Robert Fisk in the Independent credits the Israeli archives for disclosing the secrets that gave way to the revisionist New History, and says that Arab governments being closed, the other side must rely on oral testimony. Fisk ennobles the new oral histories, as I do. Though I'm not sure where to land here: as he says (and Benny Morris would insist, to the point of foolish consistency) there is something to be said for documentation; after all, it changed Israeli historians' self-perception. So: If we had Arab records, what would we make of their decision making? How much murderous genocidal feeling would we discover in the event? In his fab new book, Avraham Burg says that free speech is such a cherished right in Israel that it has licensed the radical settlers in some of their actions, also the proliferation of swastikas in angry Jewish neighborhoods.
No bottom line here, except: Celebrate Israel's openness, Haaretz is changing the American discourse. Arab societies should embrace free speech.
