In 1987, the Israeli human rights attorney(律师) Felicia Langer was paying a visit to the Neve Tirza women’s prison when a client named Siham shared some disturbing news: the prisoners held there had recently been sprayed with a chemical agent that left them writhing(扭动、翻滚) on the floor. Langer grabbed a tissue that had been exposed to the substance – a piece of evidence, perhaps, in a future legal case. Then, on impulse(一时冲动), she lifted it to her face and inhaled deeply. Her hope, she wrote later, was that doing so might enable a doctor to identify the toxin(毒素).
1987年，以色列人权律师费利西亚·兰格前往内韦提尔扎女子监狱探访。一名叫西哈姆的当事人告诉她一件令人不安的事：狱中的囚犯不久前被人喷洒了一种化学药剂，疼得在地上打滚。兰格抓起一张沾过那种物质的纸巾——这或许能成为日后诉讼中的证据。随后，她一时冲动，把纸巾凑到脸前深吸了一口。她后来写道，她希望这样做能让医生辨认出那种毒物。
This anecdote(轶事) appears in Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History, by Benjamin Moser. In it, the Pulitzer prize-winning author profiles a dozen Jews who actively opposed Zionism, before and after the establishment of Israel – from Aaron Samuel Tamares, a Polish rabbi who began inveighing against Jewish nationalism in the late 19th century; to British diplomat Edwin Montagu, who sought to derail the 1917 Balfour declaration promising a Jewish state in Palestine; to Israeli “new historian” Avi Shlaim – figures he sees as part of “a hidden tradition … of people who, though long dismissed and despised, were ultimately proven right”.(书中，这位普利策奖得主为十二位在以色列建国前后积极反对锡安主义的犹太人作传——从塔马雷斯、蒙塔古到施莱姆，他认为这些人属于一条“隐秘传统”。) Along the way, he seeks to dismantle(拆解、逐层瓦解) the Zionist “fairytale,” as he puts it, piece by piece.
这则轶事出自本杰明·莫泽的《反锡安主义：一部犹太史》。书中，这位普利策奖得主为十二位在以色列建国前后积极反对锡安主义的犹太人作了小传——从19世纪末开始抨击犹太民族主义的波兰拉比亚伦·塞缪尔·塔马雷斯，到试图阻挠1917年《贝尔福宣言》的英国外交官埃德温·蒙塔古（该宣言承诺在巴勒斯坦建立犹太国家），再到以色列“新史学家”阿维·施莱姆。在他看来，这些人属于“一条隐秘的传统……他们长期被摒弃、被蔑视，最终却被证明是对的”。与此同时，他试图把锡安主义这个“童话”逐块拆解。
Langer’s heedless(不顾后果的) act made her ill but failed to provide the evidence she’d hoped for. It serves as a haunting(萦绕不去的) analogy, however, for Moser’s own work of historical inquiry-slash-self-purification(历史探究兼自我净化). Having been raised on what he considers a false narrative of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and therefore at risk of moral complicity in an apparent genocide, Moser now proposes to expose himself and his readers to a counter-narrative, however uncomfortable – Siham’s tissue as written history.(由于从小接受他如今视为虚假的巴以叙事，因而可能在一场显而易见的种族灭绝中成为道德共谋，莫泽如今打算让自己和读者接触一种相反的说法，哪怕它令人不适。)
兰格不顾后果的举动让她自己病倒了，却没能提供她所希望的证据。然而，这件事却成为一个挥之不去的类比，映照着莫泽本人的工作：既是历史探究，也是自我净化。他从小接受的是他如今认为虚假的巴以冲突叙事，因而有可能在一场显而易见的种族灭绝中成为道德上的共谋；如今，他打算让自己和读者去接触一种相反的说法，哪怕它令人不适——西哈姆的那张纸巾，就是这部写下来的历史。