From: makowsky@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (David Makowsky)
Subject: Re: Fair Swap
Reply-To: makowsky@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (David Makowsky)
Organization: Arizona State University, Tempe AZ
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 02:37:07 GMT

In article <bdm.716344780@cs.anu.edu.au> bdm@cs.anu.edu.au (Brendan McKay) writes:

# makowsky@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (David Makowsky) writes:

# >In article <1992Sep11.071520.1472@mcs.kent.edu> rayes@Snake.mcs.kent.edu (Sandra Rayes) writes:

# ># In article <18od2jINNquh@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> bx573@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Alan H. Stein) writes:

# ># >In a previous article, bdm@cs.anu.edu.au (Brendan McKay) says:

# ># >>>Even though the arabs were a majority, there was no indication of permanancy.
# ># >>>I may reside in  Illinois, but since I have not shown a tendency toward 
# ># >>>permanancy, I am not considered a resident.  The Moselms never established
# ># >>>any provincial centers, Islamic schools, or any significant institutions in
# ># >>>Palestine.  They were there only by convinience, the convinience being that
# ># >>>massive Jewish immigration provided job oppurtunities in a financially
# ># >>>depressed area.
 
# ># >>Hogswill.  All this sort of crap has been pushed here before, but nobody
# ># >>ever provided evidence.  Can you?  
 
# ># >Take a look at "From Time Immemorial."
 
# ># And after you look at "From Time Immemorial", which many scholars have
# ># repudiated as being based on false information and has been highly
# ># criticized, read the book "Blaming the Victims" by E. Said and C.
# ># Hitchens.  This book explains how inaccurate "Immemorial" was in 
# ># a very detailed and convincing way.
 
# >	There has been work. some of it published by Commentary magazine,
# >showing how "Blaming the Victims" and other criticisms of "From Time
# >Immemorial" are nonsense.
 
# >	Oh, by the way, when you read "Blaiming the Victims", pay caareful
# >to the part(s?) written by David Finklestein.  Steve Goldfield posted
# >them to the net a while back, and the figures he gave not only did not
# >support his conclusions, but actually made a stronger than what Joan
# >Peters was atttempting to make.
 
# Stronger what, I wonder?

	Stronger claim.  I apologize for the typo (or lack thereof).

# Anyway, it seems like I have seen you post
# essentially that paragraph maybe 3-5 times in the past year, but not
# once did you try to support it.  I don't think you will support it
# this time either, because I don't think you can.


	Ho hum.  What a nutcake this Brendan is.  I posted it to
Goldfield's original.  Cannot you read?  If you want to see something
similar, have him post it again.  If it is during one of the times I
am away from the net, email me a copy.

	Incidently, I tried to get Goldfield to reply.  I emailed him my
response since I am in his KILL file.  I guess he ignores my email
also.

# Finkelstein's (very long) article contains a number of statements 
# I disagree with, but on balance his analysis of Peters' book is 
# spot on.  The few reviewers (Isaacs in Commentary was one I think, 
# but my memory is fuzzy) who attempted to dismantle Finkelstein's 
# analysis only managed to prove their lack of basic mathematical 
# knowledge.  The only excuse I can propose for them is that Peters' 
# book is so shoddily crafted that it is quite difficult to determine 
# exactly what her claims are.  Basically it is just a hysterical 
# tirade with a thin veneer of scholarship; any good propagandist
# would be deeply embarrassed about this black mark on their profession.

	Quite frankly, everything you just wrote may be true.  None of it
may be true.  Everything Peters wrote may be true.  None of it may be
true.  I really do not care.  In fact, even if it all supports "my
side", I do not care.  I explained why in another article and I will
not go into it here.  It is for that reason that I will not read her
book, any of the critiques of it, or anything else like it.

	I will say however, that I get suspicious when anyone touts a book
supportive of something Jewish as trash, no matter how it is backed
up.  There is a history (of which Brendan has been a recent
contributor) to justify this suspiscion.
--

David Makowsky
makowsky@enuxha.eas.asu.edu