Nelson Ascher takes a colder, harder look at Israeli nightmares than I did with "The Stand", but the conclusion is almost as positive:

Thus, one of the salutary effects of these last two years has been that covert anti-Semitism and Judeophobia hiding behind the convenient label of anti-Zionism have been forced out in the open. Whenever a British journalist, an American professor, a French diplomat, an Arab politician speak their minds, we should be grateful. It is only in hindsight, but I think the false calm of the 90s was much scarier and dangerous than the open conflict nowadays. The deniability the left, the Arabs, the Europeans and others had so carefully built up since the end of the Cold War has, thanks god, crumbled. Thanks also to their knee-jerk anti-Americanism, so magnificently exhibited lately, the effort needed to convince the Americans that Europe has not sincerely outgrown its vices or repented of its crimes will be much smaller and won’t be wasted.

Conspiratorial? Perhaps, but no worse than an Egyptian airing of "The Zionist Protocols", or an intellectual comparing the Stern gang with Al Quaeda.