The Israeli Historians People Talk About

Efraim Karsh

Occupation Senior Research Associate at Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Professor of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies at Kings College London, and Professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University.

Known For Efraim Karsh is a prominent historian who has made regular appearances on mainstream media, including BBC, Nightline, as well as writing op-ed pieces for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, London Times, Der Spiegel and Haaretz. He has gained prominence as a critic of the new historians. In his book, Fabricating Israeli History: The "New Historians," he flatly rejects the works of Avi Shlaim, Benny Morris and Illan Pappé. Karsh has engaged with Pappé and Shlaim in a public debate in the Middle East Quarterly about the validity of the new historians’ work. In his book Islamic Imperialism: A History, Karsh insists that Islam is intrinsically imperialistic.

What the Critics Say Political Scientist and Middle East specialist Ian Lustick has said that Fabricating History was written out of a "narcissistic sense of injury" and that Karsh contradicts himself several times.

Martin Kramer

Occupation President of Shalem College in Jerusalem, Israel.

Known For Martin Kramer is a prominent scholar who has extensively studied Islam, U.S foreign policy, and terrorism in the Middle East. He is most widely known for his book Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America which is a critical assessment of the way that American academics studied the Middle East in the years leading up the events of September 11th, 2001. He argues that scholars failed to pay attention to developments in the Middle East and failed to ask the right questions due to a culture of self-indulgence.

What the Critics Say Response to his book has been varied, some favoring his critiques while others have said that his work is “disappointing,” that his book was aimed at an audience of right wing conservatives, and it has been called a "disservice to the field." Kramer has also come under fire for statements made in 2010 advocating cuts to subsistence aid to Palestinians. He argued that this would control population growth and curb extremism.

Benny Morris

Occupation Professor of History at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, Israel.

Known For Benny Morris is most well known as a member of the prominent “new historians,” along with Illan Pappé and others. Their work has often caused controversy due to their challenge to the traditional history of Israel and liberal usage of primary sources from the now public Israeli archives. Morris is a leading historian on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has written several books about the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, most notably The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem. He argues that Palestinian refugees did not flee voluntarily. Rather, Israeli soldiers were ordered to expel them. Morris has announced that he no longer intends to study the Arab-Israeli conflict and has begun work on a history of Turkish-Armenian relations.

What the Critics Say Morris has been widely criticized due to his reversal of his views post 2000. Despite his initial condemnation of the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes, he now sees it as a "requirement of the reality" in order to establish the state of Israel. Some historians such as Illan Papee have lambasted him as supporter of ethnic cleansing and criticized him for only using Israeli Defense Force primary sources.

Illan Pappé

Occupation Professor of History, Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter.

Known For Illan Pappé has been called the "bad boy of Israeli historiography." He argues that Israel was directly responsible for the Palestinian refugee crisis and that Israeli aggression has been responsible for a large part of the ongoing conflict with Arabs. In books such as The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine he alleges that the actions Israel committed in 1948 would be considered ethnic cleansing if committed today.

What the Critics Say Of all the new historians, Pappé has perhaps taken most of the criticism. Benny Morris has called some of Pappé’s work "appalling" and has attacked him in the mainstream media. Pappé has received so much criticism for his views, that he started receiving death threats and was even denounced by the Israeli parliament, resulting in him leaving Israel and taking up residence in England.

Avi Shlaim

Occupation Fellow of Saint Anthonys College and Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford.

Known For Avi Shlaim is another of the “new historians,” seeking to analyze and challenge the traditional history of Israel. He is a prominent voice in the media when it comes to Middle Eastern matters, and has written various articles in newspapers that criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the way he has handled conflict in Gaza. He has written extensively about the Middle East, covering the life of King Hussein of Jordan and Israel’s foreign policy. Shlaim’s main contribution to the “new history” movement was his book, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, which argues that Israel has pursued an aggressive policy in negotiations with Arab countries. Shlaim argues that this policy, which relies on military power, has been counterproductive to the peace process and has resulted in lost opportunities.

What the Critics Say Traditional historians have slammed Shlaim, claiming that he has the goal of denigrating Israel. In addition, Benny Morris, once of similar political leanings,has accused him of bias and resentment to Israel.

Tom Segev

Occupation Historian and journalist for Haaretz.

Known For Tom Segev is a “new historian,” who has won awards for his book

One Palestine, Complete, which received the National Jewish Book Award for Israeli history from the Jewish Book Council and an Editors Choice Award from the New York Times in 2000. One Palestine examines the British influence on the creation of the state of Israel.Departing from the conventional wisdom, which regards Britain as an obstacle to the establishment of Israeli independence, Segev argues that the British actually played a key role. Along with examining the creation of Israel, Segev has also covered the 1967 Six Day’s War in his book, 1967: Israel, The War, and the Year That Transformed The Middle East. He argues in the book that the war was not inevitable, but could have been prevented if not for several disastrous Israeli mistakes. He says the swift decision to go to war reflected the historical sensitivity of Israelis to risks of extermination.

What the Critics Say Efraim Karsh has accused Segev’s One Palestine of portraying Israel as a "regional villain." Former Israel Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, a historian, has written that in 1967 Segev is guilty of “twisting his text to meet a revisionist agenda” due to his disregard for the Arab Dynamic.