Karsh VS. Pappe

Efraim Karsh demolishes Ilan Pappe's new book, while (justifiably, IMHO) blasting Cambridge University Press for having published such a poor work. Read the whole thing.

PS Check out Benny Morris' demolition as well. AIWAC

East VS. West

Once again, Ben-Dror Yemini hits the nail on the head with a no-holds-barred op-ed on the cartoon riots. Put simply: Edwards Said and his acolytes have prevented any and all criticism of the Middle East, and that region is still stuck in self-denial, believing, as always, that nothing is their fault. Recommended.

Back to Israel = South Africa

The Guardian (where else?) has now come out with a long article on why Israel is equivalent to Apartheid South Africa. (Hat Tip: Augean Stables)

Six years ago, I would have been shocked to hear of this sort of thing. Nowadays, such items are about as routine as reports of traffic accidents. This is a very sad testament both to the amount of anti-Israel propoganda that has been disseminated and its acceptance as legitamite within too many "enlightened" circles. This is not good at all. AIWAC

Israel Shahak's Heir

Steven Plaut has the goods on Yigal Elam, a man with a self-loathing so severe that he makes Norman Finkelstein look relatively tame. No words exist in any language that can describe my utter contempt and disgust at people such as Elam. To say that people like him are like something from under a rock is an insult to reptiles and insects everywhere.

Zionist Historians and Zionist History

The phenomenon of the "New Historians" has pretty much played itself out (for Israel's first decade, that is, they're just getting started on the next). Everything that could have been said has been said, and it is unlikely that either side will be swayed one way or the other at this point. However, even if the arguments have been done to death, the question of how to rewrite Israel's history, especially for the high school cirriculum, in such a way that it incorporates new revelations on the one hand, and maitains a pro-Zionist (or at least not anti-Zionist) outlook on the other, is a challenge that requires immediate attention. We are, first and foremost, a people rooted in history and common identity. If we can not answer the mal'izim in a way that will convince the uninitiated that Zionism and Israel is just, even if it does make bad mistakes, then the whole structure is in danger of collapse.

Consider, for instance, a scathing critique of Efraim Herzog's book, recently republished, on the Arab-Israel wars in Ha'Aretz (where else?) by a left-wing Zionist historian, Professor Yehiam Weitz. Weitz decries the outdated nature of the text and its ignorance of recent research that shows Israel in a somewhat more negative light (whether the research is ipso facto correct just because of its recentness is another matter...). Indeed, the recent attempts to come out with albums and books simplisticly reaffirming old values seem to yours truly to be an act of desperation to stem an ever-flowing tide towards anti-Zionism as well as a radical critique of everything we hold dear.

Nevertheless, Weitz's complaint can serve no purpose if it is not matched by an equally determined effort on the part of those historians and scholars not bitten by the anti-everything bug to produce a history that is capable of swallowing the grains of truth in anti-Zionist claims and putting them in context, and spitting out the rest. To do nothing but complain about those who make a genuine, if insufficient effort to reaffirm our core values is to prefer cursing the darkness to lighting a candle. It will achieve nothing.

To write a "new Zionist" history that deals with the good and the bad is by no means impossible. Prof. Yoav Gelber and Prof. Joseph Heller, to name just two scholars, have both come out with studies on controversial topics that deal with, and dispose of, revisionist claims. This effort must now increase tenfold - the "critical scholars" have a lead in terms of the sheer amount of revisionist and critical works published under various auspices. Time is of the essence.

Wow

Anti-Chomsky on Munich. No words do this post justice - Read the whole thing.

Tidbits - February Issue of Commentary

• Efraim Karsh takes Robert Fisk to the cleaners.
• Guenter Lewy debates his critics on the Armenian Genocide.
• Hillel Halkin on why we lost the Hasbara War.
• Gabriel Schoenfeld takes on Munich.