Is Objective Middle East Scholarship Possible?

Martin Kramer’s recent War on Error is a collection of essays—several of which first appeared in Mosaic—addressing abuses of Middle Eastern history committed by scholars and others intent on arriving at particular conclusions, facts be damned. Chief among such abuses is the Israeli writer Ari Shavit’s unfounded claim in My Promised Land that a “Zionist massacre” took place in Lydda in 1948. In an in-depth and provocative exchange, Kramer discusses the book with critics Benny Morris and Hussein Ibish. (Moderated by Robert Satloff. Video, 90 minutes. A written summary is available at the link below.)