Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with my views on the London Review of Books so I won’t repeat them.  Its current issue leads with yet another badly argued rant against Israel and apologia for Hamas, this time written by someone called Henry Siegman.  Judging by the potted biography of him at the bottom of his article, Siegman is a Jew. The editors of the LRB are oh so keen to publish articles by Jews attacking Israel.  I wonder why.

Over at Engage, Bob from Brockley takes Siegman’s dismal screed apart with notable skill. The following quote from Bob’s post starts with him citing Siegman’s response to the issue of Hamas firing rockets fire into Israel.

“First, for all its failings, Hamas brought Gaza to a level of law and order unknown in recent years, and did so without the large sums of money that donors showered on the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority. It eliminated the gangs and warlords who terrorised Gaza under Fatah’s rule. Non-observant Muslims, Christians and other minorities have more religious freedom under Hamas rule than they would have in Saudi Arabia, for example, or under many other Arab regimes.”

If we were to accept what Siegman says here as true, the argument would have the same structure as the following argument: “The notion that Germany under Hitler murdered its Jews is a lie because in fact Hitler made the trains run on time and in any event Stalin killed more people.” Or: “The claim that the My Lai massacre was a war crime is a lie because the American occupation made lots of Vietnamese people rich and anyway Pol Pot did some worse things.” Or “A chicken is not a bird because it’s really a farm animal and anyway a duck is more of a bird than a chicken.”

Quite simply, the extent to which Hamas brought Gaza law and order and religious tolerance is irrelevant to the question of whether it used this orderly and tolerant haven as a launching-pad for rockets. The extent to which the Wahhabi monarchy is a theocratic dictatorship is irrelevant to the question of Hamas’ responsibility for the attempted mass slaughter of Israeli citizens.

Now go and read the rest yourself.