In Defence of Israel

One will find very little of these aspects of the situation in PalestineIsrael if one chooses to read In Defence of Israel: A Memoir of a Political Life by former defence and foreign minister of Israel, and the state’s ambassador in Washington, Moshe Arens. In opting to call this book a “memoir” rather than an autobiographical account of his life, Arens gives us a very “specific timeline” which is, as the title declares, a “defence of Israel”. No question here of any objectivity; it is a straight down the line account of Israel from a man who believes that Israel is everything west of the River Jordan, and perhaps even more. There is no room for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for him. In fact, he believes that the Kingdom of Jordan was actually part...