The lost world of Disraelia

Wednesday, 30th April 2008

On the eve of Israel’s day of remembrance for the Holocaust and next week’s 60^th anniversary of the restoration of the State of Israel, the eminent historian Walter Laqueur has let his imagination bear his considerable learning aloft to construct a sparkling, witty and above all deeply sad jeu d’esprit on what might have been. Wonderful stuff. Do read it all.

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Ian G

April 30th, 2008 6:48pm

And if Britain had kept its promises after the Great War, we would have had an established Israeli ally in 1939. The Mediterranean would have been 'Our sea' to use the Roman term. Hitler could only have expelled the Jews. This would have been a great boon to Israel. The Suez canal would never have been closed - no supertankers and oil pollution. The Second War would have been shorter, if it happened at all. The Empire/Commonwealth and its Israeli ally would have developed the Bomb. The US would not be the World's policeman. And Israel would be dependent on the UK and not her God. It always ends in tears. No empire, not even ours, can be trusted to protect Israel. Every nation has to find its own place in the world. Let Israel be a light to the nations and let the nations bless Israel. Of course, there are those who will sneer, but they alaways have.

Hettie

May 3rd, 2008 11:47pm

There was no Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1845...

Even eminent Historians make mistakes like that? Maybe the Western ones do.

I generally liked Laqueur's attempt at counterfactual history, but this error bugged me. I must just be pedantic. Or a Hungarian. Or both.

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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'Londonistan', published by Encounter and Gibson Square.

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