Haim Watzman
There he goes again—Benny Morris is giving the battle against Islamic anti-Semitism a bad name.
But then he’s not alone in fray. Nearly every passionate participant in the battle—Pipes, Horowitz, you name it—would make the angelically tolerant Roger Williams, the great American founder of religious toleration, go apoplectic.
In one of the perverse juxtapositions for which [...]
Anti-Semitism in Islam–Not Decreed By Heaven
September 8th, 2008 · 19 Comments · Judaism and Religion
Tags: anti-semitism·Benny Morris·Islam·Martha Nussbaum
Channeling Strangelove: Benny Morris on Iran
July 20th, 2008 · 13 Comments · Politics and Policy
Gershom Gorenberg
Benny Morris’s riff on nuking Iran, featured on Friday’s New York Times op-ed page, conjures up Maj. Kong’s bronco-riding whoop at the end of Dr. Strangelove, and not just because that film revealed the glee with which the military-minded can look forward to apocalypse. Playing off the terrifying “Fail-Safe,” Stanley Kubrick and Peter Sellers [...]
Tags: Benny Morris·Dr. Strangelove·Fail-Safe·Iran·Richard Clark·Stanley Kubrick
War Ethics: And When They Do Know the Consequences?
June 26th, 2008 · 4 Comments · Culture and Ideas
Haim, I agree that soldiers are often cogs in a machine, unable to evaluate the full consequences of their actions. That’s why Israelis are rightly angered by the “Sentry Syndrome” - the all-too-common outcome of investigations of military errors - ethical, tactical and strategic - in which lower ranks are blamed for the mistakes of [...]
Tags: 1948·Ariel Sharon·Benny Morris·just war·Kafr Qasm·Michael Walzer·My Lai·Soldiers of Conscience