Tom Segev

Tom Segev
Born	(1945-03-01)March 1, 1945 Jerusalem,Mandatory Palestine
Occupation(s)	Journalist, historian

Tom Segev(Hebrew:תום שגב;born March 1, 1945) is an Israeli historian, author and journalist. He is associated with Israel'sNew Historians,a group challenging many of the country's traditional narratives.

Biography

Segev was born inJerusalem.His parents, Ricarda (née Meltzer) and Heinz Schwerin were artists who had met at theBauhausart school and fledNazi Germanyin 1935 due to theirCommunistorientation (Heinz was also Jewish). His mother was a photographer; his father, an architect and toy manufacturer, was killed on guard duty inJerusalemin the1948 Arab–Israeli War.Segev's first language wasGerman;his mother never learnedHebrewbeyond a basic level. He earned aBAin history and political science from theHebrew University of Jerusalemand aPhDin history fromBoston Universityin the 1970s.His sister is the German politicianJutta Oesterle-Schwerin.

Journalism career

Segev worked during the 1970s as a correspondent forMaarivin Bonn.He was a visiting professor atRutgers University(2001–2002),theUniversity of California at Berkeley(2007)andNortheastern University,where he taught a course onHolocaust denial.He writes a weekly column for the newspaperHaaretz.His books have appeared in fourteen languages.

InThe Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust(1993), Segev explores the decisive impact of the Holocaust on the identity, ideology and politics of Israel. Although controversial, it was praised byElie Wieselin theLos Angeles TimesBook Review.

InOne Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate,aNew York TimesEditor's Choice Best Book (2000) and a recipient of aNational Jewish Book Awardin the Israel category,Segev describes the era of the British Mandate in Palestine (1917–1948).

Segev's history of the social and political background of theSix-Day War,1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East(2006) states that there was no existential threat to Israel from a military point of view. Segev also doubts that the Arab neighbours would have really attacked Israel. Still, large segments of the Israeli population had a real fear that the Egyptians and Syrians would eliminate them. That fear pressured the Israeli government in such a way that it opted for a pre-emptive attack. The Jordanian army's attack on West Jerusalem provided a pretext to invade East Jerusalem, according to Segev. Even though the occupation of East Jerusalem was not politically planned, the author considers that it was always desired.

In February 2018, Segev published a biography ofDavid Ben-Guriontitled,A State at Any Cost - The Life of David Ben-Gurion.

Published works

• 1949: The First Israelis(Hebrew: 1984,ISBN965-261-040-2;English: 1998,ISBN0-8050-5896-6)
• Soldiers of Evil: The Commandants of the Nazi Concentration Camps(1988,ISBN0-07-056058-7)
• One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate(2000,ISBN0-316-64859-0)
• The Seventh Million: Israelis and the Holocaust(2000,ISBN0-8050-6660-8)
• Elvis in Jerusalem: Post-Zionism and the Americanization of Israel(2003,ISBN0-8050-7288-8)
• Israel in 1967. And the land changed its visage(Hebrew: 2005,ISBN965-07-1370-0)
• 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East,Metropolitan Books (2006)
• Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends,Jonathan Cape(2010)
• A State at Any Cost - The Life of David Ben-Gurion(Hebrew and German: 2018; English: 2019)

Criticism

Michael Oren,Israel's ambassador to the United States and author of the studySix Days of War,criticized Segev's book1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East.Calling the author "a self-styled New Historian" and pointing to logical contradictions, he accuses Segev of "rhetorical acrobatics" and declares Segev's conclusions incorrect. According to Oren, Segev did not properly consider the pre-war dynamics in the Arab countries, almost completely ignoring the calls of Arab politicians for the destruction of Israel and extermination of its citizens. The reviewer also points out that Segev, in an effort to distort the balance of power, did not highlight either the assistance to the Arab states from the USSR, or the sudden support provided to them by France, "twisting his text to meet a revisionist agenda", which "undermines his attempt to reach a deeper understanding of the war". And such an understanding, according to Oren, "is vital if Arabs and Israelis are to avoid similar clashes in the future and peacefully co-exist".

Further reading

• Israel & Palestine: Eternal Enmity?by Segev fromThe New York Review of Books

External Links

• UC San Diego, Holocaust Living History Collection: Living with the Holocaust