This Heated Place : Encounters in the Promised Land

Rating:
Summary: Beyond the headlines
Review: If you are sick of the news headlines about Israel and Palestine and would like to know some of the personal stories behind the news then this book is for you. It is a beautifully woven tapestry of real life stories from the heart of the conflict. Prepare to be moved.

Rating:
Summary: A modern anti-Dreyfusard
Review: This book is on the wrong side of truth, justice, human rights, and history.

It simply promotes blood libel of Israel.

We've seen such attitudes before. One that comes to mind is the Dreyfus case in France in the late nineteenth century. Dreyfus was a Jewish military officer who was accused of treason. Although many people doubted his guilt, a crowd of folks still celebrated his dismissal from the army and severe prison sentence on Devil's Island. And they shouted "Death to the Jews." That made a big impression on Theodore Herzl and on many other folks. Why should all Jews be attacked just because one Jew may be a felon?

On top of that, it turned out Dreyfus was innocent. Where did that leave the anti-Dreyfusards? Well, it showed them to be opponents of human rights who did not care too much about justice or truth.

And that's where the author of this book is. She's supporting the modern version of the anti-Dreyfusards. And in this book, the most obvious example of this is the Mohammed al-Dura case, which some of you may have heard of.

This was a case at the start of the 2000 intifada, where newspapers printed pictures of a 12-year old boy who they claimed was caught in a crossfire between Arabs and Israelis and who died in the arms of his wounded father. Once again, quite a few people blamed the Jews without looking at the evidence and drew the conclusion that there needed to be group punishment on the Jews for letting such a thing happen.

Campbell uses her journalistic skills to support the modern anti-Dreyfusards.

Now, it is true that people do get hurt and killed in wars. And it is true that while Arabs terrorists have targeted Jewish children and Israeli defenders have not targeted Arab children, some Arab children have indeed died at the hands of Israelis. However, Israelis have frequently been blamed for deaths they did not cause, or that never happened.

I am not proposing to let Israel off the hook for any instances of wrongdoing. On the other hand, I refuse to let various Arab terrorists and their United Nations supporters off the hook for their wrongdoing.

It is also important to realize that staged performances are a way of life in the intifada. Plenty of anti-Israeli material is staged for the viewing audience. Campbell ought to have warned her readers about this, but instead, she simply became part of the problem.

The truth is that it is very unlikely that Israelis killed al-Dura on purpose. It is unlikely that the Israelis killed al-Dura at all. And it is quite possible that the entire set of photos and movie shots were simply staged. Had Campbell wanted to be fair and objective, she would have realized that the verdict of history would be likely to vindicate the Israelis. And that the numerous instances of attacks on Israel to "avenge" al-Dura were in part caused by a perversion of journalism such as what she was about to display.

That makes the author's reporting on al-Dura just another piece of propaganda in the war against human rights.

Truth does not depend upon where one stands. And truthful history will not treat books such as this one kindly.