Letters/Discussion Forums
Pappe content to live in historic delusion
In leaning upon the “expertise” of “new-historian”, Prof Ilan Pappe of Exeter University, to substantiate their claims, David Sanders and Shereen Usdin strip their argument of any legitimacy.
Victor Gordon
Like virtually all other antagonists towards the “case for Israel”, Sanders and Usdin appear blissfully unaware that Pappe, who can be relied on to consistently provide “facts” and “information” designed to show Israel up in the worst possible light, is probably the most ridiculed and discredited historian addressing the subject of the Israel/Palestinian conflict.
Hardly, if ever, do Sanders, Usdin and their ilk quote established and esteemed historians such as Martin Gilbert, Benny Morris and Ephraim Karsh, who boldly focus on Israel’s failings(where applicable) but do so within the necessary context and according to acceptable precepts of historic research.
In Pappe’s case the exact opposite applies and his deliberate distortions appear to be a source of self-pride.
To quote just one example: In his book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” (2006) Pappe offers a damning quote which he attributes to David Ben-Gurion in 1937, citing a number of plausible-sounding references.
What Pappe seemingly failed to anticipate was that other historians of greater reliability, who had learned not to accept Pappe’s claims as indisputable fact, discovered in their own investigations that Pappe’s “Ben-Gurion quote” never existed in a single source that he listed.
Further research revealed that an existing quote from the same era attributed to Ben-Gurion and which tackled the same subject matter, conveyed the totally opposite meaning to that claimed by Pappe.
Despite repeated challenges to defend this blatant act of subterfuge, Pappe has yet to do so and appears content to live a life of historic delusion, provided it vilifies Israel, to which Sanders and Usdin appear content to subscribe.
This is just one example among many about which Pappe had the following to say in an interview given to Belgian newspaper “Le Soir” in 1999: “Indeed the struggle is about ideology, not about facts. Who knows what facts are?
“We try to convince as many people as we can that our interpretation of the facts is the correct one, and we do it because of ideological reasons, not because we are truth seekers. ”
Pappe openly admits that his distorted “history” is not about facts but ideology. If facts get in the way, construct new facts.
This is the man bleeding heart liberals rely on, as does much of mainstream academia.
Brooklyn, Pretoria