Here Goes Nothing...

So help me, I am going tomorrow to an all-day academic conference on the effects of the "First Muslim Period" (63~-1099) on Israel from a geographical and religious point of view. At least I can take comfort in the fact that some big guns will be there - such as Moshe Sharon and Ronnie Ellenblum.

"Gentlemen, Start Your Screaming!" - Penguin to Batman, Batman Returns

On Selective Outrage

Ben-Dror Yemini blasts the hypocrites who only seem to find 'corruption' on the opposite side of the political spectrum. Ken Yirbu.

Tidbits - Academic (and Jewish) Stuff

• Ronnie Ellenblum is known for his book on Frankish settlement in Israel during the Crusader period. In it, he questioned the perception of Crusaders as alien invaders who cowered in castles and cities for protection - he showed that there was quite a bit of settlement going on in some areas. Moreover, he demonstrated that many of the castles were built in relatively safe areas, and thus can not be explained as mere fortresses. He also attacked the notion that the local population (Eastern Christian and Muslim) was uniformly hostile to the Crusaders. Now, Ellenblum is coming out with a new book on Crusader Castles, also meant to undermine simplistic notions of 'Crusaders VS everyone else' in the Middle East. Let's hope Ellenblum's second work turns out to be as thought-provoking as the first.
• The latest issue of Israel Affairs is a veritable jem, loaded with informative and interesting articles, from a discussion of 'escapist' parties in Israel (Green Leaf, anyone?) to a long critique of Israel's radical academics. Well worth a trip to the nearest university library.
• Also worth a trip is an article in the latest issue of Middle East Journal. The article is a discussion of the Lydda/Ramle controversy by Alon Kadish and Avraham Sela, two professors who wrote a book on the subject (with Arnon Golan) which was published in Hebrew in 2001. The subject itself is too long for a blog post, but suffice it to say that Kadish and Sela dispute (convincingly, IMO), Benny Morris' claim of a massacre in one of the mosques during the 12th of July, and make a strong case against the idea that the expulsion of the inhabitants of Lydda and Ramle was premeditated. Well worth the read, whatever side you're on.
• ...and finally for something Jewish, as promised. Dr. Gur Alroey, author of an excellent study of Jewish immigrants to Israel during the second aliya (all the immigrants, not just the pioneers), has recently set up a database of names of Jews who contacted various agencies in an attempt to emigrate from the 'Pale of Settlement'. In their own words:

  ...The MJMD records are base on the applications of Jewish emigrants who applied to the JCA & ITO's information bureaux which were scattered all over the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire in the early twentieth century...In particular, the MJMD aims to understand the causes, characteristics and patterns of the Jewish Migration in the early twentieth century. In addition, the MJMD enables, via search engine, to look for relatives who possibly migrated through the two information bureaux...The MJMD invites the public to visit us at this site.

  I highly recommend that you do so.

That's all for now, folks. AIWAC

A Victory for Decency

The mythological Captain R., who was accused of having committed "kill verification" on a 13-year old girl who was killed when she came too near an army installation, was acquitted of all charges today. Thus ends a horrifying saga in which R. was mercilessly attacked as a cold-blooded monster.

It would be nice to say that this was a one-time incident. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Put bluntly, in the court of public opinion in Israel, you are presumed guilty until proven innocent, if then. You are not entitled to any kind of presumption of innocence. Moreover, the papers will never give the kind of attention to your acquittal (buried on the back pages), that they dedicated to spreading every rumor, however unfounded, "proving" your guilt. I still remember the "Strashnov affair" which burst onto the Israeli media scene for a week during Netanyahu's reign, only to fizzle out a year later. Such behavior is a blot on the Israeli media.

I have nothing but contempt for those who jettisoned all semblence of human decency in the case of Captain R. and others. May they live to suffer but a fraction of the humiliation and disgrace caused to Captain R by their irresponsible reporting.

The Coming Historical Firestorm (and it's not about the Arabs or the Israelis)

[Disclaimer: This post is meant as a discussion of the Armenian genocide/massacres question solely as a "news" item in the historical area. I make no pretensions as to authoritative facts on the issue, as I know little on the subject of the Armenian Genocide/Massacres aside from some second-hand info. I apologize beforehand if I make any stupid mistakes - AIWAC]

Gunter Lewy, a well-respected political scientist, is no stranger to controversy. He is the author of a book on the Nazi persecution of the gypsies, where he argued that though they suffered terribly and were often massacred en masse, their suffering was not "genocide" as there was no overall intention to wipe them all out, as opposed to the Jews. Recently, he also disputed the claim that the American Indians suffered a "genocide" at the hands of European colonists, again due to the lack of intent to exterminate them.

Both works aroused heated debate. However, none are as likely to cause the "earthquake" that will likely arise from his next work - on the Armenian genocide/massacres - that will come out at the end of the month under the University of Utah Press imprint. An article of Lewy's, perhaps meant as precurser to his book, has already received an indignant and long reply from Vahakn Dadrian, one of the leading authorities on the subject (It is probably his letter that is part of the "Armenian Genocide" Correspondence in the current issue of MEQ.)

If I understand correctly, and again I'm not an expert, no one (at least no reputable historian) denies that at least hundreds of thousands of Armenians died through forced famine, thirst (both due to deportations), and massacre during the First World War. Neither does anyone deny that the Ottoman Empire ordered virtually the entire Armenian population deported from areas near Russia, the enemy of the Empire. Rather, the debate revolves around the question of whether the Turkish authorities intended to physically exterminate, rather than 'simply' deport through hardship and attending death, all or at least a large part of the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire.

To say that this is a controversial subject is the understatement of the year. To this day, the Turkish Government refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing whatsoever with regard to the sufferings of the Armenians during WWI, and has taken action against those who try to say otherwise. Indeed, the state of Israel has been reluctant to adress the issue because of the danger of severance of ties with Turkey, an important ally in the region. On the other side of the spectrum are contries such as France, which not only recognizes the Armenian Genocide, but where Bernard Lewis was famously found guilty of tortious damage to the Armenian community in 1995 for denying that what happenned constituted genocide.

It then follows that Lewy's book is akin to pouring gasoline on an already raging fire. Will it force a thorough debate and discussion of the facts, so we can finally know who was historically right, as much as can be done? Or will politics prevail in this horrible, unending controversy, where actual debate of the facts will take a back seat to polemics and mud-slinging? Only time will tell.

Peretz, Post-Modernism and Populism

Caroline Glick has a long, erudite piece on the darker side of the "strike-king". I hope she's wrong. In any event, I hope that Peretz will never come to power. If that happens, God help us all.

Tidbits - Appetizers

1. A new and promising-looking issue of Middle East Quarterly is starting to come online. The first available article is a compilation and rebuttal of some of Juan Cole's rantings.
2. The new Hebrew Azure is (mostly) online (free subscription required). The article on the 'strike plague' in Israel, and how to fight it, is especially relevant.

That's all for now, folks. AIWAC

The Other Side of the Coin

Ten Years. It seems like only yesterday we heard that Rabin had been shot. It is hard to describe how I felt, an intense disbelief, as though something other-worldly had just happened. I can only compare it, perhaps, to the stunned feeling I had on 9/11. A suicide bombing would have at least felt like it belonged, in some perverse way, to the natural order of things. But this? To this day, I do not understand why Amir was not executed, or shot on the spot.

Yet, as the columnists and pundits waste ink and precious time arguing pointlessly "did we learn our lesson?", and ynet waxes nostalgia over the "candle youth", I can not forget the flip side to the reaction on the part of many to Rabin's murder.

Because I remember it - it is seared in my mind no less than that day. I remember how everyone who objected to Oslo was labeled an "inciter", or at least somehow an accomplice to the murder. I remember when "We will never forgive or forget" was a slogan of the left. I remember the calls to shut down Bar Ilan, as though the entire University was somehow to blame, for being religious, or for just being a convenient target.

At my first year at BIU, I remember the dorm manager telling us in oblique language that our dorm, where Amir stayed at, may still be bugged by the GSS. I remember my father telling me about the Bar Ilan professor who answered the question "did you cry?" with "No. I was in shock", only to have the latter sentence edited out. I remember my mother, going to light a candle, telling me of a reporter who was disappointed that she did not jump with glee at the news but was saddened.

I remember, too, the widespread historical revisionism that took place. I remember the obsession with Rabin's "legacy", the near-paganic rituals that took place in his name year after year. I remember how all of a sudden, Israel under Rabin was a picture-perfect time. No suicide bombers, no "victims of peace". People remembered only the peace demonstration where Rabin was murdered, but somehow all the anti-Oslo demonstrations were forgotten, except of course those where fanatics were present, shouting "Rabin is a Traitor" and the like.

I have stated before that history must be learned in its entirety, not just what we want to know. This period is no exception.

UPDATE: Sarah Honig also touches on this issue. Amotz Asa-El challenges Rabin's legacy.

A Little Learning Is a Dangerous Thing...

George Santayana is famous for saying that those who do not learn from hstory are condemned to repeat it. To this must be added that those who have only a minimal, or superficial, knowledge of history are condemned to misunderstand, or worse, to distort it.

A sad example of this can be found on Damian Penny's excellent blog, where he brings Noam Chomsky's false claim that the worst casualty rate of a pogrom was 49. There are more examples of this belief in the Comments section of the post. The reason for this is not malice, but rather ignorance. Most people have heard of the infamous Kishinev pogrom, which indeed had a "relatively" low body count, but which made waves throughout the world. Fewer have heard of the Ukranian pogroms against the Jews in the 17th century (known as Gezerot Tach Ve'Tat among Jews), or the mass slaughter of Jews during the Russian Civil War. The death toll in both was in the tens of thousands at minimum. A good summary of the pogroms can be found here and here. (BTW, Noam Chomsky's pal, Israel Shahak, considers the Ukranian pogroms to be a progressive event. It would be nice to know Chomsky's opinion on the matter.)

Let this be a lesson - to truly know history, one must know it in its entirety, not just snippets and slogans.