Rewriting Israel's History

This article provides a brief survey of the major works of the so-called New Israeli Historians. It attempts to explain what distinguishes them from mainstream Israeli scholars and considers the extent to which their writings constitute a unified school of thought. The article makes it clear that there are indeed various gradations of dissent. For one, Benny Morris, while basing himself on archival material that reveals unsavory aspects of Israel's history, nevertheless remains faithful to the Zionist ideal. At the other end of the spectrum Ilan Pappé is far less interested in the veracity of his sources and is far more concerned to denigrate the entire Zionist enterprise by falsely accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing.