Erika Dreifus

“To many on the left, Mr. Morris says, ‘I seem to have turned anti-Palestinian in the year 2000,’ when Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Bill Clinton offered a two-state solution and Yasser Arafat rejected it. ‘I thought this was a terrible decision by the Palestinians, and I wrote that.’ When the Palestinians, in response to the offer of peace and statehood, then launched a wave of terrorism and suicide bombings unlike any before it, Mr. Morris disapproved of that, too. ‘I began to write journalism against the Palestinians, their decisions and policies,’ he says, ‘and this was considered treachery.’

Mr. Morris was suddenly out of step ‘because people always forgive the Palestinians, who don’t take responsibility,’ he says. ‘It’s accepted that they are the victim and therefore can do whatever they like.’ Mr. Morris doesn’t contest the claim of victimhood but sees it on both sides. ‘Righteous Victims’ is the title of his 1999 history of the conflict.

Source: Benny Morris, quoted in Elliot Kaufman, “History Goes to War in the Holy Land” (Wall Street Journal).