In Jim Kouri's article today Prime time Obama: Self-congratulatory and self-delusional he writes:

• On Fox News Channel's top-rated Fox & Friends, host Gretchen Carlson would not allow the White House press secretary to do what his ilk to do best: revise history.

The issue of 'revising history' is an interesting one, and it is not limited to the American experience. I myself have published an article entitled: How Historians Deceive Us and Manipulate Biblical Chronology.

In relation to more modern 'Biblical' history however, I recently came across an article at Think Israel.org that was entitled: Exposing How Post-Zionists Manipulate History, written by Avi Beker. It is an interesting article and well worth the read. I will provide for you here the header as it appeared in the Think Israel front page.

• Ever read a book or a gang-up of books, proving something you know in your bones is wrong? The aguments dazzle and seem too weighty to push aside. It is only later that you have that 'hey-wait-a-minute' moment, when you notice a gap, an inconsistency, a puzzling omission.
  
  This is roughly what has happened to the history of newly-reborn Israel and its 1948 war of survival, when it was attacked by Its arab neighbors, intent on destroying the non-Muslim state. The story was told accurately at first. Then the New Historians revised the interpretation of these events and announced that the original version was a myth. The issue was not, they declared, Israel's remarkable accomplishment: redeeming Jewish land and constructing a free and democratic Jewish state in a relatively short amount of time. The issue was that through no fault of their own, the local Arabs suffered severely in 1948 and it was all because of what Israel did intentionally.
  
  Using the New Historian Benny Morris as both focus and foil, Avi Becker recounts distortions, misinterpretations and down-right lies told by the New Historians. What made these whoppers so pernicious is that Israel was cast as a figure of evil, which needed to atone for its sins. It was put on the defensive in political negotiations.
  
  These accusations were eventually used to try to delegitimize Israel. Benny Morris was a key figure in framing the features of the New History; he fashioned a strong base on which others constructed ever more-outlandish interpetations. It is ironic that it would be Morris who later put a stop to this nonsense by supplying the information the New Historians had omitted -- namely, the unswerving hatred of the Arab toward other religions and that the Arabs saw the 1948 War as just another battle in their religious Jihad over the centuries to become top dog. Ironic. And tragic. For the truth is just beginning to crack the cement of lies cast around the historic events. It doesn't help that many readers, who were, for their own reasons, so eager to accept the New Historians' lies, will be just as motivated to ignore the truth.

When it comes to issues of interpreting and reinterpreting things, we might also want to stop and consider how some words are interpreted to suit our political ideologies. There is an interesting short article at National Post.com which I will republish here, that has a somewhat symbiotic relationship to the article quoted above.

Islamophobia & Judeo fatigued

• The term "Islamophobia" is not as foolish and nonsensical a notion as the term "homophobia," the model concept. Whereas the first does refer to fear, excessive or normal, the latter is a propagandistic term created to conceal that the issue is disapproval and has nothing to do with fear.
  
  What fear is pathological unless it is groundless or disproportionate?
  
  In view of the fact that 16,000 terrorist attacks have been carried out "in the name of Islam since 9/11," it is difficult to overreact towards the threat of Islam. Somewhat overstating, almost any manifestation of fear appears "rational" and appropriate.
  
  I used to clarify the notion of "psychosis" to my students in psychopathology by saying that in a burning mental asylum only the psychotics would not escape because they have lost touch with reality. In the same sense, everyone who does not become "islamophobic" after thousands of terrorist attacks, murders and other crimes in the name of Islam appears to be somewhat psychotic, i.e., out of touch with reality.
  
  "Islamophobes" have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to change.
  
  Heinz Klatt, professor emeritus of psychology, London, Ont.

R.P. BenDedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com