The Jewish Wars: Reflections by One of the Belligerents

by Edward Alexander and Professor Edward Alexander

Book Overview

These essays begin with a dissection of the intifada at the end of 1987 and deal with people and events through 1994, when Israel began to withdraw from the disputed territories. Ineffective militarily, Edward Alexander notes, the intifada proved a potent propaganda tool: "The spectacle of young Palestinian Arabs (at least in the early stages of the uprising, before the violence became highly organized) facing Israeli soldiers won...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809320118
• ISBN13: 9780809320110
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A stellar defense of Israel

In these essays published in 1996 Alexander takes on some of the worse critics of Israel from the Chomsky- Cockburn- Said school and shows how distorted and hatefilled their thinking is. He also takes on the whole Oslo process, and rightfully sees how it will not lead to peace. Alexander also considers the propaganda - efforts of the Palestinians, and how they succeeded in moving much of Western sympathy to their side. Holocaust- denial and deniers is another subject Alexander considers. These essays show him to be one of the most effective defenders of Israel and the Jewish people on the political polemic scene today.

A slightly different approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict

This book is a collection of essays written about antizionist attacks on Jewish rights. Special attention is given to "some of the more brazen and flamboyant combatants" in what Alexander calls "the Jewish wars," such as Ed Said, Pat Buchanan, and Alex Cockburn. The book takes issue with people from all parts of the political spectrum. One test that Alexander applies to Jewish critics of Israel is this: do they refuse to demand for themselves the same rights that they demand for others? While I think that Alexander thus underestimates the value of the writings of David Grossman and Leonard Fein, I have to agree that it is significant that they do not pass this test. Alexander reserves his sharpest criticism for those who are politically committed to deny human rights to Jews. While Alexander exposes many misstatements by antizionists, he does not lose focus on the goals of those who write them. His main criticism of Ed Said is not for Said's "longstanding habit of confidently reciting the most preposterous falsehoods" but for Said's demands for the "right" to murder "collaborators" with Israel. This is not a typical discussion of the Arab war against Israel, but given the biases and weaknesses of most books on the topic that can be found on college campuses today, I think it is a welcome addition to the bookshelf.

A Courageous Book

Edward Alexander is a professor at the University of Washington and a respected commentator on Jewish affairs. His book is a devastating study of the vast underworld of bigots and charlatans for whom the title "critic of Israel" is a warrant for slander. The best-known essay in this collection is the explosive "Professor of Terror," an indictment of the late Edward Said. A former member of the PLO's ruling council, Said openly endorsed the massacre of Arab dissidents and informants during the first intifada, claiming that "the UN Charter and every other known document or protocol" entitles people under "occupation" to "deal severely with collaborators [sic]" (Critical Inquiry, Spring 1989). Alexander replies that he has searched without success for the unnamed "document or protocol" which would have entitled fascist disciples of Tojo or Hitler to slaughter Japanese and Germans who co-operated with the American occupation forces after the Second World War. Moreover, if Said's PLO colleagues think they have a UN mandate to slaughter their fellow Arabs, what can they have in mind for the Jews? Alexander has many other targets: left-wing journalist Alexander Cockburn, who accuses the media of "obediently catering to Zionist fantasies" (New Statesman, August 27, 1982); Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who declares that Jews "thought they had a monopoly on God," so "Jesus was angry that they could shut out other human beings" (Hartford Courant, October 29, 1984); Nelson Mandela, who lauds Cuba and Libya as paragons of liberty while smearing Israel as "a unique form of colonialism" (New York Times, February 28, 1990). On the right, he exposes Patrick Buchanan, who has discovered a "Holocaust survivor syndrome" involving "group fantasies of martyrdom," adding the claim that gas chambers do not kill (New York Post, March 17, 1990). As Alexander points out, Buchanan's best-known attacks on the Jewish community appeared on Jewish holy days - a rather astonishing coincidence. No less compelling are the chapters on Jewish self-hatred. In a powerful essay, "Antisemitism, Israeli-Style," Alexander argues that this disease has infected much of Israel's radical left. He recounts the daubing of swastikas on synagogues and the desecration of holy books - crimes committed, not in Austria or in Egypt, but in Israel. He exposes the use of Jewish suffering as a weapon against its victims - manifest in the constant equation of Israelis with Nazis and Arabs with Jews. He quotes Amos Elon, who warns of Israeli "concentration camps"; Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who calls his country "Judeo-Nazi"; Yehoshua Sobol, for whom "Judaism is an abyss in the Jewish soul"; and Ran Cohen, who refers to the "pogroms of the occupation." Such libels are also found in America. Hence the views of Michael Lerner, founder of Tikkun Magazine, guru to Hillary Clinton and inventor of the infamous "politics of meaning," which reduces Biblical ethics to the banality of a New Age cult. Lerner denounced the A

The Holocaust, The Hatred Of The Jews & The "Peace Process".

This superb, secular study really brings home to the reader the levels of inherent, painful, frustration felt within so much of the Israeli populace at the levels of terrorism and violence which have racked their nation throughout the so called "peace process". The reader is also left with an almost tangible sense of how the individual Jew/Israeli feels amidst what the book translates as a deep, painful resentment at their betrayal by their so called "peace partners" and the International community as a whole. The writer's own indignation and personal exasperation permeate this work and almost transport the reader into the realm of the "Jewish experience".Through a collection of essays this thought-provoking book examines a number of issues involving Israel, anti-Semitism (hatred of the Jews) in addition to the Middle East "peace process" itself. The reader should be aware that despite being a series of essays, the book really flows from beginning to end and is a compelling read. Although written in 1996, it will not take the reader long to discover that the superbly presented contents are as applicable and as blatantly relevant today as they were at that time. This is an excellent, readable work which is another extremely valuable contribution to the library of anyone interested in studying the Middle East.The book investigates a number of prominent figures in the fields of politics, journalism & literature etc., who are described as personally manifesting hostility and even an open hatred of the Jewish people and Judaism. Amongst those mentioned are Edward Said, Patrick Buchanan, Michael Lerner, Noam Chomsky, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres. Relevant quotations and references are supplied in each case.The contents of this study dissect the Palestinian "intifada" and describe how it has proved an immensely potent propaganda weapon in engaging International sympathy against the Jewish state of Israel, amidst what the book further describes as the "quagmire of the peace process". The book analyses how the entire basis which allowed Israel and the International community to embrace PLO/Yasser Arafat as "participants" in the Middle East "peace process" was the PLO/Arafat's denunciation of terrorism, acknowledging the right of Israel to exist and an accord/promise to resolve ALL disagreements at the negotiating table WITHOUT RESORTING TO ANY VIOLENCE. These issues and the utter failure of Arafat/PLO to comply with these requirements are addressed in some detail. The book also analyses the disturbing manner and context in which many scores of Palestinian civilians are increasingly being brutally murdered as "suspected collaborators" with Israel.A crucial reference is also made to the "media spectacle" in 1993 on the White House lawn where Rabin, Peres, Clinton & Arafat shook hands etc.. The book analyses how Yasser Arafat, LATER THE VERY SAME DAY, declared in Arabic on Jordanian television that all that he

The rightness of Israel and its evil foes.

This is an excellent book. This book shows how the causes of Israel and Zionism are just and how its foes are vile, despicable, hypocritical, liars, and at least in some cases, anti-Semitic. He also exposes the so-called "peace process" between Israel and the PLO as being a set-up for the purpose of destroying Israel in stages and how the Israeli Government is complicit in this plot. I just pray that this plot is defeated.