Pakistan and Israel
Since Israel’s establishment in May 1948, Pakistan, being a Muslim country, has refused to establish diplomatic relations with it. The agreements that Israel signed with Egypt in 1978, the PLO in 1993, and Jordan in 1994 brought no change in Pakistan’s policy. However, Israeli and Pakistani officials maintained clandestine contacts over the years.
Gerstenfeld on Het Zijn Net Mensen: Beelden Uit het Midden-Oosten (They Are Like Human Beings: Pictures from the Middle East) by Joris Luyendijk
Mingling Disclosures and Distortions
Het Zijn Net Mensen: Beelden Uit het Midden-Oosten (They Are Like Human Beings: Pictures from the Middle East) by Joris Luyendijk, Uitgeverij Podium, 2006, 215 pp. [Dutch]
Reviewed by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Gerstenfeld on Het Marokkanendrama by Fleur Jurgens
The Nonintegrated Moroccans in the Netherlands
Het Marokkanendrama (The Moroccans’ Drama) by Fleur Jurgens, J. M. Meulenhoff, 2007, 176 pp. [Dutch]
Reviewed by Manfred Gerstenfeld
From the Editors
This issue opens with an analysis by Richard Landes of the increasingly important phenomenon of conspiracy theories. He points out that such theories contain three basic elements of apocalyptic movements: they are radical revelations about an otherwise opaque present; they are part of a larger, cataclysmic, final transformation of the world; and they refer to imminent events. After World War II, Western society seemed to have marginalized conspiracy theory. Yet, at the turn of the twenty-first century, there has been an aggressive rise in (traditional) Muslim conspiracism and a remarkable vulnerability to conspiracy theory in the West.
Joel Fishman on Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter
The 1930s: Déjà Vu All Over Again
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter, Simon & Schuster, 2006, 265 pp.
Reviewed by Joel Fishman
From the Editors
This issue opens with articles on aspects of the post-Holocaust reality. Sidney Zabludoff’s “At Issue” essay notes the low percentage of stolen Jewish assets that were returned in the various restitution rounds. He emphasizes the fact that the highly publicized restitution negotiations at the end of the twentieth century led to payment for no more than another 3 percent of these assets. Zabludoff’s article, which has raised worldwide media interest even before being published, also underlines the divergence between what governments promised to return and what was restituted.
Europe’s Jewish Problem – Les frontières d’Auschwitz: Les ravages du devoir de mémoire by Shmuel Trigano
In this book Shmuel Trigano, who teaches at the University of Paris X-Nanterre and is chairman of the Observatoire du Monde juif (an institute for research on anti-Semitism), has analyzed anti-Semitism’s contemporary manifestations.
Sarah Schmidt on Nations United: How the United Nations Is Undermining Israel and the West
The Power of Words
Nations United: How the United Nations Is Undermining Israel and the West, by Alex Grobman, Balfour Books, 2006, 192 pp.
Reviewed by Sarah Schmidt
Freedman on ‘Progressive’ Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism
Rosenfeld Is Right
‘Progressive’ Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism, by Alvin H. Rosenfeld, American Jewish Committee, 2007, 29 pp.
Reviewed by Shalom Freedman
Manfred Gerstenfeld on De Drie van Breda: Duitse oorlogsmisdadigers in Nederlandse gevangenschap 1945-1989
Decades of Dutch Debate on Releasing World War II Criminals
De Drie van Breda: Duitse oorlogsmisdadigers in Nederlandse gevangenschap 1945-1989 by Hinke Piersma
Reviewed by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Anti-Israelism and Anti-Semitism: Common Characteristics and Motifs
Anti-Semitism’s core theme is that Jews embody absolute evil. The three main permutations of the core theme are religious anti-Semitism—one might call it more precisely anti-Judaism, ethnic (racist) anti-Semitism, and anti-Israelism or anti-Zionism. The anti-Semitic character of anti-Israelism can be proved through the analysis of cartoons, opinion survey findings, statistical analysis, and semantics. During the summer 2006 war in Lebanon, further proof emerged that anti-Semitism and anti-Israel
Rivkah Duker Fishman on The Oslo Years: A Mother’s Journey
An Underground View of Oslo
The Oslo Years: A Mother’s Journey, by Ellen Horowitz, I.I. Creations (distributed by Gefen Publishing), 2005, 284 pp.
Reviewed by Rivkah Duker Fishman
Manfred Gerstenfeld on Die Shoah erzählt: Zeugnis und Experiment in der Literatur
The Structural Shortfall of Holocaust Fiction
Die Shoah erzählt: Zeugnis und Experiment in der Literatur (The Shoah Related: Testimony and Experiment in Literature), by Elrud Ibsch, Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2004, 196 pp. [German]
Reviewed by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Asaf Romirowsky on Warrant for Terror: The Fatwas of Radical Islam, and the Duty of Jihad
Fatwa Rules to Live By
Warrant for Terror: The Fatwas of Radical Islam, and the Duty of Jihad, by Shmuel Bar, Rowman & Littlefield, 2006, 152 pp.
Reviewed by Asaf Romirowsky
Manfred Gerstenfeld on Using and Abusing the Holocaust
An Author’s One-Liners Attack Holocaust Myths
Using and Abusing the Holocaust by Lawrence L. Langer, Indiana University Press, 2006, 165 pp.
Reviewed by Manfred Gerstenfeld
