FYI: I sent the following letter to the editor at Library Journal:
---------- From: Lisa Silverman Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 3:53 PM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'; '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: Letter to the Editor of Library Journal Dear Editor, I am surprised that a review magazine would chose to highlight books on "Israel-Palestine" (Six New Books on the struggle: Israel-Palestine, October 15, 2007) by including only books by authors with a decidedly anti-Israel slant. Did reviewer Elizabeth Hayford find no 2007 titles to be "solid works" and "valuable additions to many libraries" that are written from an Israeli perspective? (I began to become suspicious of the reviewer's bias when I saw she did not chose to qualify her description of the period of the second Intifada as a time "when the Palestinian people began to fight for their rights". This connotes an image of Martin Luther King or Gandhi rather than the violent grassroots movement made notable by frequent suicide attacks with the intent of maximizing Israeli civilian casualties. This mainstream understanding of the second Intifada was not mentioned.) Ms. Heyford also choses not to include relevant facts about authors in her reviews. For example, author Azzam Tamimi, (Hamas: A History from Within), has publicly called suicide terrorism the "greatest act of martyrdom". Google his name and you can watch a YouTube video of him screeching that Israel is a "black chapter in the history of humanity" and calling for its destruction. Most serious review journals would not call the work of a genocidal fanatic one of the 7 books on the topic "that libraries need to have," but these were the words that Hayford uses about Tamimi's book in her review of it (pg. 79). In a list of 7 books on the conflict, it's a shame that Library Journal chose not to highlight any recent books sympathetic towards the Israeli government, like those by Michael Oren, Dore Gold, Leonard Cole, Mitchell Bard, Benjamin Orbach, or Amos Oz. Why was there not one editor at the magazine who thought to balance Ms. Heyford's list of favorites? Lisa Silverman Library Director Sinai Temple Blumenthal Library 10400 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90024 310-481-3215 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
