shabbat has become for me since I made that change. For me, Shabbat is now more than just a day where I don't watch TV and talk on the phone. Suddenly, the Day of Rest really is a day unconnected to the world and its insanities, including the Israeli ones.

So I wish you all a Shabbat Shalom, and hope that we will all be able to truly appreciate Shabbat for what it is. The problems of the world and the Jewish people can surely stand to take a break for one day in the week.

History and Propaganda

Professor Yoav Gelber's indispensable history of the Israeli War of Independence (otherwise known as the 1948 War) is now available in paperback. I highly recommend reading the appendices, available online, which compare what actually happened at Deir Yassin and Tantura, with the version present in Palestinian propaganda.

Enjoy,

AIWAC

The Land Before Time

"...Nostalgia is the longing for what never was" - Sir Harold Evans, The American Century

Once upon a time, not too long ago, there was a state called Israel. It was a veritable paradise, with a booming economy, an egalitarian society and a unified nation. There were few terrorist casualties, and the border was rather quiet. Then came the stunning victories of the Six-Day War, and the country began going downhill. Capitalism, settlements, militarism, occupation, and religious fanaticism are but some of the results that came of this disasterous victory. The NRP dared to turn from a MAPAI lapdog to a party with a will of its own (albeit the wrong one, IMHO), the fascists took over (Likud) and the state became ostracized. Worse, the Jewish populace itself began to split into various factions, creating the chaos we see today.

If you believe the above description, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you, real cheap. I will leave it to others to punch holes in the historical innacuracies in the above narrative. Indeed, I would not have bothered mentioning it if this were not the position of many on the left, from the lunatic-fringe (scroll down to Oren's letter on Judt) to the old-guard Zionists.

I can't shake the feeling that the cry "back to the " '67 lines" means a lot more than just a position on the state's final borders. It represents a desire to turn back the clock and reverse the events and trends in Israeli society that have taken place since the Six Day War. How else can one explain Elazar Stern's desire to create a Ben-Gurion style IDF, Sharon's desire to actually become the next Ben-Gurion and the obsession with the Galilee and the Negev? More to the point, are so many people so deluded that they think that even a return to the Green Line will instantly solve all problems, like some magic wand? Do they really think they can turn back time?

Comments would be greatly appreciated. AIWAC

On False Symmetry and non-Jewish Jews

Leon Weiseltier has a devastating critique of Speilberg's Munich, as well as it's writer Tony Kushner, in the New Republic (free registration required). The pathology of people like Kushner never ceases to amaze me.

Life in an Israeli University

• Your average classroom will contain 25% knowledgable, active participants, 65% stenographers, and 10% who don't show up.
• The most common questions in the classroom are: "Could you repeat that again?" and "What will/Will this be on the test?
• Everything - from grades to attendance requirements - is open to negotiation.
• Things you will never hear a student say in an Israeli University: "What? Only English and Hebrew? I want Latin, Ancient Greek, and Russian!", "Sir, I think the grade you gave me was too high", "Only 25 pages? That's only enough for my introduction!"
• Skills acquired in an Israeli classroom: knitting kippas, staring in space, and handwritten stenography.
• Tests are better than papers when you have to write papers. Papers are better than tests when you have to take tests.
• "Liberal Arts" does not exist here. Consequently, many university graduates are educated ignoramuses.
• Don't bother sucking up to the teacher - tests are graded blind.

Beneath Contempt

This article needs no introduction. I can only hope that Finkielkraut will make it through this. (Hat Tip: Azure)

Countdown to Eviction

I don't think there's anything left to say. Welcome to "Hitnatkut - the Sequel", with hundreds of thousands people being evicted instead of 8,000. I'm sure all our left wing folks will have a field day. Somehow I don't feel like writing anymore. AIWAC

Damn It, Not Again

Another mass murder has taken place in Netanya. I hope there's a nice place in hell set aside for the murderer. My prayers are with the families of those killed. Shelo Neyda Od Tza'ar.

Muslim Period Conference Report

[Disclaimer: Once again, I am reporting on a subject about which I know comparatively little. The opinions of the various scholars are their own. Please do not shoot the messenger. Thank you - AIWAC]

Well, I must say that the conference was not a total disaster. Most of the lecturers remained within their alloted time frame (more or less), and many of the presentations were quite enlightening. Some people even remembered to tell jokes and keep the audience (including yours truly) awake. Below are some some of the highlights:

As mentioned before, this subject of this conference was Israel during the First Muslim Period, from the Muslim conquests in the 7th century until the Crusades (late 11th century), although most of the lectures covered only the Muslim Conquests and the Ummayad Period. The subject of the reliability of the Muslim historiography of the conquests was a particularly contentious subject. Prof. Amiqam Elad and a master student of his (forgot his name) argued that it was possible to unearth historical facts and events from the Muslim sources through a critical reading thereof. They claimed that although the Muslim sources we now have were written a century or two after the fact, this does not prevent us from discerning the earlier sources and checking their credibility (ala Josephus, for instance). Prof. Moshe Sharon, on the other hand, dropped a bombshell by claiming that the Muslim histories were a bunch of bubba mayses with kernels of truth. He compared the Muslim historical project to an alternate reality in which no documents survived from WWI, and in which the history thereof was done by interviewing some old Germans. Needless to say, this caused much consternation and discussion. [Sharon has an article plugging this line that is due to come out soon in Studia Orientalia (I think this is it). Should be interesting.]

Archaeology of the Muslim period was another theme in the conference. Prof. Yossi Patrich discussed the transition of Ceasaria from the Byzantine to the Umayyad Period. Dr. Katya Zitrin discussed the subject of roads in Israel during the Umayyad period, where she showed that the Umayyad "road project" consisted mainly of maintenance of Roman and Byzantine roads and installations, rather than the construction of new roads or milestones. Dr. Gideon Avny of the Israeli Antiquities Authority shed new light on Ramle, the city that was erected from scratch during the Umayyad period. He showed that the number of excavations being done there has grown exponentially and has contributed a great deal to our knowledge of the city.

Another theme of the conference was the life of the Dhimmi communities under Early Muslim rule. The picture that emerged was mixed. Dr. Michael Erlich showed that the historical evidence points to a general tolerance of Dhimmi religious structures, with mosques and churches/synagogues exiting side by side rather than mosques replacing churches. Dr. Avni also showed this to be the case - in Jerusalem, for instance, Christian institutions (at least until the 9th century) grew during this period, and Dr. Shimon Gath showed that there were large, mainly unmolested Dhimmi communities in Ramle, a Muslim-built city. On the other hand, another lecturer (whose name escapes me for the moment) showed that the flight of much of the population of the cities along the coast during the Muslim conquests - due both to fear of war and a Muslim policy of expelling the Dhimmi inhabitants along the coastline - lead to a collapse of these cities and a break between the Middle East and the Mediterannian (which became called 'the Byzantine (hostile) Sea'). The Christian communities were now cut off from centers in Asia Minor, and had to adjust to life under Islam.

All in all, an interesting conference. I hope that there will be a discussion of later Muslim periods (Fatimid, Mamluk etc), to see whether the picture described above changed and why.