Editing Zeev Sternhell (section)

==Controversies==
===Defamation trial===
Sternhell was taken to court by [[Bertrand de Jouvenel]], in 1983, after Sternhell in his work ''[[Neither Right nor Left]]'' (''Ni droite, ni gauche'') described him as having been a fascist in the 1930s.  Jouvenel—on whose behalf [[Raymond Aron]] testified, the only intellectual on the anti-totalitarian left to defend his past<ref>Iain Stewart,[https://books.google.com/books?id=uYK0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA241 ''Raymond Aron and Liberal Thought in the Age of Extremes,''] [[Cambridge University Press]] 2019 {{isbn|978-1-108-48444-2}} p.241.</ref><ref>Dennis Hale, Marc Landy (eds.,) [https://books.google.com/books?id=TY2f4uOmMZUC&pg=PA33 ''Bertrand De Jouvenel:The Nature of Politics, Selected Essays,''] [[Transaction Publishers]], 1992  {{ISBN|978-1-412-83794-1}} p.33.
</ref>—sued him on nine counts of [[defamation]].  The judge, finding Sternhell liable on two counts, made him make amends with a fine that was more symbolic than punitive, and took care to allow Sternhell to retain the offending passages in future editions of his book, which Robert Wohl states was a 'major defeat' for the plaintiff.<ref>Robert Wohl, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2938528  'French Fascism, Both Right and Left: Reflections on the Sternhell Controversy,']. [[The Journal of Modern History]], Vol. 63, No. 1, (1991), pp.91–98, p.91.</ref>

===Settler movement===
Sternhell  was threatened on several occasions for his [[Israeli settlements|anti-settlement views]], including an attempted bombing foiled by police.<ref name="Haaretz back to days">{{cite news|author=Shahar Ilan|author2=Roni Singer-Heruti|date=25 September 2008|title=Dichter: Prof attack takes us back to days of Rabin assassination|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/dichter-prof-attack-takes-us-back-to-days-of-rabin-assassination-1.254609|newspaper=[[Haaretz]]|access-date=11 September 2014}}</ref> ''Haaretz'' correspondent Nadav Shragai wrote that Sternhell angered Israel's right-wing extremists because some of his statements "justified the murder of settlers by terrorists and tried to foment civil war." For instance, in a 2001 Hebrew op-ed piece, Sternhell wrote: "Many in Israel, perhaps even the majority of the voters, do not doubt the legitimacy of the armed resistance in the territories themselves. The Palestinians would be wise to concentrate their struggle against the settlements, avoid harming women and children and strictly refrain from firing on [[Gilo]], [[Nahal Oz]] or [[Sderot]]; it would also be smart to stop planting bombs to the west of the Green Line. By adopting such an approach, the Palestinians would be sketching the profile of a solution that is the only inevitable one: The amended Green Line will be an international border and territory will be handed over to compensate the Palestinians for land that has already been or will be annexed to Israel."<ref>{{cite news|author=Zeev Sternhell|date=11 May 2001|script-title=he:מול ממשלה סהרורית|language=he|trans-title=Against the Government Sleepwalker|url=http://www.haaretz.co.il/misc/1.700439|newspaper=[[Haaretz]]|access-date=11 September 2014}}</ref><ref name=Shragai>{{cite news|author=Nadav Shragai|author-link=Nadav Shragai|date=26 September 2008|title=Red flag for the right|url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/red-flag-for-the-right-1.254658|newspaper=[[Haaretz]]|access-date=11 September 2014}}</ref> He similarly wrote in ''Davar'' in 1988 that "Only those who are prepared to take Ofra with tanks can stop the fascist erosion threatening to drown Israel's democracy."<ref name=Shragai/>