By Loren Lybarger (Princeton, NY: Princeton)
This book is an admirable effort to present the Palestinian "narrative" and bash Israel; in this, it certainly attains its goal, if we overlook Loren Lybarger's stated aim of presenting the "truth," for, to him none exists except the Palestinian version. This is evident from the following three self-incriminating points: (1) that the author was a "participant observer" in the events, strongly empathizing with the Palestinians; (2) that the events he presents at the beginning are not a historical chronicle but a list of Israeli "atrocities;" and (3) the various incongruities, inaccuracies, false accusations and unfair judgments he levels against one party while sanctifying the other.
Examples of these abound, and these grossly diminish the otherwise brilliant exposition of the Palestinian narrative as they, and the author, believe and conceive it. Still, this is not supposed to be the author's personal diary nor the Palestinians' diary of the two intifadas, which they initiated. This is the "red" (or should we say "green") thread of the whole book: when the Palestinians break their commitments, engage in terrorism and kill thousands of Israelis, that is "understood" to be the result of the "Occupation," as if there could be any justification of killing civilians. And when Israel retaliates by eliminating one by one and at great risk, the leaders and planners of those killings, they are taken to task for "targeted assassinations." I wonder what Lybarger would have said had Hitler and Saddam (both adulated by the Palestinians for their anti-Jewish exploits) been eliminated by the Allies.
I shall dwell on some of the more serious omissions to prevent uninformed readers from falling into the trap of what could have been a serious study had it not merely followed the author's inclinations, but abided by the rules of scholarship: evidence and documentation, fair assessment of the pros and cons, illumination of all sides of a conflict even when one cannot hide one's biases, and looking at all the available data, whether they support or destroy one's theses. To mislead by omitting information is as unworthy as a straightforward falsification of facts.
From the outset we are told that the Palestinians adjusted their political thinking to the changing fortunes of the conflict, which is fair enough. But when we go into the details, we immediately hear how big imperialistic Israel bullies the poor, stateless Palestinians, as if the story started then and there and not with the Arab invasion of the fledgling Israeli state with the aim of eliminating it.
We next hear of Israel "occupying the West Bank and Gaza," as if it were a mere whim and Israel had nothing else to do on that day of June 1967. If Lybarger had checked the record, he would have discovered that Israel begged King Hussein through the United Nations Headquarters in Jerusalem to cease the bombardment of Israel (1000 shells fell in Jerusalem alone), but the King, inspired by Nasser, refused. (What should have Israel done? Duck and wait for extermination? Or apologize for winning that war?) It launched a counter attack, vanquished those who attacked her and declared that it was waiting for her enemies to negotiate. The first chance presented itself after Jordan disclaimed its rights over the West Bank in 1988, leaving the ground open for Israelis and Palestinians, the remaining two claimants, to settle the issue, which is how the Oslo process began.
Then we are told that Israel "invaded" Lebanon in 1982. Lybarger again forgets to tell his readers about the Palestinian terrorist attacks launched from Fatahland in Lebanese territory against Israel, which led to hundreds of casualties; about unheeded Israeli pleas to the hapless Lebanese to put an end to those incursions. What should have Israel done? Duck and wait for its elimination? If Lybarger's country was attacked by a neighboring state, I am confident he would be the first to ask his government to protect him and his countrymen. That is exactly why Israel entered Lebanon and destroyed the PLO infrastructure there. Until the Hezbollah replaced the PLO . . . but that is another story.
Had Israel withdrawn from the West Bank without a political settlement could anything have prevented the Palestinians from renewing their shelling of Israel, the very reason for the Israeli "occupation" in the first place? And then, we are back in square one, as the 2005 Israeli unilateral disengagement from Gaza was to prove. The author cannot at the same time blame Ariel Sharon for "provoking" the Intifada by visiting the Temple Mount (which even the Palestinian dismissed) and for his intransigence and also condemn him for unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza (because the Palestinians refused to negotiate). If you are in Gaza, you are an "occupier;" if you withdraw from Gaza, you embrace "unilateral action," both of which are seen as misguided, "evil" policies.
The author wrongly reads what happened during the Intifadas, especially the second one, launched by the Palestinians (by their own admission) after they scuttled (by President Clinton's admission) the 2000 Camp David meeting. The "brutalities" of Israel's reactions that he describes in such detail overlook the background--thousands of Israeli and Arab casualties of terrorist attacks in Israeli cities. Israel was forced, against its stated wishes, interests and economic needs, to enter West Bank towns, which were already administered by The Palestinian Authority, so as to destroy their terrorist infrastructure, and also to start building the barrier-Wall. While these two measures cut Israeli casualties by 95%, the author sees it as "brutality."
Any fair-minded person who witnessed the Oslo Accords being signed by Israel as a step toward reaching a settlement with the Palestinians, provided they abandoned terrorism (the first clause of the Oslo DOP), which was followed by unrelenting acts of terror against Israel, will not fail to appreciate the bitter dialectics of terror-repression. To complain about the "brutality" of one party while ignoring the horrors done by the other, however noble their goals may be, is like describing a boxing match by singling out the punches delivered by one party and ignoring those of the other.
Finally, what brings this cluster of omissions and misjudgments to its climax is the question of Jerusalem, which scuttled the Camp David agreement and is likely to spoil the Annapolis Conference of November 2007 too. Lybarger consistently refers to The Temple Mount by its Islamic name Haram al-Sharif, but he knows very well that when Ariel Sharon visited it in 2000 he was visiting The Temple Mount, which he had as much right to do as the Muslims. Lybarger must know that he is distorting history and forging archaeology by giving credence to the Arab claim of exclusive rights to this site, which if visited by a Jew necessarily creates a "provocation." How about the Mulsims' "provocation" who are not only "occupying" a 3000-year-old Jewish shrine but exclude Jews from it? According to Lybarger's moral code, the Jews would be justified in launching an "intifada" and causing the death of thousands. In civilized nations, when a shrine is claimed by more than one party, it should be shared by all. This is what Israel did in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, much to the chagrin of the Palestinians who in turn burned the Jericho Synagogue and Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Wouldn't it be more fair if those who exclude others were brought to account? But Lybarger is too one-sidedness in his commitment to the Palestinian "narrative" to bother about such things as history, facts, fairness.
Alas, I cannot but dismiss this book, for it is an unscholarly and biased account despite all its claims to the contrary. If heeded its questionable conclusions are dangerous prescriptions. Alas, too, for all non-politically-correct scholars who continue to believe in truth, fairness of judgment, and firmness of fact when faced with such flimsiness of wishful thinking and hallucinatory views of events.
Raphael Israeli, Hebrew University, Israel
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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