The Revisionists and New Historians

            During the 1980s, the "new historians" or revisionists (Benny Morris, Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappe, and others) rose to challenge the established, orthodox history regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict.  The topic of choice and challenge was the 1947-1949 war for Israel/Palestine.  The new historians believed that only two diametrically opposed narratives existed, the official Israeli line, and the Arab line.  The Israeli orthodox narrative, as explained by the new historians, was that Zionism was a well-meaning progressive national movement.  Israel was attacked by the Arabs who sought to prevent the establishment of the Jewish State.  During the war for independence, Arab leaders called for the Palestinians to vacate their homes and land in order to allow their armies to defeat the Zionists, at which point the Palestinians would return to their homes as victors.  The poorly armed and vastly outnumbered Jewish community or Yishuv fought bravely and defeated the Arab armies - David defeated Goliath.  All peace and reconciliation attempts made by Israel in the wake of the war were rebuffed by the Arabs.