Beyond Chutzpah

On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History

Introduction

IN THE COURSE of writing this book, I passed a small milestone in my life. Twenty years ago, while researching my doctoral dissertation on the theory of Zionism, I came across a newly published book on the Israel-Palestine conflict: From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine by Joan Peters. Promising to revolutionize our understanding of the conflict, the book was adorned on the back cover with glowing praise from the Who's Who of American Arts and Letters (Saul Bellow, Elie Wiesel, Barbara Tuchman, Lucy Dawidowicz, and others), and it went on to garner scores of reviews in the mainstream media ranging from ecstasy to awe. Its first edition, eventually going into seven hardback printings, became a national best seller. The central thesis of Peters's book, apparently supported by nearly two thousand notes and a recondite demographic study, was that Palestine had been virtually empt ... read full excerpt from Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History ebook