In The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Spencer methodically walks us through all the reasons to see that the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is a religious war. Anyone willing to see daunting, tragic truths, might feel urgently impelled – after reading The Palestinian Delusion – to yell at the dreamers and peace processors, “Wait: It’s a jihad, stupid!”
Spencer’s voice, though, is calm and scholarly. (The book has 26 pages of Endnotes.)
He goes, in my view, a bit too easy on the Israelis who willfully ignored the evidence of the “holy war” in front of their eyes. Perhaps, as a sympathetic and admiring Christian friend, Robert Spencer senses that a people who dragged themselves out of the ovens of Auschwitz just could not bring themselves to think that they wound up in a frying pan.
Then again, one would think they should have been done with wishful delusions.
Named by the Forward as one of America’s top 50 Jewish leaders, Charles Jacobs co-founded the Boston branch of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. He also founded the American Anti-Slavery Group and co-founded The David Project.