Spanning centuries, the Arab-Jewish conflict has been rife with brutality and injustice. But in recent decades, the Western press in conjunction with the commentariat have steered both coverage and debate toward a decidedly Arab and Muslim-centric focus. Constant terror attacks on Jewish and Israeli citizens in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem are barely noticed by the worldwide news. But when Israel attempts to halt repeated Qassam rocket assaults on its urban populations launched by Arab and Muslim terrorists—from schoolyards and hospital rooftops, behind ever-present “human shieldsâ€â€”the news and commentary elites erupt in indignation, with ready-made talking points on “disproportionate responses†and the constant refrain that Israel has no right to protect herself.
Gerald Honigman’s The Quest for Justice In the Middle East finally blows the whistle on generations of duplicity, shifting the debate once and for all back toward the center—and justice. For too long, the horrors wrought against non-Jews in the Middle East have gone unspoken, but now the forced conversions, inquisitions, expulsions, subjugation, pogroms, and dehumanization—against Jews and non-Jews alike—are exposed, hopefully toward the realization of equal justice and peace throughout the Middle East.