This is getting to be such a bad habit.
This time it’s the Guardian – no particular friend of Israel, this publication – which has a London Rabbi, Jonathan Wittenberg, review the book. After finding many of the same flaws in history, logic and conclusions in Sand’s work, he writes:
Sand makes it clear from the outset that he identifies with those excluded by the Jewish-Israeli narrative. Regrettably, the book lacks the empathy for the outsider which one might have expected. Instead, it is driven by a sustained polemic against a misreading of Judaism imposed more by the author himself than by those “authorised historians” whose supposed repression of “cheeky little facts” he sets out to unveil. Ironically for a book intended to deconstruct myths, it may well be taken up by those with an alternative mythology in which the Jews have no right to a state at all. Sadly, this would be unlikely to further the interests of Palestinians, or Israelis, or peace.
It’s already happening. All over the place I see people quoting Sand as an authority with the claim that the Jewish people really aren’t the Jewish people but the Palestinians are, etc., etc.
Astounding but true. As if that’s going to bring about peace or a bi-national state.
This is a prime example of naive idealists causing more harm than good. WE ALL WANT PEACE, Professor Sand, but not at the cost of making Israel into another Muslim, Arab country. There are plenty of those already and their societies don’t impress all that much. Remember when Hamas men threw Fatah men off rooftops while they were taking Gaza over? Those are your partners in this project of a bi-national state. Good luck with that.
