Peloni: Along the Left Hand Column of the Israpundit page are a list of influential and significant books. In talking with my friend and mentor, Ted Belman, z’l, he once described it as the Banner of Great Books. In any event, the latest important work we are adding to this column is by my dear and inspiring friend Victor Sharpe and which really warranted being listed here long ago, something to which I know Ted would have very much agreed. It is the invaluable series “Politicide” by Victor Sharpe. Our readers here on Israpundit will be familiar with Victor’s numerous important contributions here on Israpundit, all of which are marked by his wit, knowledge and ability to both grasp as well as to articulate the truth as a shield against the open and growing bias raised against our beloved Israel in a world growing mad with rampant Jew Hatred. So I encourage people to reading Victor’s works collected in a four part series beginning with the first volume of “Politicide, The Attempted Murder of the Jewish State”.
Victor Sharpe
Politicide is a word coined by the late Israeli statesman, Abba Eban, to describe the act of murdering a State: that state being the nation of Israel.
Most of the international and local media ignore vital facts when reporting on issues of past and present Israel-Arab conflict and Arab and Islamist terrorism. Hence much of what readers see and hear is skewed and biased against the Jewish state. It is primarily for this reason why I decided to publish this collection of my many published articles and essays beginning in 2006.
With the exception of the first essay – The changing borders of Israel – the selected pieces always follow in mostly chronological order and deal with events as they unfolded over several years. You will see that they present arguments in defense of Israel’s cause as well as providing information, which the media overlooked deliberately or through ignorance.
It has usually fallen to individuals and organizations, supported with limited private funds or donations, to come to Israel’s rescue in the “war of the pen”.
There are many, myself included, who were forced to fight in what is known as the hasbara trenches while successive Israeli governments sadly continued to give such vital work a low priority.
This, then, is why my collected articles and essays will, I trust, help readers gain a far better grasp of the historical background to the Arab-Israel and Islam-Israel conflict, and by doing so, themselves help defend Israel in the media.
Hence, the four volumes of Politicide: The attempted murder of the Jewish State.
@Peloni I think another that deserves to be in the Great Books banner is “The Quest for Justice in the Middle East, The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Greater Perspective” (2009) by Gerald A. Honigman, a frequent contributor to Israpundit, which I am most of the way through. It is one of the best primers I have ever read. erudite but accessible. It also deals with specifics of the time which show how utterly inexcusable are the protestations by today’s leaders that nobody knew*. I was stunned to see a quote from an UNRWA top Executive that he assumed that they employed Hamas operatives but DIDN’T SEE THAT AS A PROBLEM, Important book. A must read. If I were asked to recomend one book for someone who knows absolutely nothing about Israel or the Middle East, it would be this one. While some of it has the feel of polemic from 2009, Obama’s second year in office, the rest of it feels like it was written today and discusses the plight of other indigenous oppressed non-Muslim peoples, as well. Short chapters. Well-footnoted. Great bibliography. An index would be nice. Can’t find that passage now. Should be available as an ebook and as an Audible book, as well.
* I was reminded of the Latma TV episode that began with a mock leftwing Israeli television anchor reading a news item, and then saying, “oh, that was from last week’s news,” finds the current one and then reads the exact same text verbatim.