This is because the Arabs have not allowed access to their archives.

It’s also the reason that Benny Morris came to the realization that his first book was flawed since it offered only one side of the story, the Israeli side and even here he did at the time as most new historians who want to make a name for themselves over-interpreted the evidence.

“Even so, Morris’ work undermines the common Israeli belief that its fighters were characterized by a “purity of arms.”"

There was no Israel belief in the “purity of arms.” The Jews fought a relatively defensive war. Compared to other conflicts at the time from India to the Balkans (including the Greek civil war) to other Arab conflicts the casualties in the Arab Israeli wars were pretty light.

“Israeli forces killed innocent Palestinian civilians, expelled villagers from their homes and, in at least a dozen cases, raped Arab women.”

These were relatively uncommon which is why we kow about them by name. It was the Jews themselves that decried such actions.

In any case, here is a list of wars that should be compared to the Arab Israeli wars:

“Despite the media’s obsession with the Mideast conflict, it has cost many fewer lives than the youth bulges in West Africa, Lebanon or Algeria.

In the six decades since Israel’s founding, “only” some 62,000 people (40,000 Arabs, 22,000 Jews) have been killed in all the Israeli-Arab wars and Palestinian terror attacks.

During that same time, some 11 million Muslims have been killed in wars and terror attacks — mostly at the hands of other Muslims.

In Arab nations such as Lebanon (150,000 dead in the civil war between 1975 and 1990) or Algeria (200,000 dead in the Islamists’ war against their own people between 1999 and 2006),”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123171179743471961.html

This puts the obsession with Israel in perspective!

It also shows that it is people like Pollack wo would like to believe in the Israeli purity of arms, or rather condemns Israel for not being pure.

There has been no war ever that was fought anywhere in modern times where civilians were not killed.

To condemn Israel for not being an exception is to make an exception of Israel.

It is also incorrect to state that the Yishuv had an advantage in men under arms and weaponry (it would take me too much space to detail this).

The Mount Scopus bus attack was planned way before the Deir Yassin incident, so that the causal connection – just as the claim that Ariel Sharon’s walkabout in the Old City caused the intifada – is squarely inverted.

Morris obviously knows the above (among other things that he prefers not to mention or to explain well enough for a casual reader/reviewer to get a complete picture). So, an interesting question is: why does he choose to obfuscate? The most charitable conjecture here would be that he wants to project the politically correct impression of “even handedness.”

juli and judd – i never imagined i’d blush when reading the comments for this book review. you guys must be my biggest fans.