Just a quick entry today to alert readers to a stunning demolition job by Israel’s most prominent historian Benny Morris of the anti-Israeli Oxford “historian” Avi Shlaim. Shlaim has become an iconic figure for anti-Zionists in Britain and elsewhere precisely because he is himself Israeli — though Morris has a few things to say on that too.

At more than 7,000 words it is obviously more of a time consuming read than a newspaper article. But sometimes you need to do a bit more hard work. After you read it you will find it difficult to take Shlaim and his supporters seriously again.

To do so, click here:

http://www.tnr.com/print/article/books-and-arts/derisionist-history

Sweden, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, is pushing the EU to make an official statement next week backing both a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood and also the division of Jerusalem, a draft resolution obtained exclusively by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper shows.

EU foreign ministers may now make a declaration along such lines at a meeting on December 7. It would be the first significant foreign policy initiative following the creation of a de facto EU foreign ministry under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty which came into effect today.

Israel is still reeling from the refusal of the Swedish government to distance itself from a report during the summer by the country’s top selling newspaper, Aftonbladet, which alleged an international Jewish conspiracy in which the Israel Defence Forces were said to be harvesting the bodily organs of Palestinian children for sale on the black market. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was, however, among the first to condemn Switzerland for its decision on Sunday to ban the construction of Muslim minarets which he described as “an expression of quite a bit of prejudice and maybe even fear”, adding that it was “a negative signal in every way.”

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