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

To: LindyBill who wrote (39435)	8/22/2002 12:18:12 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

BTW, long interesting review of "The Six day War" at the "New Republic" by Tony Judt, who lived in Israel in the '60s. Even though you read the book, I would suggest you take a look at it. It is more a "Memoir" of his experiences, and fills in a lot of cracks. Interesting, but not a review, and aggravating, because it purports to be a review. First Judt gives a long summation of his own version of events, which differs at several significant points from Orens' (he doesn't mention Orens' account at all), then inserts about four paragraphs of a tossaway review -- very good, probably even definitive, but doesn't give the lessons of the war -- then proceeds to a long sermon of his own ideas of the lessons of the Six Day War. Aargh. Where did I get the silly idea that a book review should review the book?

To: LindyBill who wrote (39435)	8/22/2002 12:44:02 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

BTW, long interesting review of "The Six day War" at the "New Republic" by Tony Judt, who lived in Israel in the '60s. Even though you read the book, I would suggest you take a look at it. It is more a "Memoir" of his experiences, and fills in a lot of cracks. Thanks very much for this link, Bill. I've just read it--it printed out to 13 pages of text. But more than well worth it. As you may know, I'm a big fan of Tony Judt's work. He's one of the preeminient historians of things French at the moment; runs at Institute at NYU and writes regularly for the New York Review of Books. It's from his writings that I've been working with just how apt the Algerian metaphor is for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I am, however, not an admirer of the recent incarnation of TNR. So this was surprising, as well as the little attribution that Judt is a contributing editor. Well. As for reading Oren's book, I'm afraid I did not. I quit after about 100 pages. I agree with just about everything Judt says about the book. Oren is as even handed as it's possible for an account which is quite clearly grounded in Israel; he has a surprising amount of original source material from Egypt--at least in those first pages; you get a clear if undramatic picture of the Israeli leadership; the writing is dry and a bit awkward but not objectionably so. My problem occurred to me as I read it. I kept asking myself just why I was forcing myself to read it. I finally decided it was because I was looking for a different book, one that would start with the present and work backward toward the 67 war, noting how the outlines of the present were configured by that war. Oren did not do that. Which is fine; just not the book I was hoping to see. In fact, Judt's essay does exactly what I was looking for, offer an outline of just how that war helped create the present. Again, thanks. And, again, the Judt essay is highly recommended.