Monday, March 29, 2004

Benny Morris's conversion continues

As one of Israel's "New Historians" Benny Morris sought to de-mythify Israel's founding, and in the process provided much material to Israel-haters and others who wish to delegitemize Israel's existence. There was much in his most influential books, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem and Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1999 that was disputed, and oftentimes proven to be false; Efraim Karsh pointed out in a Commentary article many of the problems of Morris's version of history.

Yet in a March 25th interview in Atlantic Monthly, Morris continues his conversion from post-Zionist historian that began in a 2001 lecture in Berkeley, and continued in an interview in Ha'aretz that produced quite a stir. It seems that the Oslo War has even managed to convince him that the Palestinians are not interested in a two-state solution. Now if only someone could convince Peres and Beilin.

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