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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: slacker711 who wrote (32618)	6/19/2002 8:25:55 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Here is a book review from this months "Atlantic Monthly". I am making a habit of posting articles from this magazine, and it brings up a good point about this thread. Posting here has really widened by reading list, and I have been missing a good one with "Atlantic". The magazine is at the top of my list now, with article after article that are just first rate. We have mentioned Michael Oren's book, "Six days of War", before. This review agrees with what I have been hearing about it. I will be picking up a reserved copy at the library this weekend, and I am looking forward to a good read, now that the "Tiger Parade" is over until the "British Open" on July 27th. Six Days of War by Michael B. Oren Oxford, 446 pages, $30.00 This is a masterly book. To produce his account of the Six-Day War the historian Michael B. Oren drew on thousands of pages of previously classified documents in Israeli, U.S., Russian, and British archives, and on interviews with diplomats, decision-makers, and commanders in Washington, Moscow, Jerusalem, Cairo, Amman, and Damascus. With a remarkably assured style, Oren elucidates nearly every aspect of the conflict?the historical background, the strategic and domestic political context (in Israel and in the Arab world), the diplomatic negotiations in Washington and the UN, the military and political deliberations within Israel and the Arab capitals, and the air operations and often desperate and bloody ground battles. Most successfully, Oren dramatically and cleanly depicts the combination of self-doubt, hubris, and dread that accompanied Tel Aviv's decision to go to war, and the confusing and contingent nature of Israeli military and political calculations in the midst of the conflict. In writing his strategic chronicle, Oren has also drawn the most penetrating and subtle assessment of the Israeli mind that I've encountered. Despite his no doubt sincere assurances that his is an objective account, Oren plainly takes the Israeli side, and his book refutes revisionist historians' interpretations of the 1967 war as a deliberate act of Israeli expansionism. Nevertheless, Oren is far too honest a scholar to treat Israel as a plucky David; he depicts Tel Aviv's military and political leaders as largely cunning and opportunistic realists (his pen portraits are elegant and revealing). Unless and until Egypt, Syria, and Jordan open their archives, Oren's will remain the authoritative chronicle of the war. His achievement as a writer and a historian is awesome. ?Benjamin Schwarz

To: slacker711 who wrote (32618)	6/20/2002 4:58:03 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi slacker711; Re: "Also....you seem to be advocating group suicide on the part of the Israeli's." I think your terminology for what is only the end of a government is rather histrionic. The Russians are still around even though the Soviet Union isn't. The same with the Czechs and Slovaks, as well as the East Germans. Re: "As Nadine has pointed out, the region has not been kind to Jews in majority Arab countries." (1) Nadine has also pointed out that several Arab countries (and also non Arabic but Islamic countries) have been kind to the Jews. (2) The Jews and Arabs have had an issue going on with each other since the Ottoman Empire. Why should it continue past the end of the conflict? (3) The local Christians seem to get along fine with the Palestinians. (4) It's normal human argument to say that the other side is going to massacre you if they take over. The South Africans said the same thing. Significant massacres do happen, but only very rarely in places where there's lots of TV cameramen. -- Carl