Posted on July 25, 2021
Ben-Dror Yemini has written a book Industry of Lies that needs to be read by Jews, regardless of where they live, especially since we are living through an era of anti-Semitism that hasn’t been seen since the 1930s. Some of this is disguised as anti-Zionism, but most people (except the the woke left) see these as manifestations of the same thing. Whether you are left, center, or right-leaning, it’s important to understand what’s really going on without whitewashing or excuse making. What makes this book stand out is that the author is himself left-of-center, and is able to see beyond the academic vitriol that bashes Israel and Jews without any pushback. This book is precisely an attempt to do just that.
From the publisher:
The Industry of Lies is one of the greatest frauds of recent decades – a fraud of historic, even epic, proportions. When almost half of all Europeans believe that Israel treats the Palestinians just like the Nazis treated the Jews, when leading politicians assert that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the central cause of violence in the world, and when prominent intellectuals argue that Israel is an apartheid state, the unfortunate reality is that the lies are winning.
As a result, Israel has become the devil incarnate in the eyes of many otherwise good and reasonable people – people who genuinely want to see peace but inadvertently contribute to the continuation of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The tragedy is that they are neither helping the Palestinians nor promoting agreement or reconciliation. Instead, they lend legitimacy to the most fallacious claims of the most extreme activists, empowering not moderates but the worst of the radicals who have no interest in attaining peace.
Israel is not free from flaws. However, this book draws a clear distinction between legitimate criticism and the industry of lies that has emerged from two unlikely sources – the media and academia – undermining their reputation as bastions of truth and knowledge. Ben-Dror Yemini presents an in-depth analysis of the many inaccurate and malicious accusations leveled against Israel and refutes them one by one in this thought-provoking and well-researched volume that invites us to rethink the causes and consequences of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
From a review by Asaf Romirowsky for Middle East Quarterly
Edward Said called Palestinians “the victims of the victims,” and such Holocaust inversion has been baked into the Palestinian story, turning Jews and Israelis into Nazis. This strategy of feigned victimhood and weakness underlies the success story of the Palestinian narrative.
Yemini, former opinion editor at the Israeli daily Maariv and now a columnist for Yediot Ahronot, unpacks the relationship between Israel and its global image. The Industry of Lies argues that the global Israel-boycott movement has emboldened a growing disconnect between facts and perceptions. Yemini also highlights how academia has become fertile ground for cultivating lies about Israel, stating that “there are many intellectuals who will … create a new reality, invent facts, publish innumerable tracts containing known lies and speak and quote each other.”
Yemini’s book is a solid guide to the challenges that Jews face today, both different and disconcertingly similar to those of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Today the debate is not about race as it was in the 1930s but focuses on Zionism, enabling those who hate Jews to proclaim that they do not hate Jews, just Zionists.
An atmosphere that enables intolerable ideas has become accepted as the norm. This situation needs to be challenged continually, and Industry of Lies offers an excellent point of departure.
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East