Random Notes

□ More October Titles: The Tragedy of Zionism: Revolution and Democracy in the Land of Israel (Farrar, $19.95), by Bernard Avishai, a Canadian-born Jew who is now a professor at MIT, is a powerful attack on Zionist tendencies toward extreme nationalism, self-absorption, and antidemocraticism—characteristics the author traces back to Theodor Herzl. Avishai charges that the settlement of 45,000 Jews on the West Bank represents the revival of Zionist pioneering, and prophesies that as long as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip remain a part of Israel, war between the Arabs and the Israelis is inevitable.

According to Ben E. Swearingen, author of The Mystery of Hermann Goering’s Suicide (Harcourt Brace, $19.95), Goering, who died of taking poison two hours before he was scheduled to be hanged for war crimes, obtained the capsule from an American lieutenant (now deceased) named Jack “Tex” Wheelis, who in turn obtained it from the Reichsmarschall’s own luggage one or two days previously. . . . Betrayed (Times, $15.95), by Nicholas Bethell, is a well-documented history of the West’s failure to oust the Communist government of Albania following the Second World War.

CW

About the Author

Chilton Williamson Jr.

Featured Tags

□ More October Titles: The Tragedy of Zionism: Revolution and Democracy in the Land of Israel (Farrar, $19.95), by Bernard Avishai, a Canadian-born Jew who is now a professor at MIT, is a powerful attack on Zionist tendencies toward extreme nationalism, self-absorption, and antidemocraticism—characteristics the author traces back to Theodor Herzl. Avishai charges that the settlement of 45,000 Jews on the West Bank represents the revival of Zionist pioneering, and prophesies that as long as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip remain a part of Israel, war between the Arabs and the Israelis is inevitable.

According to Ben E. Swearingen, author of The Mystery of Hermann Goering’s Suicide (Harcourt Brace, $19.95), Goering, who died of taking poison two hours before he was scheduled to be hanged for war crimes, obtained the capsule from an American lieutenant (now deceased) named Jack “Tex” Wheelis, who in turn obtained it from the Reichsmarschall’s own luggage one or two days previously. . . . Betrayed (Times, $15.95), by Nicholas Bethell, is a well-documented history of the West’s failure to oust the Communist government of Albania following the Second World War.