Verso's One Version of Politics

A while ago I did a post at Shiraz Socialist about Verso’s policy on not publishing books that are critical of Islam.  Jeremy Stangroom of Butterflies and Wheels explained what Verso’s rationale was for this, as had been conveyed to him by Verso’s employees-

“It was a matter of politics. Various strands to this: (a) Islam is wrong target - since Islamic fundamentalism is inextricably linked to American imperialism; (b) Islam is a buttress against American imperialism; (c) Link to “Islamaphobia” - and then the whole thing about racism.”

The London Review of Books has a full back page advertisement from Verso of the new books they think will be popular with LRB’s readers:-

Plowshares Into Swords: From Zionism to Israel by Arno Mayer
The World According to Tomdispatch: America in the New Age of Empire ed by Tom Engelhardt
Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History by Norman G. Finkelstein
The Returns of Zionism: Myths, Politics and Scholarship in Israel by Gabriel Piterberg

Then under the heading Bestsellers on the Middle East

Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden ed by Bruce Lawrence
Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation by Eyal Weizman
Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ed Nicholas Noe
The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihad and Modernity by Tariq Ali
Buda’s Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb by Mike Davis
The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering by Norman G. Finkelstein

Given that over the past year all but two issues of The London Review of Books carried an article about Israel Verso is no doubt correct in estimating that this is what the LRB readers want – a little about the USA, a lot of Zionism/Israel and nothing overly critical of Islam and Islamism.  The LRB has had few articles on the subject and has not covered Defending the West by Ibn Warraq (a critical examination of Said’s Orientalism) or in fact anything at all by Warraq, if my search of their site is correct.

For the LRB an article about the USA almost every issue – yes, fair enough.  But Israel?  And Verso – a little USA, a lot of Israel.  It does seem a little obsessive and one-sided.

Comments

[Martin]

As someone with a love-hate relationship with the LRB, I found this post spot on - I've linked to it at my blog (see URL). And congratulations on a splendid blog - just added you to my blogroll.
All the best
Martin

[Rosie]

Thanks Martin. I just got my new copy of LRB and the perverse swine have no articles on Israel this issue. That's two Israelless issues in the last couple of months! What's going on here?

I feel slightly put out - like when you tell X, oh Y is a total monster, and then you and X run into Y and Y is charming and friendly and couldn't be nicer.

[Tanya Jeffries]

Someone forwarded me this piece of idiocy. A Zionist neocon in Edinburgh? Why is Sarah Palin not on the list of the Great and the Good...