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inasmuch as King Abdullah's secret
pact with David Ben-Gurion stipulat-
ed that the Arab Legion would go
through the motions of combat but
actually would remain uninvolved.
In view of the bitter battles
between Israel and the Jordanian
forces along the Jerusalem front,
Shlaim conveniently retreated from
that position in a subsequent book,
The Iron Wall. In a thorough review of
the output of the new historians, Hil-
lel Halkin, the Israeli essayist and
journalist, concludes that "the Zionist
narrative had it right — the Arabs set
out to destroy the new Jewish state in
1948 and might well have succeeded
had it not been for their own incom-
petence and Jewish valor."
In a significant departure from his
questionable version of Jewish history,
Shlaim was finally on solid ground in
assessing the political line favored by
the militant Zionist leader Ze'ev
Jabotinsky.
Shlaim writes, "Labor Zionists were
reluctant to admit that military force
would be necessary if the Zionist
movement was to achieve its objec-
tives. Jabotinsky faced up to this fact
fairly and squarely."
Thus, the World Zionist Executive,
under Chaim Weizmann and Labor
support, has for many years tried to
"sell" Arabs on the notion that the
concept of a "Jewish national home"
was less than a state, and closer to the
concept of a "cultural center" that
poses no threat to the Arab status quo.
A number of reputable Israeli writ-
ers and men of letters sharply criti-
cized the doctored writing of the new
historians. What the critics found par-
ticularly repugnant was the fact that
the revisionist version of history was
being introduced into Israel's educa-
tional system. With Yossi Sarid, the
titular head of the leftist Meretz Party,
officiating as the minister of educa-
tion, the new historians have found it
easy to have their books introduced
into the school curriculum.
Shmuel Katz, the veteran author
and former aide and adviser to Prime
Minister Menachem Begin, referred to
the newly revised curriculum as a
"hair-raising distortion of the history
of Israel and indeed Zionism."
The reaction of prize-winning
Israeli novelist Aharon Megged was
equally incisive, "Why not just trans-
late the Palestinian books for our chil-
dren and be done with it? This is an
act of moral suicide that deprives our
children of everything that makes peo-
ple proud of Israel." ❑

& Gifts

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FEBRUARY
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(Orchard Lake and 15 Mile)

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21429 Mack Ave. (North of Eight Mile Rd.)

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2/18
2000

39

