Israel at 50: A Journalist's Perspective (review)

130 SHOFAR Summer 2000 Vol. 18, No.4 The [mal section of the volume focuses upon what Elazar and Sandler refer to as "The New Politics," andprimarily focuses upon the direct election ofthe prime minister and how the new political structures somehow "transformed" Israel politics at this time and in the future. Bernard Susser does a good job of explaining what the objectives were in the change to a direct election ofa prime minister, what criticisms were made ofthe new system, how we should interpret the new system, and how the output of the electoral structures (i.e., the election ofNetanyahu and strengthened religious parties) differed from what would likely have eventuated from the previous electoral system. In the final essay of the volume Michael Keren writes an extremely insightful essay about the "new politics" oflsraeli elections, and how the framework ofa "new politics" can be applied to the Israeli context. This latest edition to the Elections in Israel series will be a "must have" for students ofIsraeli politics who have a full collection of volumes on past Israeli elections. Even individuals who are not specialists in electoral behavior will want to own this volume as a very valuable "snapshot" ofwhich factors in Israeli politics proved to be crucial at one key point in time. We can only sit back and await the sequel! Gregory Mahler Provost Kalamazoo College Israel at 50: A Journalist's Perspective, by John Hohenberg. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1998. 356 pp. $29.95. John Hohenberg is ajournalist who served as political and diplomatic correspondent in New York and Washington as well as at the U.N. He was Professor ofJournalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism from 1950 to 1976, and was administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes and Secretary of the Pulitzer Board from 1954 to 1976. He apparently visited Israel early and often, and interviewed a number of its leaders. These are impressive credentials. Unfortunately, the book which this highly experienced individual has produced, and which is published by a major university press, is a disappointment. For starters, neither the author nor his editor seem to have bothered to check many of the facts, resulting in frequent misstatements, errors, and hopeless muddles. There is also some evidence ofbias or at least major oversight. For example, the bibliography contains not a single work by or about Ben Gurion, although the great founding figure is mentioned frequently in the text. By contrast, books by Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, Shimon Peres, Leah and Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon, and Ezer Weizman are included, as are no less than four titles by or about Menachem Begin. Uninitiated readers may gain a distorted impression ofthe role ofBegin in Israeli history, and may fail to fully Book Reviews 131 appreciate the contributions of Ben Gurion. Similarly, some readers will see an exaggerated role for a young Ariel Sharon as platoon leader during the 1948--49 independence war, with little or no mention ofthe exploits ofother more senior military officers ofthat time. This exaggeration is only slightly compensated for by the critical tone of Hohenberg's description of Sharon's fateful role in the Lebanese War of the early 1980s, by which time he had become Defense Minister. Factual errors are so numerous that even a selective list does not suffice. Perhaps the most serious one is an apparent confusion in Hohenberg's mind concerning the geography of the Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea. He seems to believe that the Strait of Tiran, which provides access to the Gulf of Aqaba and the southern Israeli port of Eilat, also controls access to the Suez Canal. This confusion is compounded by the statement that the UN Emergency Force deployed in the Sinai in 1957 was to control the Canal, and that it "kept the Suez Canal open after ... 1957" (pp. 73, 74). If Hohenberg means that UNEF opened the Canal to Israeli shipping, he is dead wrong. UNEF had nothing whatsoever to do with the Canal, which remained closed to Israeli shipping throughout most of the existence of Israel. Other errors and distortions abound. Hohenberg suggests that the Hizbullah of Lebanon existed as early as 1967 (p. 33); in fact...