History Lesson

Last night I attended a discussion/debate conducted at the Beit Avi Hai Center between Prof. Anita Shapira and Prof. Aryeh Naor. It was advertised thus:

BEIT AVI CHAI
Schedule of Events
January-February 2011
44 King George St., Jerusalem
Tel. (02) 621-5300 / Tickets: (02) 621-5900 http://www.bac.org.il/
Tickets are reserved until 20 minutes after the start of the event.

Wars of the Jews
Ideological debates, political disputes, and cultural rifts have been major parts of Jewish life over the generations, sometimes leading the parties to the brink of civil war. Five conversations with top historians about the roots of the major disputes that have split the nation in the modern era and still resound in the public discourse. Moderator: Liad Mudrik, IDF Radio

Part 2: An Enemy Within: The Conflict among the Underground Movements
Sunday, January 16, 8 PM
The underground movements that fought the British occupiers in the years preceding Israeli independence also fought desperately against each other. What motivated these groups and how is their conflict manifested in the contemporary Israeli discourse?
Prof. Anita Shapira, professor (emerita) of Jewish history, Tel Aviv University, and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute
Prof. Arye Naor, Ben-Gurion University and Jabotinsky Institute

Here's a picture of the two discussants and the moderator:

I was disappointed.

No real new facts, research reviews or reconsidered frameworks. They two were much to friendly towards each other although Anita was the more biting of the two even though Aryeh got some digs in.

Both made a few errors. I managed to correct a few by shouting from the back as no questions were permitted. The chutzpah.

Anita, for example, tried to correct Aryeh when he said there was a "shell barrage on the Altalena" and asserted "one shell is not a barrage". He said even one is a barrage and had to yell out: 'four shells were fired but only one hit. it was barrage'.

She kept insinuating that the violence somehow started with the Revisionists and I had to remind her of an article she published over 30 years ago in 1978 as

הוויכוח בתוך מפא"י על הימוש באלימות 1932 - 1935 הציונות, כרך ה'.

in its English translation it was "The debate in Mapai on the use of violence, 1932–1935", A Shapira - Journal of Israeli History, 1981 - Routledge (and her book, too).
 
I then had to remind her of what she knew about Dr. Zamir's discoveries of French Intelligence records that had indicated that already in mid-1944, the British were trying to pull Syria out of the French orbit and had promised them that a Jewish state would never arise. In other words, without knowing what was going on, Begin was on the right course by declaring a Revolt against the British and had Ben-Gurion joined then in February 1944, instead of November 1945, the historical record could have been different.
 
Historians.
 
^