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Letters from Readers a Statement of Aims Letters from Readers A Statement of Aims In sponsoring COMMENTARY, the American Jewish Com- "Whose Palestine?" To THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY: mittee aims to meet the need COMMENTARY is to be com- To THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY: for a journal of significant mended for opening its pages to a "Whose Palestine?" by Erich candid discussion of the contro- thought and opinion on Isaac and Rael Jean Isaac [July] is versy surrounding Joan Peters's Jewish affairs and contem- a valuable addition to the growing From Time Immemorial and, in porary issues. The opinions literature on Joan Peters's From particular, for forthrightly ad- and views expressed by COM- Time Immemorial. Some of the dressing the very grave allegations exegeses of the book over the last of misrepresentation that have MENTARY'S contributors and year have unhappily had the ap- been leveled against the book. In editors are their own, and do pearance of a political witchhunt. this respect, the article by Erich not necessarily express the Com- Attention has thus been diverted, Isaac and Rael Jean Isaac com- mittee's viewpoint or position. sometimes for motives unrelated pares very favorably with, say, the The sponsorship of COMMEN- to any concern for scholarly accu- New York Review of Books which racy, from the main theses of the elected to shield its readers from TARY by the Committee is in book and has been concentrated, so "indelicate" a subject.... Fur- line with its general program for obvious tactical reasons, on a thermore, despite its evidently to enlighten and clarify small number of population statis- sharp disagreement with both the public opinion on problems tics about which demographic ex- tone and substance of my charges, perts can legitimately disagree. the Isaacs' article fairly acknowl- of Jewish concern, to fight The main theses thus have disap- edges my specific contribution to bigotry and protect human peared from view and need to be the controversy.... rights, and to promote Jewish reiterated as a healthy corrective. The Isaacs do, however, take cultural interest and creative There was a continuous Jewish great exception to my findings. achievement in America. presence in Palestine. British gov- They purport that (1) my scholar- ernments after 1922 did not abide ship is flawed, (2) even if it weren't, by the obligation of the Balfour there is still no basis to my allega- Declaration and the League of Na- tions of "fraud," "hoax," etc., and tions Mandate to foster a Jewish (3) even if everything I had writ- AMERICAN JEWISH National Home. Some British offi- ten were true, the central theses of COMMITTEE cials who wanted their government From Time Immemorial are, none- to honor its obligation suffered a theless, "generally sound." I will sad fate. There was substantial discuss each of these points in turn. Theodore Ellenoff, President Arab migration into the Mandate 1. The Isaacs cite two examples territory, especially into those areas of my allegedly flawed scholarship. settled by Jews. This was unim- Let me note straightaway that if peded and unacknowledged by the this is the best they can do, then British who did, in contrast, im- Joan Peters's book is, at the very The Commentary pose severe restrictions on Jewish least, a disgraceful piece of scholar- Publication Committee immigration. Britain did remove ship, since, in various periodicals three-quarters of the total area during the past two years, I have Donald M. Blinken, Chairman from the Mandate by setting up identified dozens of gross misrepre- the emirate of Trans-Jordan, which sentations in From Time Imme- in its present form of Jordan can morial. (Much of this material will Morris B. Abram logically be regarded as the Arab appear in a forthcoming collection Norman E. Alexander state in Palestine. Some Arab lead- to be published by Verso press.) Edward E. Elson ers, especially the Mufti of Jeru- But, as it happens, in neither of Stephen Friedman salem, established a relationship the instances cited by the Isaacs with the Nazi regime and encour- was I in error. Lawrence Goldmuntz aged its persecution of Jews. The The Isaacs first allege that I "in- Mark Goodson number of Jewish refugees from correctly" added 40,000 Arabs to Robert H. Haines Arab lands in the late 1940's was at one of Miss Peters's demographic Bess Myerson least equal to the number of Pales- projections and then accused her tinian Robert L. Pelz Arabs displaced from areas of "not accounting for them prop- held by Israel. erly." Let me first briefly rehearse Ned Pines Underlying these theses is the the argument. Miss Peters claims Frederick P. Rose simple fact that the essence of the to plot the population movements Gordon S. Rosenblum Arab-Israel conflict is the refusal of indigenous Palestinian Arabs Michael Saperstein of the Arab world, except now between the years 1893 and 1947. Egypt, to admit the legitimacy and She first takes the 1893 population Nanette Scofield reality of the existence of Israel. figures for each of the five regions Henry Sherman No solution is possible until that into which she has divided Pales- John Slawson reality is acknowledged. tine (Areas I through V) and then Laurence A. Tisch MICHAEL CURTIS projects what the population in Rutgers University each of these regions would have New Brunswick, New Jersey - been in 1947 had growth been ex- 2 LETTERS FROM READERS/3 clusively the result of natural in- estimates are available," who were closed . is that . tens of thou- crease. She then compares these either recruited by private con- sands of "Arab illegal immigrants" projections with the actual 1947 tractors or else "entered individu- [were] recorded as having been census figures for each of the five ally." The Survey then suggests "brought" into Palestine.... In regions (minus all immigrants and figures for the number of Arabs addition, other unestimated "con- nomads) to establish the magni- who remained in Palestine after siderable" numbers immigrated "un- tude of "in-migration" for each re- October 1944, to which I will re- officially" or as "individuals" during gion, that is, the number of indig- turn presently. Miss Peters's sum- the war, according to the report (p. enous Palestinian Arabs who had mary description of this section in 379, all emphases in original). migrated into (or out of) Area I, the Survey reads as follows: The latter sentence refers unmis- Area II, and so on (see p. 256 of What the official Anglo-American Miss Peters's takably to the second category of text for an explicit Survey of 1945-46 definitively account of her method). dis- Arab immigrant workers: note, for For Area I, my calculations tally almost precisely with her own and also with those of Philip Hauser, the demographer who has certified Miss Peters's finding for Area I in an appendix: Take a great airline 92,300 (1893 population) X 2.7 (factor of natural to a great country. increase) 249,210 (projected 1947 pop- Take Lufthansa to Israel. ulation) 417,300 (actual 1947 popula- tional minus immi- grants and nomads) +168,090 (net in-migration to Area I) Yet if the same computations are made for Area IV, the result- ing figure is 40,000 greater than the one listed in Miss Peters's table. The Isaacs' criticism is clearly mis- placed. What is more, the Isaacs are deafeningly silent on the cru- cial context in which I took note of this discrepancy, namely, that Miss Peters ignored all the demo- graphic changes in Area IV be- cause, if taken into account, they would render her actual findings at best trivial. This point was the subject of a detailed communica- tion, "The Strange Case of Area IV," which I submitted some two years ago to the scores of periodi- cals, including COMMENTARY, that had acclaimed Miss Peters's demo- graphic study (none of which, alas, published it). Likewise, fully one- half of my In These Times review was taken up with an elucidation of this point. Yet the Isaacs curi- ously omit any discussion of it in their article. The Isaacs also fault me with When you travel to Israel- from the U.S. to your desti- misrendering the findings of the or to any of the 150 cities in nation. Ifyou want fine Anglo-American Survey of Palestine 77 countries we fly to-you kosher food in flight, simply can enjoy world-renowned tell us when you make your on Arab immigration into Palestine Lufthansa service and reservation. Ask your travel during World War II. The docu- dependability all the way agent about us. ment in question divides this Arab 9 Lufthansa 680 Fifth Avenue, immigration into two categories: OneWorld TradeCenter (Lobby), first, the 3,800 Arabs who were NewYork, N.Y.Tel. (718) 895-1277 brought in under "official" ar- rangements and, second, the "con- siderable numbers," of which "no 4/COMMENTARY OCTOBER 1986 example, the quotation marks a "technical" problem, since both totally unruffled, replied: "I never around "considerable," "unofficial- the seventh hardback printing and wrote that." ly," and "individuals," and the the paperback edition do contain 3. The Isaacs conclude their de- italics in "unestimated." The "tens "corrections." The explanation... is fense of From Time Immemorial of thousands" of Arabs "recorded not hard to find: if all the "errors" on a singularly low-key note: "De- as having been 'brought' into Pales- I identified were "corrected," noth- spite its lapses, then, Joan Peters's tine" must then refer to the first ing would remain of the fabulous book offers a generally sound category-those who entered "un- "scholarly" foundation on which thesis." We have clearly come a der official arrangements." Yet the Miss Peters built her "thesis." The long way from those first heady Survey records only 3,800 such im- Isaacs practically admit as much.
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