On Mon, 8 Nov 2004, (ARTEMIS) wrote:
>
> The conservative American Middle East historian Daniel Pipes expressed a
> more favorable, yet nuanced opinion, stating: "From Time Immemorial
> quotes carelessly, uses statistics sloppily, and ignores inconvenient
> facts. Much of the book is irrelevant to Miss Peters's central thesis. The
> author's linguistic and scholarly abilities are open to question.
> Excessive use of quotation marks, eccentric footnotes, and a polemical,
> somewhat hysterical undertone mar the book. In short, From Time Immemorial
> stands out as an appallingly crafted book." "Granting all this, the fact
> remains that the book presents a thesis that neither Professor Porath nor
> any other reviewer has so far succeeded in refuting. Miss Peters's central
> thesis is that a substantial immigration of Arabs to Palestine took place
> during the first half of the twentieth century. She supports this argument
> with an array of demographic statistics and contemporary accounts, the
> bulk of which have not been questioned by any reviewer, including
> Professor Porath."
>
> http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/From-Time-Immemorial
>
Pipes is a right wing apologist for Israeli aggression. Who doesn't
recognize him for that? So is Professor Kramer who is more emphatic about
not using Peters in any of his own arguments as with other conservative
scholars who will not quote Peters, except for someone like Dershowitz,
who is not a scholar.
I posted this (above quote) to illustrate that Peters is refuted by
scholars but also defended by conservatives - much like what is being done
in the U.S.. The right wing arguments here for war and to justify
degrading the environment and people killed as a result thereof is exactly
like those used to justify wrong behavior which inspires more wrong
behavior and those -- who since 9/11 have come out in support of the
Israeli right wing position that Israel was a land without any people
before the Jews discovered it was empty and recolonized it. That basically
is Peter's argument too and it is so overwhelmingly discredited. But I'm
not surprised that more supporters of Israel are grasping at the
prevalence of straw arguments and also proportionate to cruel and
oppressive Israeli behavior.
The encyclopedic quotes above are also from a Wikipedia project where the
context is written by everyone and it is therefore often agenda driven and
unbalanced by the prejudices of the editors and the ability of anyone to
get their views published.
Israel has moved decisively to the right. The U.S. has also moved
decisively MORE to the right. If this is a backlash it merely means, as
progressives, we are failing to reach out and explain that values are not
the purview of the religious or the right and it is more morally valuable
to be compassionate and to be honest and fair and recognize there are
failings on the right and left and debating who was there first or who
came for what (yes some Palestinians came for jobs and many Jews came
first out of religious motivation but later to find a safe haven) but it
was never a land without real people, both Jew and Arabs (mostly Arabs)
and if they are going to live together they should really live together,
preferably in ONE country with democracy and rights safeguarded with a
constitution and bill of particulars to protect minorities because
splitting up is sometimes impossible to do. How do you divide up a water
source, etc.? Given time that may happen, but not if we allow ourselves to
use outmoded, discredited sources and hackneyed arguments long forgotten or
they should have been. Where I have used wrong logic, when I realize my
mistakes I correct them. I would hope as progressives others here can do
the same.
Hank
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