THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 265, October 12, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
LOOKING AHEAD BY LOOKING BACK:
Colin Shindler's A History of Modern Israel:
A Review by Asaf Romirowsky
MODERN ISRAEL -- ITS PAST & FUTURE: THE ISRAELI-ARAB CONFLICT & THE USE OF HISTORY -- USING HISTORY TO
LEARN HOW TO MOVE ISRAEL FORWARD OVER THE NEXT SIXTY YEARS -- WILL ISRAEL'S PRESENT & FUTURE NATIONAL
LEADERS BE UP TO THE TASK?
FULL STORY:
One of the greatest myths in Middle East Studies Departments across North America and Europe is that the presence of
an Israeli faculty member makes a "balanced" department. In fact, many Israeli academics have built their reputation on
scholarship that is critical of Israel and its existence. These academics are frequently given center stage by the Association
for Israel Studies, the Middle East Studies Association and Middle East Studies Centers, which host them and provide
visiting appointments. This gives the scholars the visibility they seek, while allowing their hosts to claim balance in
presenting an "Israeli viewpoint."
In Europe, there is hardly any attempt to create this socalled balance; pan-Arabist scholarship has become the coin of the
realm. The University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), in the first part of the 20th. Century,
produced great Middle East scholars such as Bernard Lewis. But, over the years, Edward Said and his acolytes, such as
Joseph Massad, have been the ones to receive red-carpet receptions, especially at SOAS, which is notorious for having an
anti-Israel atmosphere. The University's Palestinian Society is the only student society in Britain professionally run by the
Student Union and regularly hosts controversial events such as Israel Apartheid Weeks.
Given this environment, Colin Shindler's appointment as the first Professor of Israeli Studies at SOAS is significant.
Shindler is the author of seven books and an authority on the Revisionist Zionist movement and the emergence of the
Israeli Right. His latest book, entitled A History of Modern Israel (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
2008), appeared just in time for Israel's 60th anniversary. In it, the author traces six decades, from David Ben-Gurion to Ehud
Olmert.
The author comes to the obvious conclusion that peace between Israelis and Palestinians has yet to be found. But it is
worth noting that the same radical views of the al-Aksa Intifada that consumed the Palestinian mainstream were in turn used
by the far Left in Britain to justify boycotting Israeli academics. As Shindler observes, "This cocktail of Israeli separation,
Palestinian opposition to normalization, and Islamist zeal challenged the very idea of individual Israelis and Palestinians
working together for peace and reconciliation."
While the country has come a long way since 1948, it is still driven by ideological disputes and different interpretations of
"Jewishness" and Judaism. Nowhere are these divisions more visibly portrayed than in the lives and ideologies of its
leaders from David Ben-Gurion to Yitzhak Rabin, whose assassination is still a traumatic memory for most Israelis, and a
transformed Ariel Sharon. Sharon represented the last of the old guard in Israeli leadership. His absence from the political
arena highlights how desperately Israelis are searching for new leadership, which is nowhere to be found under the Olmert
administration. The findings of the Winograd Committee detailing Israel's failures during the Second Lebanon War illustrate
this lack of leadership, direction, or vision. The magnitude of the investigation has, without a doubt, created a political
earthquake in Israel. As did the harshness of the Winograd Committee's concluding that all Olmert's mistakes "add up to a
serious failure in exercising judgment, responsibility and prudence," which should have motivated him to rethink his actions
as well as the policies of his government.
Israel has never experienced such a catastrophe in its Cabinet until Olmert-Peretz came to power -- two key leaders utterly
lacking defense, military, and political experience. Consequently, Shindler underscores that the tension has significantly
grown between Israelis who seek stability and democratization versus those who see despair and destruction.
David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, as well as the Father of the Israel Defense Forces, was, without a doubt, a
war-statesman. He was one of the few leaders with the willingness and ability to think everything through. Less than two
years after Israel's War of Independence, Ben-Gurion concluded:
". . . the most dangerous enemy to Israel's security is the
intellectual inertia of those who are responsible for security.
This simple and fundamental idea guided me from the day
that I accepted the 22nd. Zionist Congress responsibility
for the security of the Yishuv. And this simple and
fundamental thought I tried to instill in all the comrades
that worked with me on security matters before the war,
during the war, and after it."
Finally, 60 years after the War of Independence, it is clear that no one individual can monopolize and maintain the military
and political balance needed for Israel to regain the vision and deterrence it needs. Shindler's recount of Israeli history is
one that enables the reader to understand the social and political cleavages that make up Israel of 2008, while looking back
at 1948. It is that lens that would help any student of the Arab-Israeli conflict to not repeat history, but learn how to move
Israel forward toward the next 60 years.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Asaf Romirowsky, an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum, is Manager of Israel & Middle East Affairs for the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia
The foregoing article by Asaf Romirowsky was originally published in the Jerusalem Post, Ocyober 12, 2008, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/1995)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
October 12, 2008
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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