Jerome Chanes’ review of “Catch-’67: The Left, The Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War” (Nov. 16) by Micah Goodman made my blood boil. Chanes writes that “Goodman’s analysis [of the security risk of withdrawal from the West Bank] is … factually inaccurate,” but predictions of the future are facts only when susceptible to mathematical proof. So the prediction of “most” military and security experts (and political scientists too, God help us) that abandonment of territories is not likely to end Israel’s existence is not a fact, it is an opinion.
For most Israelis, it’s a dubious opinion, too, because a lot of real facts undercut it. Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon resulted in a dire threat from Hezbollah and its allies. Israel’s military withdrawal from the cities in Area A led to blood and fire for both sides in the second intifada until the withdrawal was reversed. And reversal of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza is now seriously floated, for obvious reasons. I wonder, who is Mr. Chanes trying to gull and why?
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