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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:07 am Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
| bucheon bum wrote: |
| The author is an Israeli historian... |
Wikipedia's entry identifies him differently...
| Wikipedia wrote: |
| Avi Shlaim (born October 31, 1945 in Baghdad, Iraq) is an Israeli-British dual citizen and historian and identifies ethnically as an Iraqi Jew. He is now a professor of International relations at Oxford and in 2006 was elected fellow of the British Academy. Shlaim is considered a key member of a group of Israeli scholars known as the New Historians who put forward revised interpretations of the history of Zionism and Israel. He is a regular contributor to the Guardian newspaper... |
Sounds like Israel's version of America's revisionist "Wisconsin School" and "the New Left."
And this part...
| Quote: |
| Shlaim's approach to the study of history is informed by his belief that "The job of the historian is to judge." |
...seems to explain your taking "it makes me even less sympathetic towards Israel" from his book. In any case, I have taken an interest in the Middle East through the Ottomans, North Africa, and the Med, and will participate in a seminar on the Arab-Israeli Conflict next semester -- against my better judgement, but I need another seminar before taking my doctoral exams this year. I hope to become better prepared to exchange on this issue.
Interview |
Well I concede the book is far from perfect. While he provides plenty of details of Israeli actions against the Arab states, he does not cover their actions against Israel (at least between 1948 and the Suez Crisis). It is a bit one-sided. That being said, he does provide plenty of evidence that members of the Israeli gov't blew a few opportunities to make peace with its neighbors.
A good book covering the 1967 war is Six Days of War by Michael Oren, who I don't believe is controversial at all. He is fairly critical of both sides. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 7:15 am Post subject: |
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| I am sure Avi Shlaim is worth reading. We should just be wary of authors' taking us in and playing us. I am sure you already understand this. But the Arab-Israeli Conflict seems to generate special problems. And I have yet to see a satisfactory approach to it in historical writing. |
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NAVFC
Joined: 10 May 2006
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| Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 6:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
| The guy is an evil psychopath, but I"m not surprised at the choice. Remember that this is a country that elected someone with a long litany of gruesome attrocities against civilians to be Prime Minister, only 8 or so years ago. War criminals thrive in such a militarised society. |
wtf did this guy do? The only things i find mentioning him and war crimes are Arab propoganda sites..which it seems big bird has boughten into
and those arab sites dont even list things that are crimes...
gathering the intel used to bomb the syrian nuke reactor? assassinating a hezbollah commander? none of those are war crimes |
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