Israeli historiography is under assault by "new historians" exposing "Zionist narrative". This text takes issue with these "revisionists", arguing that they have ignored or misinterpreted much documentation in developing their analysis of Israel's history.
 |
| ||||||||||||||||||
Shop the Amazon.com Textbooks Store and save up to 70% on textbook rentals, 90% on used textbooks and 60% on eTextbooks. |
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
70 of 79 people found the following review helpful
By Jill Malter
Format:Hardcover
This is a classic book. I read it when it first came out. It had a big effect on me. It may have changed me as a person more than any other book I have ever read.
When I read it, I was a little surprised by the fact that Benny Morris had made an error that wound up with him saying that in 1938, David Ben-Gurion had said "We must expel Arabs and take their places." In fact, as Karsh pointed out, using the actual source would have confirmed a typo here: Ben-Gurion actually wrote, "We do not wish and do not need to expel Arabs and take their places."
Yes, that was a big mistake on Morris' part, not checking the original source. And it was a big mistake to get something like this wrong. But I still pondered about how Morris could write something so unusual without checking it. After all, wasn't he aware of Ben-Gurion's other statements in the previous and following years? Wasn't he aware of how far this would have been from the statements of most of Ben-Gurion's political allies and supporters? Wasn't Morris aware of how insane it would have seemed to most Jews to prescribe a policy of war towards the much more numerous Arabs?
What Karsh appeared to be telling me was that some extremely unlikely speculations had been presented as history. It would be as if some historian quoted John Kennedy as President claiming that the Earth was flat in an important speech, after proposing that we send a person to the Moon.
Karsh did a careful job of coming up with the actual history here. And he then demolished Avi Shlaim's claim of "collusion across the Jordan." Here again, Karsh showed a situation in which a supposedly serious historian made a highly dubious claim and supported it with a single piece of highly disputable evidence. And the story continues in the next chapter when we see Shlaim and Ilan Pappe's claims about Britain going along with this non-existent collusion, and saying that Bevin warned the Jordanians not to invade territory belonging to the Jews. Here was another surprise: I had read Glubb's original claim that Bevin had said not to invade those areas. Glubb said that Bevin said it twice! And it seemed possible to me that Bevin could have said such a thing. But was Glubb telling the truth? Karsh, after carefully examining several records of what happened at that meeting, shows that Glubb was basically not telling the truth here.
Another good job of investigation!
But the biggest shock was saved for last. I had not realized that Shlaim had said "Far from being 'the great ogre who unleashed Arab armies to strangle the Jewish state at birth,' Bevin 'emerges from the documents as the guardian angel of the infant state.'"
I had read quite a bit about Bevin, and I immediately recognized Shlaim's claim as completely and transparently false. It was like saying that the United States had fought in World War 2, but not telling the truth about which side we fought on: Germany's or the Soviet Union's.
Had Shlaim really said something this bizarre? He had. And that was a huge revelation for me. That we were not talking about a few mistakes by some "new historians." Nor even some very biased reading of a few documents to support some dubious ideas.
As Karsh had said in his title, this was indeed "fabricating Israeli history." We were discussing outright violations of acceptable academic behavior.
This book made me realize just how much some academics have opposed (not just abandoned) truth. And I think this issue is far bigger than just the Arab-Israeli conflict. At some point, for human society to function, there must be some respect for truth by our educational institutions. In my opinion, that is what this book is all about.
After reading this book, I no longer assumed that academic people would necessarily strive for truth. And recently, I have read and reviewed quite a few books about the Arab-Israeli conflict. I have given positive reviews to most of those which made serious attempts to tell the truth. And I've given negative ones to books which simply attempted to mislead their readers. I hope that in so doing, I am contributing, in my own small way, to improving human society.
When I read it, I was a little surprised by the fact that Benny Morris had made an error that wound up with him saying that in 1938, David Ben-Gurion had said "We must expel Arabs and take their places." In fact, as Karsh pointed out, using the actual source would have confirmed a typo here: Ben-Gurion actually wrote, "We do not wish and do not need to expel Arabs and take their places."
Yes, that was a big mistake on Morris' part, not checking the original source. And it was a big mistake to get something like this wrong. But I still pondered about how Morris could write something so unusual without checking it. After all, wasn't he aware of Ben-Gurion's other statements in the previous and following years? Wasn't he aware of how far this would have been from the statements of most of Ben-Gurion's political allies and supporters? Wasn't Morris aware of how insane it would have seemed to most Jews to prescribe a policy of war towards the much more numerous Arabs?
What Karsh appeared to be telling me was that some extremely unlikely speculations had been presented as history. It would be as if some historian quoted John Kennedy as President claiming that the Earth was flat in an important speech, after proposing that we send a person to the Moon.
Karsh did a careful job of coming up with the actual history here. And he then demolished Avi Shlaim's claim of "collusion across the Jordan." Here again, Karsh showed a situation in which a supposedly serious historian made a highly dubious claim and supported it with a single piece of highly disputable evidence. And the story continues in the next chapter when we see Shlaim and Ilan Pappe's claims about Britain going along with this non-existent collusion, and saying that Bevin warned the Jordanians not to invade territory belonging to the Jews. Here was another surprise: I had read Glubb's original claim that Bevin had said not to invade those areas. Glubb said that Bevin said it twice! And it seemed possible to me that Bevin could have said such a thing. But was Glubb telling the truth? Karsh, after carefully examining several records of what happened at that meeting, shows that Glubb was basically not telling the truth here.
Another good job of investigation!
But the biggest shock was saved for last. I had not realized that Shlaim had said "Far from being 'the great ogre who unleashed Arab armies to strangle the Jewish state at birth,' Bevin 'emerges from the documents as the guardian angel of the infant state.'"
I had read quite a bit about Bevin, and I immediately recognized Shlaim's claim as completely and transparently false. It was like saying that the United States had fought in World War 2, but not telling the truth about which side we fought on: Germany's or the Soviet Union's.
Had Shlaim really said something this bizarre? He had. And that was a huge revelation for me. That we were not talking about a few mistakes by some "new historians." Nor even some very biased reading of a few documents to support some dubious ideas.
As Karsh had said in his title, this was indeed "fabricating Israeli history." We were discussing outright violations of acceptable academic behavior.
This book made me realize just how much some academics have opposed (not just abandoned) truth. And I think this issue is far bigger than just the Arab-Israeli conflict. At some point, for human society to function, there must be some respect for truth by our educational institutions. In my opinion, that is what this book is all about.
After reading this book, I no longer assumed that academic people would necessarily strive for truth. And recently, I have read and reviewed quite a few books about the Arab-Israeli conflict. I have given positive reviews to most of those which made serious attempts to tell the truth. And I've given negative ones to books which simply attempted to mislead their readers. I hope that in so doing, I am contributing, in my own small way, to improving human society.
59 of 68 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Rely on primary sources.
Be intellectually honest.
Let evidence form the conclusions.
Any first-year history major should have that drilled into their heads. It's also a basic set of tenets for journalists, academics, and anyone else seeking truth among facts and fiction.
What I gain from Karsh's book is an objective perspective of the origin of the modern conflict in Israel. I am treated to primary sources, secondary accounts, and conclusions drawn directly from the evidence, and not wild imagination or heresay. The way it hangs together, and the way it is written, almost compels you to consider going through the bibliography to learn more. Presented in the context of an academic response to sloppy historiography, it is a scathing rebuttal that cannot be ignored.
Presented as an introduction to the conflict, it doesn't stand alone. More than basic familiarity with the facts of Israel's modern (re)birth as a nation is needed to understand a majority of the references. However, once a basic understanding is in place, this book should serve as the standard by which other accounts or works are judged.
Fred
Be intellectually honest.
Let evidence form the conclusions.
Any first-year history major should have that drilled into their heads. It's also a basic set of tenets for journalists, academics, and anyone else seeking truth among facts and fiction.
What I gain from Karsh's book is an objective perspective of the origin of the modern conflict in Israel. I am treated to primary sources, secondary accounts, and conclusions drawn directly from the evidence, and not wild imagination or heresay. The way it hangs together, and the way it is written, almost compels you to consider going through the bibliography to learn more. Presented in the context of an academic response to sloppy historiography, it is a scathing rebuttal that cannot be ignored.
Presented as an introduction to the conflict, it doesn't stand alone. More than basic familiarity with the facts of Israel's modern (re)birth as a nation is needed to understand a majority of the references. However, once a basic understanding is in place, this book should serve as the standard by which other accounts or works are judged.
Fred
163 of 200 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The need for this work speaks volumes about the success of Arab propaganda in the last 30 years.
Any study of any of revisionist and leftist historians, so-called "new" for good reason, should be filtered through the eyes of Professor Karsh--and Anita Shapira's 10,000-word New Republic piece, "The Past is Not a Foreign Country." Both call to task Avi Schlaim and Benny Morris, who like Tom Segev, fail to explain the war and peace that has afflicted the Middle East since Israel's founding. These new historians all make one gross omission: They consider it irrelevant that seven Arab nations attacked Israel upon her founding in 1947, making no secret of their intention to destroy the new Jewish state. In 1947, Arab League Secretary General Azzam Pasha promised "a war of extermination," "a momentous massacre" to be remembered "like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."
Nor do new historians bother to note that such words were followed by gruesome acts, about which the world has forgotten, given the ubiquity of biased news reports. In 1947 and 1948, for example, all but one of the 600 Jews captured by Arab forces, including many noncombatants and children, were murdered in cold blood--and mutilated beyond recognition. According to Dr. Eugene Narrett and Jerusalem Post reporter Sarah Honig, amid scenes of rape and other sexual abuse, the Jewish victims were dismembered, decapitated and photographed by their proud captors. In the Etzion settlements south of Jerusalem, three truckloads full of Jewish corpses were found sexually mutilated.
Current accounts of those years often do, however, detail supposedly heinous deeds of Jewish fighters-without appropriate context. In the so-called massacre at Deir Yassin some 200 Arabs were killed. But new historians like Morris, Schlaim and Segev delete the relevant and defining fact that Deir Yassin was the scene of a pitched all-day battle, in which every male Arab villager was armed. One has to turn to more thorough and honest reporters, like O Jerusalem author Larry Collins, to learn that Arab fighters in Deir Yassin used women and children as shields.
In war, bad things happen. But new historians fail to ask four critical questions: Who started the war? What were their intentions? Who was forced to mount a defense? What were Israel's casualties? Ask, and truth becomes crystal clear. As I note in a forthcoming Midstream article, "Mourning the Death of Peace," Israel agreed in 1947 to accept a further partition of less than 20% of the land allotted by the League of Nations in 1922 as a National Home for the Jews. The Arabs, however, begrudged Israel even that small patch of land. In every war since, Arabs have mounted an effort to destroy Israel, either militarily or politically, just as they did in 1947. In 1967, Egyptian leader Gamel Nasser promised to wash Israel into the sea. This intention remains sadly evident today in the Fateh Constitution-and countless Arabic reports, statements and broadcasts, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. It seems that moderate Muslim leaders like Shaykh Professor Abdul Hadi Palazzi, who support both Israel and peace, remain a depressing minority.
When the conflict is seen through the wide-angle lens of clear-sighted historians like Karsh and Shapira, who DO include all the relevant facts, the work of new historians goes up in smoke--as dishonest garbage. Alyssa A. Lappen
Any study of any of revisionist and leftist historians, so-called "new" for good reason, should be filtered through the eyes of Professor Karsh--and Anita Shapira's 10,000-word New Republic piece, "The Past is Not a Foreign Country." Both call to task Avi Schlaim and Benny Morris, who like Tom Segev, fail to explain the war and peace that has afflicted the Middle East since Israel's founding. These new historians all make one gross omission: They consider it irrelevant that seven Arab nations attacked Israel upon her founding in 1947, making no secret of their intention to destroy the new Jewish state. In 1947, Arab League Secretary General Azzam Pasha promised "a war of extermination," "a momentous massacre" to be remembered "like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."
Nor do new historians bother to note that such words were followed by gruesome acts, about which the world has forgotten, given the ubiquity of biased news reports. In 1947 and 1948, for example, all but one of the 600 Jews captured by Arab forces, including many noncombatants and children, were murdered in cold blood--and mutilated beyond recognition. According to Dr. Eugene Narrett and Jerusalem Post reporter Sarah Honig, amid scenes of rape and other sexual abuse, the Jewish victims were dismembered, decapitated and photographed by their proud captors. In the Etzion settlements south of Jerusalem, three truckloads full of Jewish corpses were found sexually mutilated.
Current accounts of those years often do, however, detail supposedly heinous deeds of Jewish fighters-without appropriate context. In the so-called massacre at Deir Yassin some 200 Arabs were killed. But new historians like Morris, Schlaim and Segev delete the relevant and defining fact that Deir Yassin was the scene of a pitched all-day battle, in which every male Arab villager was armed. One has to turn to more thorough and honest reporters, like O Jerusalem author Larry Collins, to learn that Arab fighters in Deir Yassin used women and children as shields.
In war, bad things happen. But new historians fail to ask four critical questions: Who started the war? What were their intentions? Who was forced to mount a defense? What were Israel's casualties? Ask, and truth becomes crystal clear. As I note in a forthcoming Midstream article, "Mourning the Death of Peace," Israel agreed in 1947 to accept a further partition of less than 20% of the land allotted by the League of Nations in 1922 as a National Home for the Jews. The Arabs, however, begrudged Israel even that small patch of land. In every war since, Arabs have mounted an effort to destroy Israel, either militarily or politically, just as they did in 1947. In 1967, Egyptian leader Gamel Nasser promised to wash Israel into the sea. This intention remains sadly evident today in the Fateh Constitution-and countless Arabic reports, statements and broadcasts, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. It seems that moderate Muslim leaders like Shaykh Professor Abdul Hadi Palazzi, who support both Israel and peace, remain a depressing minority.
When the conflict is seen through the wide-angle lens of clear-sighted historians like Karsh and Shapira, who DO include all the relevant facts, the work of new historians goes up in smoke--as dishonest garbage. Alyssa A. Lappen
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Propaganda
This book is just the creation of the Israeli propaganda machine that aims at obscuring the very clear historical facts. Read more
Published on May 25, 2008 by M. Kandil
5.0 out of 5 stars
Morris Gives A Lame Reply to Karsh
If the above excellent reviews leave you less than entirely convinced of the worthlessness of Morris' thesis [how could they? Read more
Published on January 20, 2007 by Kenneth D. Willis
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exposing the falsifiers
This book is an important exposure of academic mendacity and intellectual dishonesty. Karsh carefully reads the ' so- called revisionist historians' and shows how they have... Read more
Published on April 27, 2005 by Shalom Freedman
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Cautionary Tale
In the late 1980s a group calling themselves the
'new historians', including Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappe
and Benny Morris burst onto the scene, claiming to
have... Read more
'new historians', including Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappe
and Benny Morris burst onto the scene, claiming to
have... Read more
Published on December 7, 2003 by "aiwac"
5.0 out of 5 stars
A tour de force
Accusations that this book is "propaganda" cannot be further from the truth. I suspect that people who make such accusations have not read the book. Read more
Published on June 12, 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars
Karsh effectively challenges "New" Historians
In this work, Karsh presents a credible academic refutation to the scholars who call themselves the "New Historians". Read more
Published on March 24, 2003 by Charles Givre
5.0 out of 5 stars
To err is human, to lie is unforgivable
Karsh takes the "new historians" to task. He convincingly shows that they (Benny Morris and company) have not just misinterpreted events, but they have knowingly created... Read more
Published on December 24, 2002 by S. Stein
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dispels the myths of the 'propagandists'.
An excellent work !
`The pen is mightier than the sword', as the maxim proclaims. The `sword' has failed so the propagandists reach for their pens. Read more
Published on October 5, 2002 by M. D Roberts
5.0 out of 5 stars
a fascinating read
The ultra leftists of Israel seem to care little about truth, not surprisingly just like in America! A must read for anyone interested in the Middle East. Read more
Published on May 26, 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabricating Israeli History: The �New Historians.�
Karsh (a professor of Mediterranean Studies at the University of London) presents the first full-length and detailed rebuttal to those Israeli scholars who call themselves the "new... Read more
Published on July 31, 2001 by Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum, Philadelphia
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
58
books
cite this book:
See all 58 books citing this book
- Israeli Historical Revisionism: From Left to Right by Derek J. Penslar on 4 pages
- Global Politics: Essays in Honour of David Vital (Israeli History, Politics and Society) by Abraham Ben-Zvi in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and page 262
- Terrible Fate: Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe by Benjamin Lieberman in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Israel: Challenges to Identity, Democracy and the State (The Contemporary Middle East) by Clive Jones on page 29, and Back Matter
- Israel and Settler Society by Lorenzo Veracini in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 58 books citing this book
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > History > Middle East > Israel
- Books > History > Middle East > Jordan
- Books > History > Middle East > Palestine
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Humanities > History > Europe
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Humanities > History > Middle East
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Social Sciences
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Human Geography
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Sociology
