“Has truth lost all meaning”? For Israel-haters, yes
Thomas Suarez is an Israel-hater. He is about to embark on a tour of America. He recently concluded a tour of Scotland. He has spoken at universities in the United Kingdom. A book he wrote, published last year, which vilifies and defames the state of Israel and which references and has been endorsed by other Israel-haters, was honoured with a launch inside a meeting room in the House of Lords.
Two indefatigable fighters against anti-Jewish bigotry, David Collier and Jonathan Hoffman, have written a detailed analysis of this book’s methodology and its claim to be a serious work of, ahem, scholarship. They retraced the author’s primary sources, examined dozens of files at the National Archives in Kew, bought and analysed several of the key writings that are cited and made contact with academics and historians who specialise in the subject matter. They write:
“The distortion created within the book’s argument is drawn from every level of error imaginable. The author made basic historical research mistakes, such as an over-reliance on, and disproportionate inclusion of, ideologically selected material. In addition – and more worryingly – the source material for the most part contradicts the author’s writing. And finally, there are several clear examples of such total distortion and inversion of meaning that it is difficult to conclude anything other than deliberate intent. The book is dripping with racial hatred against Jews.
“We conclude that in our opinion, this book is an antisemitic fraud. We do not use that phrase lightly… This raises important questions that must be addressed. How is it that such a badly put together distortion, riddled with historical inaccuracy, misquotes and racial hatred, is being welcomed by any part of our society? Just a rudimentary check brought to light unacceptable errors that warranted further investigation. The additional factcheck uncovered an unsupportable pyramid of fictions.
“Has truth lost all meaning? How can a university professor endorse such a book? We are sure that the sheer scale of the shoddy research and blatant manipulations described in this report will shock those who read it. Perhaps almost as much as it shocked those who uncovered it.”
Collier and Hoffman deserve a medal for wading into this particular sewer. But the question they ask is a desperate one. The issue that should frighten us is not that such a person exists to write such a book. It is that so many others accept it as true.
